Have fun this weekend!

[top photo, Hudson in Paris; bottom photo]

Visiting Angora Lakes (and what to pack when renting a cabin!)

Brought to you by Energizer_®. Click here to learn more about Energizer_® Portable Lights with Light Fusion Technology.

Our friends spent a week at upper Angora Lake—one of the many beautiful lakes that dot the wildnerness around Lake Tahoe. Apparently, families book up the rustic cabins at Angora Lakes Resort years in advance and you have to cross your fingers that you’ll get a spot when you put your name on the waiting list.

There’s no overnight camping at the lake, you have to have a cabin reservation, but you can visit for the day and we were happy to be invited to spend some time on the shore.

And even for just a day, it’s a pretty outstanding place: after you cross the ridge overlooking Fallen Leaf lake and hike the half-mile to the lake, you can rent kayaks, and paddle boards, and boats—or just lounge on the shore and take in the view.

We were lucky that our friends helped us borrow someone’s paddle boards—my first time! I’m a real wimp when it comes to cold water, so I was weary of falling off, but it’s shockingly easy to balance aboard one.

Aron is bolder, however, and crossed the lake with our friend, Ben, to jump off one of the rock faces—which grew crowded as more people steeled their nerves.

There are many wonderful places to beautiful places to stay in the greater Tahoe area, Angora Lakes being just one of them. One could also search for cabin rentals at nearby Fallen Leaf or in one of the smaller villages along Lake Tahoe.

But in case you have the luck to snag one of the weekly cabin rentals at Angora Lakes, we asked our friends for help with a packing list. There are a few things you’ll want to be sure and bring.

1. Energizer_® LED Pop Up Lantern with Light Fusion Technology—Light pollution is wonderfully low up here at 7500 feet. Whether you’re anticipating traveling back to your cabin after nightfall, or simply planning well for emergencies, you’ll want to bring a good flashlight. Energizer® has a new line of lightweight, powerful and portable LED lights, that are awesome. The LED is energy-saving so they last forever, and I love that they can be dimmed when you just want a little light while you still get to look up at the stars. (Or for when you’re reading in bed and trying not to bother the toddler and the dozing husband in the hotel room beside you, as I recently discovered.) The Pop Up lantern looks like an update on the old carosene lanterns, only collapses to be totally compact.

2. Energizer_® LED 3 in 1 Light with Light Fusion Technology—a flashlight, only with a tripod built in.

3. Sand toys

—My friends recently snagged a set like this for vacation and said it was the best $12 they spent. My only suggestion, if your young one is anything like mine? Add a dump truck to the mix.

4. Inner tube

—Or any sort of watercraft you want to use. Those staying at the cabins get a lift up the trail, and many arrive with their own paddleboards and such. Rentals add up!

5. Games—There’s no wifi or television at the lake, so leave the iPad at home. It’s time to unplug and get old school! I love the idea of ending the evening with a game of cards (Spite & Malice is a favorite) or a round of Scrabble

. Aron’s not one for puzzles, but I think it would be awesome to start a challenging one at the start of the week.

6. A good book—Not exactly light reading, but I just finished And the Mountains Echoed

for a book club; I couldn’t put it down. Gone Girl

would be a good page turner, if you’re one of the few who haven’t read it yet.

7. Your bathing suit—I happened to forget mine! Thank goodness my friend had one for me to borrow.

8. Something tasty

 to grill—Actually, you’ll want to bring all of your own groceries. I’d want some hunter’s sausage, a box of triscuits, and a chunk of Jarlsberg or aged cheddar, along with some grown-up libations.

Even if you can’t get on the list for a cabin, a daytrip might just inspire you to camp out in your own yard. (We broke out the Energizer_® Pop Up lantern in Hudson’s teepee when we got home.)

P.S. What do you think about spending a week completely unplugged? I love the idea of turning off my iPhone for a week, but my girlfriend confessed she’d be loathe to!

Brought to you by Energizer_®. Click here to learn more about Energizer_® Portable Lights with Light Fusion Technology.

In a World… where Lake Bell is my crush.

I’d call it a new “girl crush” but I have to stop myself because one of my other girl crushes (Mindy Kaling) said that “saying ‘girl crush’ is redundant and unnecessary. No one is going to think you’re a lesbian if you just say ‘crush.'” Brilliant.

Anyway, back to Lake Bell. The über-beautiful lady just wrote and directed a new movie called “In a World…” where she stars as an aspiring movie-trailer voice artist whose father was the voice of a generation and who thinks only men can be the coming-attractions voice, and looks more closely at the glass ceiling of the trailer industry. To the Village Voice she said “I’m obsessed with the voiceover industry.” “Clearly.”

I am totally won over by the sort of eccentricity of her passion about this, and am so interested in seeing the movie after hearing her on this NPR Interview. It’s well worth a listen, if only to hear her do what she calls the vocal trend “sexy baby vocal virus” for one of the most iconic voices in radio, All Things Considered’s Robert Siegel. Aron and I were both rapt! Classically trained at a London conservatory, Bell has a way with accents.

Watch the trailer.

P.S. My favorite movie-trailer parody, which culminates in a theme song that’s almost as ubiquitous as the phrase “In a world…” Also, who’s your crush? I was just wondering if Emma Watson is the new Natalie Portman. (Remember how Portman was the “thinking man’s leading lady”?)

[top photo via; movie poster via EW.com]