Memorial Day in Truckee

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 29 in 2023). It commemorates men and women who died while in military service to the United States.

• 2024 Date - It is celebrated on Monday, May 27, 2024
  
• 2025 Date - It is celebrated on Monday, May 26, 2025
• 2026 Date - It is celebrated on Monday, May 25, 2026
• 2027 Date - It is celebrated on Monday, May 31, 2027
• 2028 Date - It is celebrated on Monday, May 29, 2028

Truckee and the Lake Tahoe area are top holiday destinations with the kick off of many of the summer activities. If you are a local, plan your Grocery Shopping ahead of time, and allow extra time to get to your destination due to the extra traffic in town.

Memorial Day Meals usually signal that summer is on the way, and barbeque season is opening. What better way is there to celebrate our brave heroes, who have died serving our country, than dusting off the barbeque, gathering family and friends, and celebrating with a wonderful barbeque platter and all of the trimmings.

Photo Below: My Dad, Herb Smith as a 1st LT in 1953, during the Korean War before a Combat Mission.

The Video below is titled "Remember Me" with the song "Pacific Wind" by Ryan Farish. This video was made by Lizzie Palmer, and has had over 29 million views on YouTube since Nov 2006.

Truckee Memorial Day Events

Memorial Day Ceremony - is usually held at the Sierra Mountain Cemetery. Ceremony put on by the Cemetery District and the Tahoe Truckee Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol. (United States Air Force Auxilary) Celebrate the lives of Truckee's fallen veterans.

Other Truckee Events for the Memorial Weekend can be viewed from the Truckee Travel Guide Event Calendar.

In Truckee and Lake Tahoe, Memorial Day is officially when the Lakes and Truckee Beaches and Lake Tahoe Beaches are open, as well as many of the Truckee Golf Courses!!

Many of the Truckee area Restaurants that have Decks, officially open their decks for the summer season and have great Deck Opening Parties.

For shopping, Memorial Day Sales can be found in many of the Truckee shops! 

Memorial Day Meals

The following was written by my sister, Kerry Bacon of Healthy Diet Habits.

This Memorial Day, let’s celebrate our traditions with new healthy diet habits, and tweak our trimmings. Make colorful vegetable creations rather than the standard starch filled table with bowls of potato salad, macaroni salad, chips, and corn on the cob, French bread or buns, and baked beans. All are great, just way too much starchy carbohydrates for one meal.

Some lifestyle solutions to make this Memorial Day Meal memorable are:

• Use the half plate rule to serve your guests. You are the host so change it up. You rule.

• Make sure half of your serving dishes are full of fresh salads and veggies. Remember corn, peas and potatoes count as your starch! This time of year fresh colorful veggies are returning. Some awesome ideas to add more veggies are:

• Fresh veggie filled foil packets dotted with a bit of butter, garlic, salt and pepper, and sealed and placed on the barbeque. These cook quickly and are delicious. Zucchini, peppers, onions, and tomatoes are awesome!

• Fresh veggies chopped up without the green base. Add a handful of green olives, and cilantro and balsamic vinaigrette and you are set! Creativity rules here! Finely chop cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, green olives, and cilantro and top with vinaigrette and your guests will never miss the heavy potato salad!

• Add fresh fruits to your green salads for fun. Strawberries add a nice zing to greens or add oranges and chopped dried fruit and nut mix. Add walnuts or slivered almonds and top with poppy-seed dressing. I always take this to potlucks!

• Skewer your veggies and grill them: Prepare an array of chopped vegetables like zucchini, summer, squash, onions, different colored peppers, and pineapple and allow guests to skewer away! Coat the skewers with olive oil and grill. When done, top them with a bit of balsamic vinaigrette and fresh herbs. Kids love this and they might just eat their veggies! Who is missing the grilled corn?

• Use cabbage salad instead of potato or macaroni salad. Find a cabbage salad with lots of added veggies and use a dressing with fat free mayo or Greek yogurt. Cabbage should be your best friend. It can be added to any salad and is super filling. You will not be hungry for hours! Just a hint: If you do buy store bought potato or mac. salads, you can put them in a colander and rinse away the heavy dressing. Mix your own lower calorie dressing and you have a lighter delicious salad.

• Visit your local farmers market for choice organic fruits and vegetables. Great tasting foods are the result of using great ingredients!

• Make sure that your meals are not centered on meat. Meat should be 1/4 of your meal and fill 1/4 of your plate, per the half plate rule. Use better quality meat by choosing sustainably raised meats that are hormone-free, pasture raised, grass fed beef or free range chicken. These can be pricier but are becoming less so as more people buy them! Please avoid all processed meats, like hotdogs and bratwurst, because they are full of nitrates and salt. If you do use them, buy grass fed beef that are nitrate-free, especially if you are serving them to kids! Grill smaller servings of meat or try seasoned kabobs or a giant salad with grilled chicken, olives, tomatoes, feta, mixed greens, and homemade vinaigrette with fresh herbs, lemon and olive oil. Change is good!

• Make sure that your meals are not centered on starches. The traditional barbeque could be all starches. Ever served your guests burgers with enormous white buns, potato salad, chips, and corn on the cob? I have and I do not even want to figure out how many grain servings that is! Starches should be only ¼ of your meal and yes that includes dessert. That means choose one starch, most likely. If you are serving buns, choose smaller whole grain varieties and make tons of veggies creations! If you are grilling fresh corn, skip the potato salad and chips. Skip the chips anyway, and put your pricey chip money towards better quality meat. A little planning allows you to get these out of control grains under control!

• One more lifestyle solution would be, watch out for added marinades and condiments. They are often chemical concoctions and can be loaded with excess calories! Check the label and if you do not understand it, do not eat it! Learn to add fresh herbs for flavoring. Enjoy the taste of real food rather than smothering all of your foods with condiments and marinades!

Photo: My Dad, Herb Smith as a 1st LT in 1956 in Augsberg, Germany where I was born. He served two tour of duty's during the Vietnam War. The first he was a Helicopter pilot and was away while I was in the 1st grade, and the second tour, he was the Commander of an airfield, and was away while I was in the 7th grade and living in Canberra, Australia.

US Military Tribute - the song "Far Away" by Nickleback
This video is now Age-Restrictive indicating it might be offensive to some. If you want to watch it, you have to click on the Watch On YouTube link below.

As a Military Dependent, I have no idea why anyone would find the video offensive!

To learn more about some of those who have risked their lives, or lost their life and have received the "Medal of Honor", please check out the Congressional Medal of Honor Society!

According to "Wikipedia", "The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President in the name of Congress on members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States." Due to the nature of its criteria, it is often awarded posthumously (more than half have been since 1941)".

Remember your Memorial Day holiday is a day to honor all of those men and women who have died serving our country!
Thank you and we honor you!