The serene lake, the towering evergreens and shaded hiking trails — there are plenty of reasons to jet off to South Lake Tahoe. Whether you’re looking to hit the trails or splash on shore, you’ll likely need a meal and a post-hike brew to refuel between adventures. And the South Lake beer and breakfast scene makes it easy to enjoy the lake’s scenic wonders without skimping on what’s in your glass or on your plate.

There are plenty of spots that boast delicious scrambles, Benedicts and other brunchy fare. But head for the Artemis Lakefront Café, and you can enjoy a Mediterranean-inspired menu lakeside. Take in the water views while sipping mimosas and espresso drinks by the giant outdoor fire pit or on the patio. The Greek Breakfast ($17) offers gyro slices sautéed with peppers and onions, topped with feta and served alongside eggs, herb roasted potatoes and pita bread. They’re open for lunch and dinner, too.

Heidi’s Pancake House and its bright yellow chalet are a South Lake Tahoe institution — it opened in 1964 — and a great place to start any pancakes-to-pilsners itinerary. Order a Heidi’s Short Stack ($11.49) with four buttermilk or buckwheat pancakes or indulge in a Bacon Stack ($15), six pancakes with bits of crispy bacon cooked right into the batter.

Meanwhile, the Driftwood Café puts you right in the middle of the Heavenly Village action. Their breakfast burrito ($14) holds a special place in our hearts (and bellies) with its plentiful filling of scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage (or avocado), hash browns, cheese and housemade salsa. And the lineup of “primo pancakes and wacky waffles” includes a loaded waffle ($14) topped with bananas, granola and yogurt.

The beer garden at South Lake Brewing Co.in South Lake Tahoe includes ski lift seating. (Courtesy South Lake Brewing Co.)

And the casual, counter-service Sprouts Natural Café blends fresh smoothies ($7.50 to $8.25) to order, with a morning menu that includes Breakfast Bowls ($12.75), with brown rice, beans, steamed cage-free eggs, melted jack and avocado, and Huevos Verduras Rancheros ($13.50) that pile on the veggies.

Then hit the trails and enjoy the summery outdoor scene. When you’re ready, we’ll be waiting with some craft beer destination suggestions and — oh hello, here you are!

South Lake Tahoe has plenty of bars and restaurants, but if we’re focusing on what’s brewed here, head for South Lake Brewing Company. You can choose the local’s option and head for the brewery, where a taproom, beer garden with picnic tables and ski lift seating (yes, really) and rotating food trucks await. Or opt for the company’s Libation Lodge across the street from Heavenly Village and enjoy beer (and food).

We’re smitten with South Lake Brewing‘s “shot ski” style serves — no, no, not the high-alcohol, quick-consumption shots you find at some bars. The brewery uses skis for its beer tasting flights. Most people opt for the five-taste option which uses a pint-sized ski to serve two-ounce pours of five brews on tap. If you’ve brought a group and want to taste the entire line-up, there’s a 16 taster, full-ski option.

The Marlette Sunrise, a blood orange blonde, and the Fog Nozzle hazy IPA are the two flagships, both delicious but in very different ways. Every beer has a fun name, the artwork aligns with Tahoe vibes, and you’ll find many brews available by the can in the grab-and-go fridge, in case you want a brew on the go. Expert tip: When it’s time to refuel, the oversized pretzel with beer cheese ($16) does not disappoint.

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South of North Brewing Co. is a sweet little outdoor space that offers terrific Tahoe ambience and an impressive collection of beers brewed on-site in a converted hotel room. (Yes, really, and if the brewer is around, you can catch a peek.)

If I had to pick just one of their brews to drink all day, the Explorer Cream Ale comes top of mind. It’s described as a California Cream Ale, but the style is largely European and offers a milky mouthfeel with a touch of vanilla. The Front Porch Pilsner is a great pick too, an easy drinker that’s light on the palate. There’s a large line-up of IPAs and even a double IPA, but as a small-batch brewery, everything is on seasonal rotation and kegs occasionally run out.

South Lake Tahoe’s South of North Brewing Co. serves up an eclectic array of brews in an outdoor space that invites guests to linger. (Courtesy Erin Goody for South of North Brewing Co.)

Plan to hang out awhile so you can enjoy the outdoor area with its picnic tables and giant fire pits surrounded by Adirondack chairs and cafe lights, or head inside to catch a game in the bar. Keep an eye on the brewery calendar, if you’re interested in trivia nights.

Finish your day at Cold Water Brewery and Grill, a full-service pub in the Swiss Chalet Village, where you can grab dinner with your beer flight. You’ll find brews that echo the laidback lake style with names such as Feel Good IPA, Lake it Easy Pilsner and It’s All Pine by Me IPA. If you like darker brews, the Stillwater Stout is a delicious combination of coffee, caramel and chocolate flavors. The crowd-pleasing Mr. Toad’s Wild Rye is a malt-forward amber with a hint of grass and spice.

Or, if you want games along with your drinks, The Hangar is a great outdoor option. This taproom and bottle shop sits on an acre near the Tahoe forest and works with other breweries to curate their list of offerings. There’s space to picnic, food trucks and an adults-only play zone that offers bocce, corn hole and other lawn games. And for the indoor crowd, there’s the Flatstick Pub which offers mini golf, a full bar with beer on tap, and adult-only and family-friendly hours so you can choose your own experience as you…

Lake it Easy.

If You Go

Artemis Lakefront Café: Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at 900 Ski Run Blvd., Suite 111, South Lake Tahoe; http://artemislakefrontcafe.com/.

Heidi’s Pancake House: Open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily at 3485 Lake Tahoe Blvd.; www.heidislaketahoe.com.

Driftwood Café: Open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily at 1001 Heavenly Village Way; www.driftwoodtahoe.com.

Sprouts Café: Open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily at 3123 Harrison Ave.; www.sproutscafetahoe.com.

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South Lake Brewing Company: The Libation Lodge is open from noon to 9 p.m. at 4000 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Suite 26. The brewery taproom and beer garden are open from 2 to 8:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and noon to 9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday at 1920 Lake Tahoe Blvd.; www.southlakebeer.com.

South of North Brewing Co.: Open from 2 to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and noon to 10 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 932B Stateline Ave.; www.southofnorthbeer.com.

Cold Water Brewery and Grill: Open from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, and until 8:30 p.m. on Friday-Saturday at 2544 Lake Tahoe Blvd; https://tahoecoldwaterbrewery.com/

The Hangar: Open from noon to 9 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday and until 10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at 2401B Lake Tahoe Blvd.; www.thehangarlaketahoe.com.

By SETH BORENSTEIN (AP Science Writer)

Ocean temperatures that have gone “crazy haywire” hot, especially in the Atlantic, are close to making the current global coral bleaching event the worst in history. It’s so bad that scientists are hoping for a few hurricanes to cool things off.

More than three-fifths — 62.9% — of the world’s coral reefs are badly hurting from a bleaching event that began last year and is continuing. That’s nearing the record of 65.7% in 2017, when from 2009 to 2017 about one-seventh of the world’s coral died, said Derek Manzello, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Watch Program.

When water gets too hot, coral, which are living creatures, bleach and sometimes die.

In the Atlantic, off the Florida coast and in the Caribbean, about 99.7% of the coral reefs have been hit with “very very severe” losses in staghorn and elkhorn species, Manzello said Thursday in NOAA’s monthly climate briefing. Sixty-two countries are seeing damaged coral, with Thailand shutting off a tourist-laden island to try to save the coral there.

Meteorologists say a La Nina — a natural cooling of parts of the Pacific that changes the weather worldwide — is forecast to develop soon and perhaps cool oceans a bit, but Manzello said it may be too little and too late.

“I still am very worried about the state of the world’s coral reefs just because we’re seeing things play out right now that are just very unexpected and extreme,” Manzello said.

“This wouldn’t be happening without climate change. That’s basically the cornerstone of all the ocean warming we’re seeing,” Manzello said. But on top of that are changes in El Nino, the reverse of La Nina and a natural warming of ocean waters; reduced sulfur pollution from ships and an undersea volcano eruption.

Former top NASA climate scientist James Hansen said “acceleration of global warming is now hard to deny” in a new analysis and statement Thursday.

For coral, it comes down to how hot the water is and “things have just gone crazy haywire with ocean temperatures in the last year,” Manzello said. He said hurricanes bring up cool water from deep and benefit coral reefs if they don’t hit them directly.

“Hurricanes can be devastating for reefs,” Manzello. “But in the grand scheme of things and given the current situation we are in on planet Earth, they’re now a good thing essentially, which is kind of mind-blowing.”

On Wednesday, parts of the Atlantic where hurricanes often develop had an ocean heat content — which measures water warmth at depths — equivalent to mid-August, said hurricane researchers Brian McNoldy at the University of Miami and Phil Klotzbach at Colorado State University.

The world’s oceans last month broke a record for the hottest April on record. It was the 13th straight month global seas broke records, and because the oceans are slow to cool or warm, more records are likely, said Karin Gleason, NOAA’s climate monitoring chief.

Coral reefs are key to seafood production and tourism worldwide. Scientific reports have long said loss of coral is one of the big tipping points of future warming as the world nears 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial time. That’s a limit that countries agreed to try to hold to in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

“This is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet,” said Andrew Pershing, a biological oceanographer who is vice president for science of Climate Central. “It’s an ecosystem that we’re literally going to watch disappear in our lifetimes.”

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

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Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

It’s fitting the lockers of Kervin Arriaga and Joseph Rosales are next to each other inside the Minnesota United dressing room at Allianz Field.

The Hondurans have essentially been joined at the hip since Arriaga joined Rosales in Minnesota in 2022. On the field in the last two games, their partnership has produced two goals off corner kicks; Rosales’ service from the flag twice finding the head of a leaping Arriaga.

After their latest connection in the 2-2 draw with Los Angeles Galaxy on Wedneday, Arriaga was a center of attention during a post-match interview, while an obscured Rosales lounged in the seat next to him, scrolling his phone.

But the dynamic duo needed to be rejoined yet again. Arriaga was asked about the quality of those passes, and Rosales’ head cranked to his right to hear his fellow countryman’s answer.

“Good. The truth is that during the course of the week we have spoken on where to shoot, and according to him, I owe him $100, since it’s $50 for every goal,” Arriaga said. Rosales just smiled.

If that’s not a joke, then Michael Boxall owes Rosales $50 after the set up on his corner-kick goal in a 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City on April 27. In that three-game span, Rosales has amassed three assists, all on corners.

The Loons have produced five goals from corner kicks across the last four games, including a recycled corner turning into Bongi Hlongwane’s long-range strike against L.A. on Wednesday and Robin Lod’s service headed in by Hassani Dotson in the 3-0 win Charlotte FC on April 21.

MNUFC has scored 19 total goals in 11 matches this season, including six on set pieces. Lod scored on a Sang Bin Jeong free kick in the 2-0 win over Los Angeles FC on March 16.

Before head coach Eric Ramsay joined MNUFC, he was hired by Manchester United in 2021 and was in charge of set plays for the famous Premier League side. It’s a focus of his now with the Loons.

Ramsay has talked about three key ingredients to set pieces: a quality ball entering the box, a “real desperation” for players to get on the end of it, and once the ball is booted, the location of players and their ensuing movements to get free from defenders.

That’s where Ramsay’s often-expansive answers to questions can dry up. He isn’t about to share the secret sauce.

“There’s a lot of detail to it that I won’t give away here,” he said in his news conference Wednesday.

Set pieces also are a big focus of new Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad. The amount of corner kicks compared to the opposition is one of the key stats he looks at in the post-match stats. He also prefers in-swingers and going into Wednesday, 75 percent of the Loons attempts were bending toward goal.

In seasons past, the Loons have relied on Emanuel Reynoso to take the bulk of corners, but with Reynoso missing out on most of the season, it’s been a by-committee approach so far in 2024. Rosales currently leads the team with 24 corners. Lod has 23 and Jeong 19.

MNUFC has totaled more corner kicks than its opponent in only six of the 11 matches so far this season and have averaged 6.3 corners per game. There hasn’t been an uptick in those numbers to coincide with increased scoring on corners in the last four games; they are just making the most of their chances.

But work on Ramsay’s set pieces is a staple in Loons training sessions in Blaine, especially leading up to the Galaxy match, given how they have been prone to allowing goals on set plays this season.

“We … approach these things in a very purposeful way, but there is momentum in that sense,” Ramsay said. “We’ll be a team that’s a real threat across not just corners but on throw-ins and wide free kicks, too. It’s a really good trait to have as a team.”