So we hopped in our rental and headed out of town to Virginia City. Yee-haw!
It's quite a spectacular drive from Reno to Virginia City, the road is twisty and climbs steadily uphill. We looked in vain for wild mustangs, but alas, not this time. We did see this however, not as exciting as a wild horse, but cute nonetheless.
This is a nice spot to stop and stretch and go for a little hike. The scenery is beautiful and as we clambered over the rocks, which were warm from heat, I didn't have a care in the world. Until afterwards when I realized that that was probably prime rattlesnake and scorpion territory and I silently berated myself for being such an idiot. I don't want to ever be "that" foolish tourist who ends up injured or in a hospital for not using common sense. 😡
I'll just plunk my ass down on a rattlesnakes front door, and precariously balance my camera on a rock.
The drive to Virginia City is super short, I think it's about 30 miles, but it took us longer because around every corner was a new photo op. In hindsite, around every corner was the same view, just a little further away, but I still like to stop and look around. Eventually we arrived.
Our first stop was the graveyard, which we had managed to not visit every other time we've been here. It's a short walk, as in 10 minutes, if that, but we've always been with other people who: #1. Didn't want to stop there and then walk. #2. We were on a tour that simply didn't go there. #3. We were with someone who had injured her foot and was in a wheelchair and couldn't manage it. #4. We were with people who didn't even want to leave Reno! I have a passion for graveyards though, and we spent a lovely hour just wandering through, reading the epitaphs and looking at the crumbling remains. (Of tombstones that is, not of bodies.)
The dusty little town of Virginia City though, it's changed. It's nothing but a tourist trap now. The wooden sidewalks are jammed full of souvenir shops and trendy cafes serving fancy coffees and gluten-free this and vegan that. There are a few tiny and dusty museums that still remain, but they look like no one has gone into them in many a year. There's no shop owners dressed in period costume, no honky-tonk music being played, no street performances. We went into the old Bucket of Blood Saloon, which still has the original bar, but it was surrounded with neon beer signs touting the joys of Miller and Coors.
Perhaps I'm just used to the authenticity of our Fort Steele.
And I do have to say, the architecture is well maintained and really interesting, the signage on the buildings is well written and informative, there are a few fun displays, like the Suicide Table and a lot of Mark Twain memorabilia and the town was spotless...no garbage in sight.
But it still made me sad to see the struggle to survive the tough US economy, and the compromises that the town has to make to entice tourists.
So, off to Lake Tahoe! A place that makes no pretense about the fact that it was built for tourists.
I love this place, it's beautiful and wild, and tacky and glitzy, it's outdoorsy and Gucci. It's got something for everyone. First stop: Lunch outdoors, looking at the Lake.
Yum. After being fortified with sugar and coffee, we decided to take the gondola up to the top of the ski hill and hike back down. Kidding....we are most assuredly taking the gondola both ways.
I was surprised to discover that the gondola goes up about 3/4 of the way only. You can hop off and then get on the ski lift to go the rest of the way, or you can get off and have a coffe or beer at this great viewpoint, and then hop on the lift and go to the top.
The gondola ride ended way back at the building you can see (follow the cable) and the ski lift took us to the top. I don't ski and was thus quite nervous that I'd fall off and plummet to the ground. It was quite a way down. The total ride took about 45 minutes, and it was a hot day, so we enjoyed being in the open air. At the top there was an amazing amount of things to do....tubing down a "sand slide", rock wall climbing, hikes, and a large lodge to have a beer or meal.
We wandered around, walked over to California, because I am such a geek, I love state lines and province lines, and even more so, country lines. Borders I guess. In this case, you come up the hill in Nevada, but you can choose to ski down in California or Nevada.
It's the little things that make me happy. When we got down to the bottom, we did the same thing in the city...I'm such a tourist.
We stopped in a few of the casinos and gambled a little bit and then decided to drive back to Reno the long way around the lake, so that we ended up circling the entire lake. Its a spectacular drive, more so for me, being a passenger, as the roads are very twisty and narrow. There are a lot of viewpoints to pull over at though, so we stopped quite often for a stretch and a photo and a pee.
We got back to Reno shortly after supper and stopped at this place:
Because Ive started googling places that are on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives", hoping that they might be a bit off the tourist trail, and will hopefully have good food. This place has been owned by the same owner since, I think, the 1950's (going along nicely with the Hot August Nights theme) and I think it has the original tables and carpet. It was a little dicey looking, but I enjoyed the food. I had a taco salad thing that was about the size of my head, and Steven had a beef dip. No frills and no extras, but a huge portion and pretty darn tasty.
We headed back to our hotel and decided that we should get tickets to see "Grease". Once again, I have a weakness for the 50's, and also for Broadway Musicals. The tickets were inexpensive, around $60 each, but here's a nifty story. With our hotel card, you could scan it in this giant pyramid thing every two hours and win some sort of prize, or discount. We scanned it an awful lot of times and got things like 10% off at the gift store, 15% off meals, things that are all pretty much useless. But on our way to buy tickets, I scanned it and "voila," a two for one on Grease Tickets, and 2 free drinks! That was the only time I ever saw that particular prize. So that made it even more enjoyable, getting freebies. And the show was faaaabulous!
We spent the rest of our time there wandering through pawn stores and second hand shops, going to the few remaining older casinos from "back in the day" and looking for fun places to eat.
A yummy salad in a rosemary bread bowl.
Now, isn't this about the ugliest meal you've ever seen? I know, right? But, oh, was it good!
It was a veggie layered thing. Layers of quinoa, sweet potato, carrots, asparagus, portobello mushroom, zucchini, cheeses (mmmm....lots of cheeses) topped with, no, not an egg, buffalo mozzarella. And surrounded by a roasted red pepper sauce. Seriously, it was SO good.
The hotel had an outdoor pool on the 7th floor, and no one seemed to use it, so we spent some relaxing time there as well.
So, between a bit of gambling,
And some great sightseeing walks,
Checking out the old and the new.
We also went to Scheels, which is a store for outdoorsmen, hunters, campers, fishermen etc, and this store is the size of a mall. With a Ferris wheel inside. And animatronic presidents. And an aquarium that you can walk underneath. It's huge!
I realize that this looks like the walking around part of a mall, but it's ALL ONE STORE. It was very odd walk into into a department and grab your item and then leave and walk through the rest of the building. The tills were at the main doors that led outside.
Anyhow, between all these things to see and so, the time sped by and before I knew it, we were back at the airport and heading home. It was a really great holiday, a person doesn't always have to go somewhere foreign to have fun.
Checking out the next time that Barrett-Jackson is in Reno.
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