Virginia City and Lake Tahoe

We arose at 5 am but didn’t come down until nearly 7 am and had a breakfast of oatmeal.  We headed north on Rt. 49 through Nevada City, CA through Donner Pass to Virginia City, NV.  I was a little worried about stopping at Donner Pass with Mary when she suggested that we have a snack!

We loved Virginia City!  So many old Western towns have the historic old buildings ripped down only to be replaced with tourist traps that are new buildings that look like old buildings.  That was certainly not the case with Virginia City.  Most of the town burned in 1875 and was rebuilt shortly thereafter.  Those buildings are still the majority of structures in the town.  Of course, most have been repurposed and brought up to modern code but all of the buildings are real.  The newspaper office where Mark Twin worked in 1863 is still standing and looks much like it did back when old Sam Clemens was writing.

We enjoyed our lunch at the Palace Saloon which has been in operation since 1875.  I had a bison burger and Mary had a wild boar burger and we swapped halves.  Both were excellent.  I also had a draft beer which was very good.  We also appreciated that while the saloon and furnishings were vintage 1800s, there was no touristy pretense.  I expected that the waitresses would be in some stereotype of saloon girl garb.  However, the staff wore jeans and T shirts and served us well.  After lunch, we walked around the town, which is very small.  We were surprised to learn that Virginia City had over 25,000 residents in the late 1800s.  We could almost see Ben, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe riding in to town.

Upon leaving Virginia City, we drove through Carson City to Lake Tahoe.  The lake is very clear with objects in water nearly 70 feet deep visible from the surface.  From the shore, the water looked as blue as anything you would see in the Caribbean.

We drove back to El Dorado Hills via Rt. 50 and got to Fergsons by about 5 pm for a dinner of pasta.  We went out for fuel and ice cream after dinner. Tomorrow we plan to visit the volcanic areas near Lassen, California.

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