Virginia City Trip, Dinner at Harrah's

We had a nice bacon & egg breakfast before we departed the cabin around 10:00 am headed for Virginia City, Nevada.  On the way, we got gas at Carson City, the state capitol of Nevada.  There is a stark contrast between the Lake Tahoe area and nearby Nevada, especially after one goes over the small summit.  Below is a picture taken in Carson City, looking west to California, from where we got gasoline.

Another desert land with a nice mountain range for a view....

We tried to go through Gold Canyon up to Virginia City, but about two-thirds of the way up, hit a roadblock as crews worked on a railroad crossing.  However, we did see some interesting things....

 Yes, a "PINK" house....

One wonders just how old some of the old deserted homes are.

It looks like a rough, hard life...I am sure being a miner was not a load of fun around here, but it did earn those working the mine a decent wage, and those with a stake in the mine the possibility of a big windfall.

After we turned around at the roadblock and took the longer truck route (we were on a 15% grade, the truck route is more like a 8% grade), we made it to Virginia City.  As you come into Virginia City from the south, one of the first landmarks you see is the Fourth Ward School.

 It is a real pretty site to see.

Below is a cruse down the main downtown area of Virginia City

 

Virginia City is one of the oldest communities in Nevada, a large mining boomtown.  With the comstock silver strike in 1859, it grew to over 15,000 people and was called the "richest city in America.  With the silver bust by 1900, the city shrunk to nearly a ghost town.  Another thing Virginia City is famous for is the birthplace of Mark Twain.  Not the birthplace of Samuel Clemons, who was born in 1835, but in 1863 Virginia City is where Clemons first used the pen name of Mark Twain while writing for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper.  Today Virginia City is one of many "tourist traps", but still a very interesting place to visit.  It is full of old homes, old buildings, and old churches, like St. Paul's Episcopal Church built in 1876.

We had enough of the wild west, and decided to return to Lake Tahoe, via Rose Mountain so that Marcia can see the view of the lake from the eastern shores.  And what a view it was....

Marcia took the five pictures above, which were five of the best of the twenty or so that she took...all while I was driving along the road.

We ended our day by eating dinner at Harrah's Lake Tahoe, at the Forest Buffet on the 18th floor, where they serve one of the best buffets around.  It has an excellent desert bar, which, of course, we abstained from (cough cough, I think my nose is growing longer....along with all of our belt lines....)

We head back to Sacramento tomorrow.  It has been nice staying here at the Spruce Grove Cabins in South Lake Tahoe.  With that, I will leave you a picture of our cabin.