It has been awhile since a get-away, so we planned a little Get-Out-Of-Town-Trip. We decided to take the old US 395 up to Northern California and see some spots that we had not traveled. On Tuesday morning the 17th we took-off for the 395 just out of Bakersfield. Traveling across the desert and then into the low Sierras gave us spectacular sights of all types of different landscapes. We stopped at one of the California Travel Welcome Centers to take a break and look over the many things offered by the state to travelers. The views were grand!
We took some time to follow our route on the three-dimensional display in the lobby. We could follow from Long Beach to Mammoth Lakes to Carson City, Reno and Virginia City. It was so interesting to see how we were following the backs of all three parks, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite. We have been in all three and now to see from the other side ... spectacular!
The granite stones that the building is constructed and the other use of the granite on the grounds just add to the beauty. It is a wonderful place to walk around and picnicking is encouraged to enjoy these fabulous grounds.
We continued our drive north enjoying all of the colorful leaves of the Fall which we don't see much of in Southern California.
We stopped at Convict Lake to enjoy colorful trees changing colors and the natural beauty of the lake. Convict Lake is a lake in the Sherwin Range of the Sierra Nevada in California. It is known for its fishing and the dramatic mountains, including Mount Morrison, that surround the lake. The lake was named after an incident on September 23, 1871, where a group of convicts escaped from prison in Carson City. A posse, from Benton, led by Deputy Sheriff George Hightower, encountered the convicts near the head of what is now Convict Creek. Posse member Robert Morrison, a Benton merchant and Wells Fargo Agent, was killed in the encounter, and Mount Morrison was named after him.
We spent a lovely night at The Sierra Lodge in Mammoth Lakes and had a great dinner at Slocums Grill. We drove around the city to see some of the landscape. We had a full-rack deer dart in front of the car as we were driving around after dinner. We were lucky that we didn't clip the hind foot as it sprinted across the road in front of us in the evening darkness!
Back on the road on Wednesday morning the 19th, we then entered the Mammoth Lakes area where we discovered that this was a collection of various lakes and not a lake named Mammoth! Once again we discovered we are never too old to learn new things. The Mammoth Lakes were carved out by massive glaciers during the ice age. We drove around Lake Mary Road to see some of the many lakes of the area ... Lake Mary, Twin Lakes, Mamie Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Lake George and more. There are several more that can be hiked to.
Sticking out of the ground like a big granite tooth stands Crystal Crag at 10,305 feet. It is a favorite of climbers and makes a beautiful backdrop for pictures! Here is our take of Lake Mary with Crystal Crag rock rising 10,305 feet behind ...
We crossed into Nevada enjoying the different scenery that we were experiencing from desert to Fall color leaves to mountains of Pines. We truly live in amazing state! As we approached Carson City Nevada, it was lunch time and once again time to seek out a unique non-chain restaurant to dine at. We discovered the highly rated little mom & pop restaurant, The Cracker Box. It was really great both in looks and taste. We were so glad we found this special place where their slogan is "Still Fresh After All of the Years ... "cookin' eggs for a flippin' long time!"
And then on into Reno .... "The Biggest Little City in the World"! We have never been to Reno in all of our years. We wanted to experience something different from Las Vegas but still with that same type of feel. There is no "Strip" like Las Vegas with all of the Hotel-Casinos lined up, but the city is packed with them scattered throughout the downtown area. We had reservations at the ElDorado. It is a great "old-school" hotel-casino that is very well maintained.
As all of the casinos are no longer individually owned but part of corporate groups, this goes for The ElDorado which is part of Circus-Circus and The Silver Legacy here in Reno. From the outside, they are all on separate blocks but from the inside, the second floor mezzanines connect all three together with the floors going over the streets of the city outside. You cannot tell as the floor seems to just go on and on and it doesn't narrow down to appear as a bridge. We could walk from one casino to another without going outside and even noticing we had left one casino and entered another! We had some fun on the machines and had experiences in all three casinos. We had to try the "Firehouse/Fireman" slots for our nephew Freddy, the Fireman in Orlando. Fun graphics on the machine!
The ElDorado has these fantastically gaudy fountains by the lobby that are just a kick to us to see ...
Besides the casino fun, we also walked outside and saw some of the city. In the 1990s, the city created The Raymond I. Smith Truckee River Walk, which brought new attention to Reno's scenic river corridor. Today, The Riverwalk District celebrates the beautiful place where Reno began. We followed the Truckee River as we walked the beautiful parkway and path surrounded by those beautiful changing colors of the Fall trees. We started out just a couple of blocks from The ElDorado. As we approached the historical tower clock with glass panels showing the moving gears, there is a park by the river that has the sculpture of a humpback whale mother and her calf in a life-size representation. There are roughly 1,700 individual glass panels installed.
On our second Reno day we took the 27 mile winding road through the hills over to Virginia City. Virginia City sprang up as a boomtown with the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver deposit discovery in the United States, with numerous mines opening. At the city's peak of population in the mid-1870s, it had an estimated 25,000 residents. The mines' output declined after 1878, and the city itself declined as a result. However, this boom earned Virginia City the title of "The Richest Place On Earth" which it still holds onto today!
Virginia City has quite a story to tell. According to folklore, James Fennimore, "Old Virginny Finney," christened the town when he tripped and broke a bottle of whiskey at a saloon entrance in the northern section of Gold Hill, soon to become Virginia City. In another story, the "Ophir Diggings", were named in honor of "Old Virginny" by the miners, in recognition of James Finney being "one of the first discoverers of that mining locality, and one of the most successful prospectors in that region. The wealth supported the Northern cause during the American Civil War and flooded the world monetary markets, resulting in economic changes.
Virginia City could be considered the "birthplace" of Mark Twain, as it was here in February 1863 that writer Samuel Clemens, then a reporter on the local Territorial Enterprise newspaper, first used his famous pen name. He lived in Virginia City and wrote for the Enterprise from late fall 1862 until May 1864, when he escaped from a potential duel instigated by a local newspaper editor upset at Clemens' reporting. Clemens returned to the region twice on western lecture tours, once in 1866 where he was mugged on the Divide. The muggers relieved Clemens of his watch and his money. The robbery turns out to have been a practical joke played on Clemens by his friends. He did not appreciate the joke, but he did retrieve his belongings—particularly his gold watch (worth $300), which had great sentimental value.
We arrived in Monterey and checked into the Stargazer Inn. When in Monterey, one simply must have fresh fish! We found the delightful Sea Harvest Fish Market and Restaurant. It is small and cute, but most importantly has delicious fish! Mary Anne had Crab Cake which she said were some of the best she has ever eaten while I had fresh Trout. Another enjoyable meal!
In the morning before heading out of town, we found another highly rated small breakfast restaurant, The Old Monterey Cafe. It was busy and we were lucky enough to get one of the last tables before a line started to form. You can tell this is a favorite of the locals and with good reason!
We decided to take the coast scenic drive on Highway 1 down to San Luis Obispo. We had marvelous views of the ocean with the waves crashing in over the rocks. It's a lovely drive on the winding highway. About 50 miles down the road we saw temporary signs saying that there was closure ten miles further ahead with no emergency exit. We didn't know if that meant we could go no further or if at that point there would be a road through the hills to get over to US 101. We decided to go the ten miles and find out. Well, we had to turn around and retrace our route back to Monterey as there was not an exit route. At that distant end was a motel that allowed everyone to use their restrooms and a restaurant which was closed until the evening. Others who were there told us there were whales to be seen from the stairway and deck so we went over to see. We could see the whale water spouts as they played. We sort of could see a darker spot by one of the spouts that could be interpreted as one of the whales. We drove back now with the ocean on the driver's side and new views that we hadn't seen coming in. All-in-all, this 120 mile round trip added an unnecessary two and a half hours or so to our trip. But it was beautiful and with retirement that is one of the luxuries of travel ... no deadlines!
On one of the country roads we were taking to get back on the freeway, we saw what appeared to be four deer statues in an overgrown abandoned open yard. As we decided these were statues and got back in the car to drive off, we noticed that they had gone from their standing and staring positions down to grazing ... obviously they were real and not statues! We missed the picture moment! Reaching San Luis Obispo later than we had planned, we had our mid-afternoon lunch at The Madonna Inn. We always like to stop by when in the area for the wonderfully pink overdoneness for everything at The Madonna. It never changes and is always a unique view of everyday life from the pink sugar on the table to the pink water goblets to the pink napkins and all of the pink wall paper, flowers and decorations both inside and out! We had a great lunch before taking off for our final four-hour drive into Lakewood.
It was a great road trip which we saw many things we had not seen over the years. It was a wonderful get-out-of-town get-away just to break up our lives and add new memories. There are more pictures that are all captioned in the photo album by clicking here.
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