Virginia City Educational Tour

Last year I was poking around the thrift store and found a book published by some professors at UNR. It was a geologic and historic tour book of the Reno area.  You go to their starting point and set the odometer to zero and takeoff.  I have been wanting to do this with my kids for ages, and this was the week to make it happen.  We needed a break from math and stuff.  So we took the classroom on the road.

 

Yesterday, we did a quick geologic tour of Lake Tahoe. We saw fault lines and volcanic rock, different types of flora and lava flows.  I really learned quite a bit myself. 

But today was the big day. We took a four hour tour around Virginia City and the Comstock Lode. It was a lot of fun. We learned about the different types of rocks and pine trees and pinyon junipers that grow on the slopes.  We talked about wagon toll roads, bandits, mining, monoliths. It just went on and on. Oodles and oodles of stuff. When we got to Virginia City we got some lunch and then went on a quick trip on the V&T Railroad to Gold Hill. 

On the way home we went through Washoe Valley and saw where there were huge rock slides and such.  It is eye opening to realize how much history has happened in my own backyard.

I thought it has been a productive couple of days, doing some untraditional schooling with my boys. It makes me realize how important it is to get out and see the world with my kids more often. I don't do that enough.  I hope I can find more awesome books that give driving tours of local areas in the future.

Bart and Family

We had some house guests again this weekend.  It was loads of fun.  Bart and Monica and their four kids came and stayed with us Friday and Saturday. They left Sunday morning.  Rinar met Bart because of his recent interest in triathlons. They have competed in several races together. Rinar has a triathlon group and they do lots of races together.

Why not come for a visit?  Monica also has an uncle in town, so they had several people to visit, I guess.  My kids loved their kids. It was a really good match up.  Eli hung out with their Zachary, Harry and Julia played with Sophia, and Raef and Zach kept busy doing stuff with Natalie and Josh.

Of course, we had to go and see some of the sights.  We headed to Lake Tahoe and went to Sand Hollow.

 It was a hit!  They climbed on the rocks and then played for quite a while in the sand. There was a militant Canadian goose that we had to take on, as it seemed to think we were required to bring it food.  But besides that, it was pretty peaceful.  The weather was absolutely perfect.

Then we did a loop through Carson City and Virginia City.

Other highlights included going on a hike and doing absolutely nothing.

They left this morning and now we are left with loads of packing for our upcoming move. Can't wait.

The Librarian In the Candy Store

It was a lovely day Thursday. We went with Kelli D. and her 4 kids and we did a little field trip to Virginia City, Nevada... a major tourist trap about 25 minutes from Reno.  This is where they found the Comstock Lode and apparently where Michael Landon worked with his brother Hoss (sp?) everyday on the hit TV show Bonanza.

It was a beautiful day.  We found a perfect parking spot and unloaded the masses.  Kelli has 4 kids, so we were quite the spectacle. Her kids were on spring break, just as my kids are on an eternal spring break. We hit the visitor's center first and ended up buying tickets to a mine tour.  It started in an hour, so we had some time to kill.  We decided to mosey down the boardwalk.  

After a few blocks, we pressed our runny noses up to the window of this amazing candy store. Barrels and barrels of candy overflowing, a cornucopia of sugary confection...the main attraction being the salt water taffy.  We bravely entered the store.  And there she was...the librarian in the candy store. I will affectionately call her Gertrude.  This is the face she greeted us with when we made our candy store debut.

I felt the warmth seethe out of her laser sharp, Tolkeinesquell-seeing eye as she scanned the little varmints who had just entered her candy kingdom.  I felt the warm embrace as I could almost hear her say, "Why the &%$@ did you bring those snot-nosed brats into this hallowed establishment? It is a candy store after all, not Wal-mart!"

The silence was deafening.

And so was Julia... and Harry... and Eli... but especially Julia.

She was helplessly stranded in her stroller with mounds and mounds of candy just within her reach. It was sheer torture. So she decided to torture everyone else and scream her blood-curdling scream. 

Harry also started to get whiny, and then bouncy, and then slightly frantic as the candy taunted him from every corner.

I was just busy throwing various taffy flavors into my bucket.

I just didn't realize that Raef was doing the same thing.

I found a few lollipops and shoved it into the babies mouths.  I headed for the check-out stand.  $4.79 /lb. was kind of expensive, but it was our splurge for the outing.

Gertrude, the librarian, weighed the candy. Then Raef came up with his bucket. I told him to put it back. But there were so many flavors, he didn't know where to put them. So I just threw them onto the scale.  It sent it up .08 more.  Gertrude had a heart attack. 

"How many pieces did you put on the scale?" 

"I don't know. 10, 12, 5. I can't remember, but it is was 1.15 and now it is 1.22."

I pointed at the scale readout and barely touched it and the thing fell down. She glared. I told her to charge me whatever she wanted. I didn't care. I was withering under her fatal fatalness. She ended up giving it to me for free. And then I saw the total...$17.75. 

What?

It just wasn't adding up in my head.  Why did it cost so much? Some salt water taffy, a small $2 bag of sour patches, and a $3.50 bag of root beer candy. $17.75. I asked her what the prices were. She reminded me curtly that she gave me .08 free. Then she surprisingly, got very defensive. I just wanted an explanation of the price. 

Ooooohhhhhhh!  Salt water taffy is $4.79 for HALF a pound. Right! My bad.

Kelli checked out next.  Her total was over $21.  Probably because her daughter's lollipop thing cost $3.  We left and walked 50 feet from the store.  Then the cry...yep, once upon a time a little girl had a $3 lollipop and then she didn't. Dropped. Destroyed. Distraught. 

A little while later Kelli broke out a tootsie roll.  

And it went SNAP!

btw...Smith's has Salt Water Taffy on sale right now for $1.99 /lb in case you want some.