What a fabulous time I had with Michael, Floor and Kate, my Dutch family…aka Bob’s sister’s oldest son and his family. They made the long drive from Los Angeles to Minden after visiting Michael’s college haunts in Orange County (plus seeing a couple of Angels games. I hadn’t seen them in person for 8 years.The morning after their arrival, we took the long way to Virginia City in hopes of seeing wild horses. We saw only two, but that was okay. This view is from Geiger Grade with Mt. Rose above Kate’s head.Time for hot cocoa and tea as we got cold looking into shops and walking around VC (founded 1859 with an altitude of a bit more than 6100 feet). It was brisk that day.The clouds cleared for a bit to take a photo of St. Mary’s in the Mountains Catholic Church. It is said by some that on clear days, one can see at least 100 miles out to the east. I’m not positive about that but I do know you can see long distance.VC is riddled with an estimated 350 to 750 miles of old mining tunnels that can be found beneath the modern-day streets of Virginia City and we took a tour of one. It was interesting, but, definitely a place in which I wouldn’t want to work back then…dangerous, cold or scalding hot water, bad air and many more poor conditions. We were tough, though. We survived the tour!After lunch in VC, we drove over the Sierra Nevada to Lake Tahoe and stopped at Sand Harbor where the “family” tree is. This is where Bob’s and his mother’s ashes as well as my parents’ cremains are. Michael and Bob were very close while he was living with us and going to school. Bob was also best man at their wedding. Michael thought it only right to visit Uncle Bob and Grandma. It was special to me, too.In front of The TreeKate is out on a rocky point of Sand Harbor.Jerri’s tacos for family dinner. We feasted and there weren’t many left out of the four pans!Dinner that night was very tasty and fun. Lots of good conversation and catching up. A lot of changes in the family in the 15 years since Michael and Floor helped scatter Bob’s ashes. Kate and the little ones weren’t born yet. How time flies!Above photo is face on. Back of the head in this photo. But you can see Cruz and Mateo (two small tots – 2 1/2 and 16 months) and Darcy and Scott next to me.Kate’s new Nevada wild horses sweatshirt. She loves horses and is an accomplished horsewoman in The Netherlands.We visited the Nevada State Museum and took the grand tour.Of course they had to see the museum’s priceless artifact, the first coin press to arrive in what was then, the Carson City Mint (1869). It’s the only coin press in the entire world of its vintage that still works! Jim Spain, one of the coiners, was running it that day.Dinner was at the Charthouse above Lake Tahoe. It had snowed quite a bit that day and Kate enjoyed the beauty.Kate will be 13 this summer, and I felt we should celebrate it when I could be with her. After a fantastic dinner, the Charthouse treated her to a slice of mud pie and a candle. The other dessert is chocolate lava cake. YUM!
Lake Tahoe from the Charthouse. You can see the water along the bottom of the far mountains. The snowy trees made us think of Christmas. Love the Lake in all seasons!
After dinner, I took them through Genoa to see the suicidal deer, which love to wander the streets and pay no mind to cars. We saw only 4 or 5 in town. We hit the jackpot on the main road out of Genoa. These are the sane deer. They live out of town. We saw 27 deer that evening! Too soon they had to leave on the next leg of their vacation. But they got a taste of Nevada, some weird spring weather and now know why I love being here. AND I got to spend some very special time with three much loved people. I’m so glad we had this opportunity to be together and that they made the trip to Minden
buzzardnotes 