Virginia City, Nevada

We had left for our trip a whole day early, so we had some time to waste having fun on the way. The day we were to arrive Auntie Caitlin understandably had to work a full day, so we decided to take my mom's suggestion and see Virginia City, NV (yes, as in Bonanza) before cruising through Tahoe, and going down the Sierra Nevada's into Sacramento.
The trip up the mountains was beautiful! I'm used to climbing the Sierra's, (it's my middle-namesake, and favorite place on earth), but the Eastern Sierra's border the desert, and offer a far different landscape than I am used to. As we drove up to see VC, the trees looked to be growing in rock, or hard sand. Pretty amazing.

Wide open mountains as far as the eye could see.

Yes, this is someone's private residence, dangling on a cliff, overlooking Reno. Amazing!

The first thing we did in Viginia City is ride the train. The cars clung to rail tracks along a mountainside, and took us on a tour of the old silver mines.

The views were breathtaking.

The old tunnels and structures were amazing.

I could so live in his building!

I think this is was the school:

After a train ride we walked through the town. I wish I could have taken a picture of the whole city nestled in the mountainside. We wound around the hills turn after turn and the town just sort of pops up out of nowhere. The whole place is really compact, each structure is built right on top of the other; the streets are narrow, and stacked into the mountain in the most quaint way. And what could be better than sidewalks made of wood planks?

This was inside one of the trousit trap stores.

Could not pass this up?

And there were casinos hidden in many of these old buildings.

This is where we ate lunch. Just a simple menu, sandwiches and salads, but this group of ladies was decked out in period gear eating beside us. Very cool.

This sign MADE OUR DAY, possibly our trip. We need one.

A great trip up to VC, highly recommend it if your ever in the Reno area.

Off to Tahoe and Sac.