Nevada City - Two Room Inn

We've been looking for an old house to stay in for a vacation rental, something built in the 1800s or early 1900s, and we found the Two Room Inn in Nevada City. It was built in 1880, and it is right on Broad Street, which was the main

Walking around Broad Street, Nevada City

This was in an ice cream shop called Treats. I was looking at the old ceiling tiles and loving the old store front. Savannah tried escargot for the first time at Friar Tuck's restaurant - she really liked it. The restaurant is known for its fondue, and the

Nevada City - finding filming locations

These are the filming locations from 'The Christmas Card' that we found while we were there. I'll start with how it looked in the movie - a 'movie shot' - followed by a present-day picture. Movie shot: Nevada City Cafe, You can also see

Virginia City Silver Circuits Team 2023-2024

Robotic Milking Machine

We visited Top O' the Morn Farms, just outside of Tulare, CA to check out their robotic milking equipment. The owner, Ron Locke, showed us around and told us all about the machines. all the cows waiting in line to get milked

Tucker and Savannah are in a Shakespeare Play

Tucker and Savannah were in a Shakespeare class with their homeschool group. Every Wednesday, we drove down to Carson City to meet with the Light, Truth and Intelligence Homeschool co-op group and they had a Shakespeare class for 1 hour each week. They read and watched plays, and gave presentations

Grandma Bea and Grandpa Gene visit Reno

Tucker and Savannah were cast in a Shakespeare play put on by their homeschool group. It was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', and Tucker was Demetrius, and Savannah was Titania. This is a picture before their first performance on a Friday afternoon at the Brewery Arts Center

CANstruction

Today the VC Silver Circuits teamed up, once again, with the AT&T Pioneers - Silver State Chapter 101 to construct another impressive CANstruction structure. Our own team member, Hunter, who is only 13, used his CAD skills to design the structure in Fusion360. This year’s structure is

More Houston Worlds FIRST Robotics Competition

In the pits, where teams have booths where they can work on their robot and have displays with information about their team. The Silver Circuits are the team in the silver capes some of the first matches our good friend Brian came to Houston from Reno to watch the competition

FIRST Robotics Championship in Houston, TX

We arrived in Houston on Monday of the week of the robotics championship in order to get Carson there early so the VC Silver Circuits could get started on preparations. This is the apartment we stayed in for the week. It was very nice and we had a nice view.

Ridgeline trip to Phoenix

The front of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, built in 1928. It looks the same as it did in the 20s a cool stained-glass window in the lobby the first night there was a outdoor dinner party at the hotel there were a lot of pools - here are the waterslides

Trip to Phoenix, part 2

they had these comfy chairs outside, about 5 or 6 of them, and the grass is astroturf these statues were all over the property there was a 'beer burro' at the party on the first night lots of little desserts nice big balcony i can't believe

State Robotics Competition in Las Vegas - Winning!

We went to Foothill Highschool in Henderson, NV for the state competition, all day on Saturday. Melvin and Nan and Carson Teresa and Rogan matches preparing for matches They won!  - after the final match with the Perpetual Motion team walking down the line to accept an award, The Silver

State Robotics Competition in Las Vegas: Walking around down on the strip

We had some free time on the Friday before the competition day, so we went and walked around the Paris hotel on the strip. We met up with Cara, Gary and Atlas - it was super good to see them. We heard good things about this cake - even though

The Silver Circuits - State Robotics Competition in Las Vegas: Battle Bots and Hoover Dam

Carson's team went to a Battle Bots show the first night we were in Vegas, so we joined in and checked it out. It was pretty fun, it wasn't an actual competition, it was just for fun. The next morning, we drove over the Hoover Dam;

Tucker found a weather balloon

Tucker frequently goes on hikes in the hills behind our house and he found a weather balloon a few weeks ago If it is in really good condition, 'they' want it sent back, and it comes with a self-addressed mailer

The Silver Circuits

Carson is part of the Silver Circuits robotics team. They applied for and won a scholarship from the Dolan Auto Group. The Silver Circuits had a competition a few days ago in Sparks They won! Their robot has two arms and it stacked the most cups on the rod.

Yellowstone National Park

The road to the Old Faithful geyser was closed because of the snow, so we went the other way and found some mud pots and steam vents. It smelled very sulfury This was the most violent one - there was a deep rumbling coming from it and it poured steam

Grand Teton National Park

Because it snowed the night before, and was still snowing, there were clouds obscuring the view of the Tetons. These pictures are out of order, so notice as you scroll down, the clouds get lower and lower. We were able to see a lot by later afternoon. you can see

Jackson, Wyoming

After leaving Salt Lake, we drove over to Evanston, Wyoming and had lunch at a local diner. Then we drove up through Star Valley and on into Jackson, Wyoming. It snowed that first night we were there. We had dinner at the Gunbarrel Steakhouse This was a cool river rafting

Walking around the BYU Provo campus

The wedding was in the evening, so we spent the day in Provo with Nan and Melvin, checking out BYU. This is the mascot, Cosmo, right outside the BYU bookstore. Cool swively chairs in the Computer Science building a lot of the buildings have cool hands on things to do

Phil and Kelly's wedding in Salt Lake City

Phil and Kelly had their wedding at Cactus and Tropicals in Salt Lake City. It was inside a huge greenhouse filled with beautiful plants. You can see Scott, Lori, Bethany, Brianna and Ryan, Teresa and Rogan in this picture. There's Kelly's kids, standing by Bekah, and

Great Basin National Park

We stayed in Ely for a night, then drove to Great Basin National Park, which is near the Nevada/Utah border. Tucker thought the marmot crossing sign was funny. We went to the visitor's center there and learned about the history and local wildlife in the area. Then

Rexall Drugstore Museum, McGill, Nevada, part 1

Rexall Drug in McGill, Nevada was built in 1908. It was open until 1979, when the owner passed away and left the store to the town to be used as a museum. Everything was left as it was in 1979. Me signing the guestbook. The soda fountain was built in

Rexall Drugstore Museum, McGill, Nevada part 2

We could open drawers and handle the old pill bottles. I thought it was so cool to be able to walk around and look at anything, pick up anything - which is so different from other museums. I was looking at some old lipsticks from the 60s and Keith told