2026 Donner Tunnels There are some old train tunnels up near Donner Lake. They are abandoned and you can just walk through them and they go for miles. There's birds and bats in them and lots of graffiti. Parts of the tunnels are concrete, other sections have been carved out of
2026 Trip to San Francisco We spent 3 days visiting all the tourist destinations - we stayed at the historic Palace Hotel
Fall Break in West Shore, Lake Tahoe We rented a big house in Meeks Bay on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe we went to Stateline - this huge chair is made of skis cool bedroom with pool table and beds in the wall
Camel Races in Virginia City This was our first time going to the Camel Races in Virginia City There were ostrich and zebra races too it was pretty funny watching all the human-animal interactions the races were only about 10-15 seconds, and the animals didn't always want to rush to the
California Bluegrass Association Summer Camp in Grass Valley Courtney, Nabby and I went to the California Bluegrass Association Summer Camp this past week. It started on a Sunday and went through Wednesday. It was held on the fairgrounds in Grass Valley, CA Nabby took a Bluegrass Band class and Courtney took a mandolin class. I took a beginner
The Silver Circuits at FIRST Worlds in Houston The Virginia City Silver Circuits did awesome at the Worlds Robotics Competition in Houston last week - they went further than the Silver Circuits have ever gone in the finals! Carson and Coen were there as mentors. The team at their booth in the pits The team after their alliance won
Point Arena Lighthouse We spent a couple of days at the Point Arena Lighthouse - they have cottages right next to the lighthouse. The drive there was pretty long and a little treacherous. I'm standing at the beginning of Mountain View Road - and the horror on my face and in my hands
FIRST Robotics World Competition in Houston, Texas We traveled with the team to Houston on Monday the week of Worlds. The team posed with another team from Mexico in the pit. The team in their pit - it's a place to display all aspects of the team and its accomplishments so the judges can observe, and
The Alamo We traveled to Houston with the team, so we were there on Monday and had a couple of days with a lot of free time while the team was doing team stuff. We drove to San Antonio to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk. There's Biden and Trump
NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston On Tuesday we still had a lot of free time to kill, so we tried out the NASA space center A mock shuttle on top of an airplane - you could walk around inside both of them inside the plane We took a tour of the astronaut training center funny name
Anti-gravity room We all went to the Grand Sierra Resort yesterday and they had this cool room where you could bounce and float around. Haha, just kidding - this was a sideways room at Sensology in the GSR. So you're actually looking at all these pictures sideways!
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 escargot
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 the
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: 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 it was
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;
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 constantly
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
