finally, my high school friend with whom i have known since 1990 (and was a bride's maid in her wedding), invited me to her house in reno for the long weekend. originally, it was planned for the end of july which fell around the time of her husband's birthday. i can't remember when they moved to reno but it has been a while since they became nevada residents. at my recent 20-year high school reunion, i sat with justine and dave and spent most of the time catching up with dave. i mentioned to him that i was interested in coming and visiting them one of these days at their reno house. since they worked and lived in the bay area during the work week and went home to reno every so often, i invited myself to hitch a ride with them. that was in june. despite burning man this year, we left on friday night and arrived before midnight. the way home was a different story. we had burning man spottings all weekend. you could tell because these cars were covered in a layer of desert dirt and most carried furry bicycles.
their house is huge and beautiful. there are two guest bedrooms, one man cave plus one and a half bathrooms on the first floor. on the second floor is their office and master bedroom. inside the master bedroom is a walk-in closet to die for, that was literally overflowing. it was ridiculous.
on my first day there, we dropped off justine's mom at the peppermill and headed over to virginia city. i am told that this is one of the oldest western cities in the country. though it is extremely touristy, people still work and live there. it really takes you back to the west. apparently, mark twain was born there. we also took the old school train (pictured) to where i was able to take a picture of view. also pictured is the old washoe club which is supposed to be haunted. and always fascinating to me though we did not make it inside.
we had dinner at the lodge near their house which is the only restaurant close to them. even though we were planning to go to the rib cook-off the next day, i had myself a kobe burger. the rib cook-off was in sparks, nv (right). apparently, justine and dave go every year. we looked for the longest lines as we hoped that was a sure sign that it was good. i had ribs and a guinness. i meant to take a picture of it but started eating it right away. that night, we had porterhouse steaks by chef dave for dinner. their neighbors ed and christy joined us. more mmm meat goodness.
on the way back (as well as on the way there though we took a different route home), we drove through the altamont pass and wind turbine farm. for some reason, these windmills and turbines give me such peace. i took a bunch of these from the car.
