We flew into Reno, and the next morning spent a short while exploring. Reno peaked as a destination city in the 60's. In the 1960's, Reno was more important than Las Vegas as the destination city in Nevada.










The Truckee River is the only stream that flows out of Lake Tahoe, out of the west side of Lake Tahoe, but somehow finds its way to give water to Reno, north east of Lake Tahoe, and then it flows north into Pyramid Lake.
"Women who wanted a divorce would establish residency in Reno for six weeks, get a divorce, and throw their rings into the Truckee River"



The house where we used to live in in Reno is today the home of a woman who was hoping we wanted to buy the house so she could get out. The house had a simple front porch and lawn when we lived there.




The same morning, we drove from Reno to Carson City to see the house we moved to when I was five years old. My father worked for the welfare department as a social worker. We were family friends with the director of the state children's home and his family and we were invited to parties there. At our old house, we saw four cocker spaniels in the yard. When we lived in it, it was brand new and the whole block was bare as a sandbox.
"Our neighborhood was the first one on this side of town, on the prison side of town." No wonder I was worried about the prison. If one broke out, my neighborhood was on his way to town.






In those days, the yard was nothing but sand until Dad got grass established. Behind the house was miles of desert when we lived there, and today, behind the house is a field and a fire alley. As you can see, most of the people on this street don't care about the view behind their houses of mountains which we loved.



My mother barely remembered the prison but I remembered it well. It was the largest structure in the Carson Valley, and the Capital building and other old buildings in Carson City were built out of stone from the prison quarry.













The C on the mountain ("prison hill") was visible from behind my house. I also remembered the water treatment plant on the way to the prison.



I believe my Dad took us to the Carson River, and the prison was on the way to the river.









I believe that both the flag and the C on prison hill are made from rocks and the decorations are maintained by prisoners.
We found on this trip that now Carson City has many nice neighborhoods beyond it. My old neighborhood was not alone, and children in houses in the half million dollar range may have the same worries I did about the state prison. Carson Valley is beautiful, like northern Arizona. At the edge of Carson City, we stopped in a City Park to enjoy the views.









We spent the second night fifteen miles west of Carson City over the Carson Range at Lake Tahoe, in the historic Cal Neva resort on the north side at the state line where we had a room for three nights. The Cal Neva was grand, comfortable, and in need of repairs.






Our room was elegant with georgeous views through a big openable window.



Cal Neva does not own beach access any longer as it did when it was a hunting lodge and little gambling casino for rich celebrities. Nothing is built in front of it to block expansive views of Lake Tahoe, but I was disatisfied with this discovery of 'no beach acsess". A good long walk brought us to the edge of the lake through a steep and pricey neighborhood.




Next morning, we rose early and went to Sand Harbor, which I had visited many times as a child. I'm sure I never saw as much of it before.



From Sand Harbor beach, we could see the Carson Range we had driven over from Carson City.

Sand Harbor is one of the best beaches of the largest Alpine lake in the world, our own lovely Lake Tahoe.





After Sand Harbor, we stopped by the Cal Neva before driving about five miles along the lake to Carnelian Beach where we ate at Gar Woods Restaraunt and Pier.




After lunch, I drove through the steep mountains in California to the south end of the Lake to what was once called "Bijou" and now is South Lake Tahoe, California. On first sight the room and the beach seemed perfect, (although there were three geese outside the window) until we realized that the place was owned by geese who shit all over the sand.



The next morning there were sixty standing along the shoreline at sunrise.
The view was wonderful from inside the room, day and night.







We were only ten minutes from the Nevada state line and a row of tall casino hotels, but after splurging on hotel rooms with the best views, I had no money to have much interest in gambling. This place had a nice pool and a large whirlpool bath outside.






Return to Cal Neva Lodge
The next night we more than completed a circle around the lake, and returned to Cal Neva for another night.

On the north side of the lake in Nevada, the geese did not seem to be a problem. The Cal Neva was owned by Frank Sinatra in the 1960's, (and Marilyn Monroe visited so her spirit was there in photographs), until the gaming authorities took away his casino license on account of Chicago mobsters who stayed at the place.