Here’s a weird bit of Americana that few people seem to know about: In 1980, a Hungarian political refugee attempted to extort millions of dollars from Harvey’s Casino in Stateline, NV, using a gigantic bomb his helpers wheeled into the casino early one morning. I won’t spoil the story’s ending, but the bomb did go off and leave a giant hole in Stateline. You can read the whole story here.
We spent our vacation last week in the mountains above Stateline. High above Lake Tahoe, the evenings were cool, the coyotes were in full song, and we discovered hot tubs that no one else seemed to know about. It was a good home base for the week.
When we weren’t relaxing, reading, or hot tubbing, we went exploring, starting with a drive around Lake Tahoe. August weekends are prime time for everybody to do that, so progress was stop and go, but we did find some beautiful spots to pull off the road and gaze at the water. I had stops at Inspiration Point and Emerald Bay State Park in mind, but those had to wait until a weekday when we returned early in the morning before the crowds arrived. The sole ranger at Inspiration Point thanked us for paying for parking, and sadly noted that few people did.
Harvey’s is no longer standing in Stateline, but there are plenty of other casinos, shops, and restaurants in town. We parked and walked around one day, strolled down to the public beach and declined to pay $29 apiece to enter, then grabbed some lunch before going back to the resort.
A couple of days, we checked out places further afield. I hadn’t been to Donner Summit since friend Tim and I did an epic August hike decades ago that started at Donner Pass, went through the Summit, and abruptly stopped a couple thousand feet higher, when we ran into snow and turned back. This time, hiking was limited to rock hopping near the parking lot, and exploring the ruins of the railroad.
We checked the box on Virginia City, NV and never need to go back. Mark Twain spent two years there as a newspaper editor and, as far as I know, never went back either.
Truckee, CA was charming, and more grown up than when Tim and I visited after our hike. We had lunch at the Cornerstone Kitchen after roaming around for a while. I recommend it, and the baked goods from the Cornerstone Bakery are excellent, too.
Jill is a Folsom (an Exeter Folsom, in case the snobs want to know), and has a town in California named after her family. Johnny Cash sang a song about it. We had to visit, which meant a two-hour drive, out and back, through beautiful alpine forests. Historic Folsom was pretty charming, and we ignored the insane heat and walked around for a while, before making a pilgrimage to Folsom Prison. Why, we asked, was Johnny incarcerated in a California state prison for shooting a man in Nevada? It doesn’t matter why he did it–it just doesn’t make sense.
Typically, getting to Tahoe means flying in and out of Reno. We made a stopover before flying out, and had dinner with Jill’s high school friend. Hot August Nights was going on, so we scoped out a parking lot full of hot rods, after dropping a few twenties at the Peppermill Casino.
When we travel, we eat. Here are a few more of our favorite restaurants from this trip:
Heidi’s Pancake House in South Tahoe, CA. The best pancakes I’ve ever eaten, anywhere.
The Chart House, in Zephyr, NV. Lovely seafood, and a beautiful view of Lake Tahoe at sunset.
The Fox & the Hound, down the road from our resort. Excellent pizza, and you can gamble at the loosest slots in Nevada, if that’s your thing.
Sassafras Eclectic Food Joint in Carson City, NV. It sits in the back of an office park, and looks like a repurposed chain steak house. Looks are deceiving. Everything about it was delightful. A place that makes its own ketchup is sending a message.