Broad Street, Nevada City

About 3.5 hours north of us (but still 3 hours or more south of the Dixie fire) is the small town of Nevada City. We decided to visit to see this place and the surrounding area. More on that in upcoming blog entries.

Why Nevada City? There are two main reasons. First, Elizabeth is a fan of Wallace Stegner and Grass Valley, about 5 miles away, was his stomping ground. Secondly, in 1989 we visited Nevada City mostly for reason number one (and because it seemed like fun). It just so happens that the afternoon we checked into our B&B, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit and San Francisco was devastated. We decided that the Gov. Deukmejian was right in that if we could leave, we should. So we packed up and headed back to the San Francisco airport to go home. So, this trip is over 30 years in the making. 

Of course, our memories of the trip are now mostly in watercolors and details are thin on the ground (mixing metaphors is fun!). Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that while the basic structure of the town on the side of a hill is the same, much has changed over the years. 

For example, this town theater seems to have been refreshed more recently than that. These small town theaters are a real surprise along hwy 49. It seems that every town has one. Even truly tiny places like Volcano, in the mountains east of Jackson, has one. This one was so popular during the gold rush that after burning down more than once, money was raised to build a 'fireproof' one...this one. This is why it is brick with metal shutters on all windows and doors.