You Know... When

* You know a family Wii tournament has gone on too long when you have to pass around the Ben-Gay.

* You know it's been too long since you cleaned out your fridge when it seems more like cleaning up after science class experiments gone wrong.

* You know it's truly a girl movie when there's a joke about laughing so hard it makes you pee.

Virginia City, Baby!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I'm a dork. I love Bonanza... yes, the corny western that ran a bazillion years ago and is today remembered mostly by dudes old enough to be my grandfather. This weird obsession started several years ago, and I've come to terms with it.

This is the Bonanza title screen... thanks, wiki!


SO... last weekend when we were in the Reno area for a friend's wedding, we took advantage of the opportunity to go visit Viriginia City... the town nearest the fictional Ponderosa Ranch, home of the fictional Cartwrights in Bonanza. Okay, well, to be truthful, I took advantage of the opportunity and my highly-entertained hubby humored me.

All of this to say, here are pictures of our visit to Virginia City!

I didn't know this...

It was super-cold for this little Californian (it was in the upper 40s)...

but I was in Virginia City!!!

Kitschy, but I appreciate the sentiment. :)

Eating a carmel apple at Red's - this was highly recommended by my friend the bride, and rightly so.

The Ponderosa Saloon - more homage to Bonanza.

This was the old schoolhouse - has been updated and now serves as a museum. Obviously, this was through the car windows.

St. Paul's (Episcopal, I think)

The Chapin House has an interesting history... built in 1862, was untouched by the big-gigocious 1875 fire, thus allowing it to be used for triage for victims of said fire. It went on to serve as a boarding house... and now it can be yours! (BTW, the cars in the pic are *shockingly* not part of the real estate offer :) ...they're parked on the street right in front of the house.)

I'm not sure which building this was, but I was struck by the juxtaposition of the new bottles in the street-level (top) window and the old bottles in the bottom window...

And so concludes this edition of my travel updates. :)