To Virginia City and back again...

I kept bugging Clay about what he wanted to do for his thirtieth birthday and he finally told me- a trip up to the mill in Virginia City.
The quick back story is that Clay's dad bought an old mining mill (The Crown Point Mill) in Virginia City, Nevada a couple of months ago. He and Clay have fallen in love with the old building.
We left Thursday evening around 8pm and arrived to our hotel (The Atlantis) in Reno around midnight. Cash slept most of the way and then woke up when we unloaded. Unfortunately he didn't go back to sleep for another two hours from the excitement of exploring the hotel room. The next morning Clay took us to his favorite bakery where I relented my "no sweets" diet for some tasty goodies. We headed up to Goldsprings Mining company for a meeting where I took pictures of Cash next to a bulldozer and he gleefully collected rocks (something he loves to do at the grandparents as well- in fact every time he picks up a rock to show to Opa or Pop Pop).
There were little flurries of snow and Cash got pretty cold in spite of the jacket and layers. His favorite place to be the entire trip was in the front seat of the car.

Afterward we headed to the mill for a tour a la Clay. It really is an incredible building. From the outside you can't see how vast it is since it's set into the hillside. I had a hay day taking pictures and attempting to be artistic.







Two different lighting settings...



Just before we left we showed the mill to Jay and his friends and David and Lucas. Here they are imitating an old timey picture.Our second day in Virginia City we went on a tour of a mine that starts in what used to be a bank on Main Street.
Here's me waxing artistic again.
It was soooo cold. My feet were frozen the entire time we were there. Clay plucked an icicle for Cash to play with.
And we pet the sweet woof-woof outside Piper's Opera House.
Cash has suddenly noticed all these mechanical riding toys. Rudy was his first find of the day.

The car was his second. In fact, he kept whining and we couldn't figure what for and finally realized he was trying to get us to let him ride the car. We just hadn't seen it. 50 cents well spent.


We arrived home last night at what would have been 1am but due to daylight savings was 2am. Just in time for me to prepare my lesson for church in the morning. Tomorrow is my sweethearts actual birthday. One of the gifts I'm giving him is a car wash and detailing the inside. It needs it after the off roading we did on the trip.