Category Archives: informational

Streets of San Francisco

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Quick Sightseeing Trip

It’s been several years since we last visited, but our granddaughter was on a spring break from college and wanted to visit San Francisco. We made a short list of must do’s and headed to town for a couple of days.

The first place we stopped at was “the crookedest street in the USA” – Lombard Street. This famous site is a very narrow one-way one block long roadway that winds back and forth traversing a steep hill. Houses, driveways and decorative plants are on both sides of the road.
From Lombard Street we drive down another hilly part of town towards the north end of San Francisco peninsula. Notice the tracks imbedded in the roadway.
At the shoreline we reached Fisherman’s Wharf – a large tourist spot with many restaurants and gift shops. The restaurants are noted for the fresh seafood which is delivered by fishing boats docked there.
As it was lunchtime, we found a place at the wharf to enjoy one of the traditional San Francisco dishes. This is a sour bread bowl filled with clam chowder.
Here we are enjoying the bread bowl
My choice was fried calamari
This huge ferris wheel sits at Fisherman’s Wharf for those who want to have a bird’s eye view of the harbor.
This is the (in)famous Alcatraz prison sits in the harbor a few miles from Fisherman’s Wharf.
Site seeing boats are popular in this area.
From Fisherman’s Wharf, we walked a few blocks to Ghiarardelli Square. This marks the original chocolate factory of Ghiaardelli brand candy.
Since then it’s been converted into a mini shopping mall with craft shops, food emporiums, souvenir outlets and restaurants.
There’s plenty of chocolates at one of their shops.
Even more candy for those with “sweet tooths”
From Fisherman’s Wharf, we walk another few blocks to the Hyde Street station. This is the location of the start of one of San Francisco’s famous cable car lines. The very steep hills of the city was the impetus for developing this means of transportation where underground cables “pulled” the trollys up the inclines. The city has two cable car lines. We rode one of them.

To right right is the gripman who “connects” the trolly to the cable and very importantly applies the brakes when going downhill.
This is the gripman who is taking us to San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Stepping off the cable car it’s a short walk to Chinatown. San Francisco’s Chinatown is one of the largest in the USA.
Chinatown has dozens of groceries selling fresh produce and supplied.
Of course we had to have a quick meal of wonton soup from one of the local restaurants.
A visit to San Francisco isn’t complete unless you include the famous Golden Gate Bridge.

While two days isn’t a lot of time to spend in San Francisco, our granddaughter throughly enjoyed seeing a few of the city’s sites.

Afternoon in Virginia City

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Around Town

This “western” style town is a short thirty minute drive from downtown Reno.

A very winding road takes you about 1500 feet above Reno where you’ll have a view of the attractive high plains landscape.

Then you’ll immediately see the town’s historical likeness to a mining town of the past.

One of the first sites you’ll see is the tall, picturesque St Mary in the Mountains Church.

The town maintains the look of the 1800s having storefronts with wooden sidewalks.

There are plenty of shops lining the narrow streets in town.
Inside candy is sold the “old” way from these barrels.
… and they have plenty of souvenirs available that date from earlier decades
Collectors will find plenty of items that might appeal to their liking
We stopped for lunch at one of the many local restaurants – this one with a very interesting name.
And our favorite BBQ was on the menu,
And of course there was time for a little humor remembering the early days of law and order in the old west.
My son often visits this shop for beef jerky. Watch out for fire!

The town was founded in the 1850’s as a mining town because of the discovery of gold and silver known as the Comstock Lode. By the late 1800s the output of the mines fell of and the large population declined.

Some of the older readers may remember a western television program from the 1960s and 1970s called Bonanza. The Cartwright Family owed the fictitious Ponderosa Ranch located near Virginia City.

If you’re in the Reno area, take a ride to see the charm of an old western town.

Mercury

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Places that you may have never heard of

As I was driving south on US-95 from Beatty, NV back to Las Vegas I saw this sign.

The name of the place was interesting so I took the exit.

Mercury has a name that is truly unique.I spotted this sign after visiting Death Valley National Park on the highway returning to Las Vegas.

Driving a few hundred yards down the exit road, I encountered this sign.

To comply with the terms of this sign I turned my car around, got back on the highway and made my way back towards Las Vegas.

The sign had already peeked my interest so when I got back to the hotel I did a little research about this place. Here is what I learned.

It’s suspected that mercury was discovered in the surroundings in the mid 1800s and the miners used a road through the area to reach the mines, thus the name. Characterized as a wasteland it went unsettled for a hundred years. The town sits just 5 miles from Hwy US95.

In 1950 the Atomic Energy Commission decided to develop Base Camp Mercury for atomic testing. Initially the AEC built office spaces and living accommodations for employees. Soon many more employees were needed requiring additional temporary facilities including housing, storage, schools, eating , church, banking, recreational and entertainment facilities. In 1954 Base Camp Mercury became Mercury, NV.

By the early 1960s there were more than 10,000 employees in Mercury. To accommodate the workforce the AEC undertook construction of more permanent facilities. The task of the AEC was to study and develop peaceful uses for nuclear energy. These activities continued for years but by the mid-1990s the nuclear testing was discontinued. As a result the town lost most of its population. Since then most of the facilities constructed for the workers have been demolished.

Mercury continues to be part of the larger Nevada National Security Site. Its mission is to operate multiple “facilities delivering technical and service solutions in support of national security”. The NNSS is overseen by the Department of Energy.

For reference this map shows Mercury (towards bottom) in relation to other military installations in southern Nevada. You can see that the map also shows the iconic and secretive Area 51 at Groom Lake.

Credit for this map:

By Finlay McWalter – USGS Topo mapsGIS data in NASA World WindNationalAtlasDreamland resortGroom Lake Desert RatGlenn CampbellFAA Aeronautical chartWikipedia maps of Nevada and the western USANevada DOT air transportation map The following will be corrected in a future version of this map:Indian Springs Air Force Auxilliary Field was renamed Creech Air Force Base in 2005The designation for Nevada State Route 374 should be drawn on the Nevada side of the border. The road’s equivalent on the California side, Daylight Pass Road, is unnumbered., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=310530

Other References:

Mercury, Nevada Wikipedia

NNSS – Nevada National Security Site

Still Interested?

Here are a few more places that you may never have heard of –

Argenta, Nevada
Aragonite, Utah
Dunphy, Nevada
Jackpot, Nevada
Rhyolite, Nevada
Vedauwoo, Wyoming
Wamsutter, Wyoming

Written by:

Arnie Lee