1/23/2008

5/5 stars

I was kicking myself for not stopping at one of the little towns on the way through the mountains. I had the horrible feeling that I'd end up getting lousy coffee at some damned strip mall. Instead, we turned into Auburn. The old downtown is gorgeous. And the coffee was really good. I asked for a macchiato and received a very nice surprise. The espresso was well-extracted even though the poor lady was working double-duty as barista as well as greater for the pizza place.

Definitely scan the photos. Arrange for a restroom trip even if you don't need one just to look at more pictures. Wish we were hungry; it would have been nice to try the pizza.

Yelp tags: Coffee & Tea

1/23/2008

4/5 stars

Ok, my criteria here are kinda odd. This lodge hosted the 37th California Hawking Club meet. The event involves many animals, people with manners only slightly better than the birds, prey being fed to the birds, etc. The lodge staff was beyond wonderful. They even went so far as to create lunch specials just for the CHC. My wife and I aren't gamblers, so we can't speak towards the casino quality, but the staff and locale are GREAT! We didn't try the high-end restaurant, but the coffee shop was good and the service was excellent at all hours. And the staff was unfazed when the conversations veered towards game and what happened to it. Gotta try fishing in the stocked lake sometime; it's beautiful.

Try to get a room in the middle building. It seems much newer and nicer than the first or third building. Those rooms are a bit dated. And people accustomed to business hotels needn't worry if some amenities aren't in the room (an iron and ironing board for us); the staff will bring things up quickly.

If you're there for falconry during the snowy season, remember that most game will cluster towards the homes and worked fields and not the pure brush areas. But there's still a little game (at least a few rabbits) in the outlying brush. (Caveat: My wife's the falconer. I just cook whatever isn't useful for the bird.)

Also, there are two other Yelp listings for the same place. Search for "topaz lodge" in "gardnerville, ca", even though it's a bit south of Gardnerville.

Yelp tags: Hotels Bars Music Venues Casinos Campgrounds Gas & Service Stations

1/24/2008

5/5 stars

This gallery features local art and artisanal works. Most are not eternal masterpieces, but both I and my wife were shocked at the quality of most pieces. The works were not fundamentally shocking or unconventional, but they were very well executed. Maybe I'm jaded, but I don't think of the local, kinda small-town showcase as having to many excellent works. There were many very good sculpture pieces priced far, far under what they were worth. The paintings were good. Some technically were very good, but my tastes run towards the less conventional. Very good photographs as well.

I was cursing myself for still being a pathetically poor student. Many excellent pieces of different forms were UNDERPRICED but not cheap. There was one bird bath in particular that was at least 50% below what its price should have been in a more metropolitan area.

There are more artists listed at the web site (http://www.auburnoldto…) than I remember. Again, this is a local gallery. Don't expect every piece to be world-shattering. But we encountered some shocklingly excellent pieces on our visit . The physical pieces were the best by my feeling, but that's easy to say without the artists present. Definitely worth a stop if you're travelling between NV and CA on I-80.

Yelp tags: Art Galleries