The inaugural Nevada City Adult Soapbox Derby was held today as a fundraiser for Pioneer Park in Nevada City. Forty two individual creations were raced, three at a time, down Nimrod Street as a fun, environmentally friendly community event. Many local businesses entered the race including: BYOB, Mountain Recreation, Empire Fence, Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, South […]
Tour of Nevada City Bicycle Shop sponsors about half a dozen bike rides during the week, ranging from easy 10 miles to hard riding, fast paced 60 mile rides. This week the group ride was from Colfax to Drum Power House and back, a 36 mile ride with 3700 feet in elevation. The ride started at Rollins Lake, rode through […]
Looking for a cup of coffee in Nevada City? While we don’t have a Starbucks, there are a number of locally owned options within the downtown area. Cafe Mekka on Commerical Street, next to the new Pete’s Pizza, has a great ambiance. Stop by for a fabulous cup of coffee, or check your email in […]
New Moon Cafe is rated as one of the best restaurants in the Sierra Foothills and there’s a good reason for it. For 13 years Peter Selaya and Buzz Crouch have combined their top notch skills (as head chef and maitre d) to provide fine dining in downtown Nevada City. The mouth watering food, made […]
Mountain Pastimes, located on Spring Street in downtown Nevada City, has been selling toys, magic tricks and puzzles for 22 years. There’s something for everyone, with toys for toddlers, games for kids age 6 and up and magic tricks for the ageless magician. Stop by in the afternoons or on weekends and see the magicians work their magic, they’ve […]
Nevada County has a rich diversity in local farms, Nevada County Grow offers a complete Farm Guide online. I figured I’d start my farm tour with Mountain Bounty Farm, as the Outside Inn has been the CSA Nevada City pick up location for the fruit and veggie shares for several years. John Tecklin, owner of […]
The Deer Creek Tribute Trail a joint effort by a number of fabulous local non-profits (Sierra Fund, Nevada County Land Trust, American Rivers & Sierra Streams Institute (formally Friends of Deer Creek) is having a kick off party for National Trails Day to celebrate all the hard work. The trail, which I wrote about earlier […]
Bill Gruesz left his home in Redmond, Oregon 9 days ago and is en route to the Mexico border, on bike. The Outside Inn is just one of the many pit stops on his solo journey. Riding his Cycle Genuis recumbant bike he’s got it all decked out, complete with a US mailbox for food […]
The annual Sierra Vintners Wine Trail is taking place this weekend throughout Nevada County and if you missed today’s festivities there’s still time tomorrow to visit one of the 15 different venues. In the name of research my trusty wine tasting companion and I managed to make it to 6 different wineries. Each venue is […]
Inspired by the Amgen Tour of California starting in Nevada City, Wanda Shiotsuka and Evans Phelps set off on one of the local bikers favorite rides commonly known as the South County Loop. Starting at the Outside Inn it is a beautiful 60 miles ride with nearly 5000 feet of vertical gain that winds through vineyards, horse country, and oddities […]
This past weekend was the 18th annual Garden Tour of Nevada County, presented by the Soroptimist International Society of the Sierra Foothills. It is always a treat to be able to visit amazing private spaces throughout the county. The amount of work put into these gardens was amazing, some we envied, some we chuckled at, but all of them […]
This time of year all hikers and bikers should be aware of the poison oak that flourishes on our trails. Poison oak does not grow above 4000 feet, but Nevada City’s vast network of outdoor adventures are mainly below that elevation, so it’s worthwhile to brush up on poison oak 101 before heading out for a […]
178 of the world’s best cyclists representing 18 teams from around the world kicked off the Tour of California in Nevada City today at 12:25. The organizers of the Amgen Tour of California announced a drastic modification to the start of stage two due to the winter weather and icy road conditions in Tahoe. This decision […]
If you’re in the Nevada City and Grass Valley area you’ve got a lot of options for buying books, both new and used. We recently stopped by BookTown Books & Tomes in downtown Grass Valley and we unable to leave empty handed. The large and spacious co-operative of independent booksellers is any book lovers’s heaven. […]
Grass Valley Grains is a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for grains. Reed Hamilton’s one man farming operation mills wheat, oats, rye, barley, dry beans, and flour corn. His monthly pick-ups could include any flour, cornmeal, polenta, ground oatmeal, cracked grain, or baking mixes. His products can be found in a number of local restaurants, including Ike’s Quarter […]
Because Nevada City sits at the edge of the Tahoe National Forest, our area excels as a mountaiin mike mecca with trails that wind up and down our river canyons and around our mountain ridges. Local enthusiasts like BONC (Bicyclists of Nevada County) and Forest Trails Alliance spend many volunteer weekends expanding and improving the existing trails. Pictured here is Dieter […]
The Outside Inn has been a part of the California Green Lodging Program since 2009, and we’ve done a lot of small things to make a difference for the environment, from recycling to line drying our linens in the warmer months. We also use soap dispensers in all of our rooms with fabulous eco-friendly products. We […]
Nevada County offers a lot of great local wines and if you’re in the area one of the fun activities is to sample some of the amazing wines. The first stop on our walking tour of Nevada City tasting rooms was Indian Springs Vineyards, located on Broad Street in the heart of Nevada City. Next up […]
There are a lot of great places in Nevada City to eat, I’ve already blogged about South Pine Cafe and Ike’s, but this morning while out for an early breakfast out we stopped in at Nevada City Classic Cafe on Broad Street. I tried some of Geneieve’s crepes, sauteed onions, red bell pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach […]
This is the time of year we begin to see brightly colored boats on top of trucks and vans driving in and out of our river canyons. These intrepid kayakers come from all over the western United States to challenge themselves on our world class whiewater rivers. Within an hour’s drive of Nevada City we […]
These amazing truffles arrived at my desk at the Outside Inn with an informational sheet about the DeGroot Truffle selection at the Truffle Shop in downtown Nevada City. Folks, I think my blogging project is finally starting to pay off! I took my trusty helpers down to investigate further, because we don’t want to say that […]