Clouds over Nevada City
Susan and I bought the Emma Nevada House and moved here in May of 2005. We looked at B&B’s in Mendocino, Healdsberg, Monterey, and several other places. I would like to tell you that in the end our decision was strictly business, but that would not be the truth. We chose this place because it appeared to be a good business proposition, had a large owner’s apartment, but most of all, we absolutely fell in love with Nevada City. Also, it didn’t hurt that we were getting a beautiful Victorian with it’s own fabulous history.
It’s hard to explain how a little town of twenty eight hundred people can be such a dynamic and creative community. There are three live theater production companies, multiple sources of live music every night, a good number of wonderful and diverse restaurants, and all kinds of creative people engaged in uncountable endeavors. All this seems to stem from an odd kind of diversity. We have people whose families date back to the mining days, those that came for logging, left over hippies from the sixties, people who live at the Ananda yoga community, and recent arrivals from the SF Bay Area (like us).
Beyond all that there is something else, something that I noticed within the first couple of months we were here. You feel as if you are living in the flow of history, a tiny little side tributary to be sure, but a discreet ongoing, surviving and living flow of history. It’s true that places like San Francisco or Sacramento probably have more history, but they are so big, and the history goes in so many directions that one doesn’t necessarily have a sense of being in history. In Nevada City, the history is clear and ever present in its architecture, in the nature surrounding it, and in the minds of its caring residents.
We went down to Carmel for a 3 day trip with our friends, Judi & Bob. Our main goal was to see the Sea Horse Exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In a word it was SPECTACULAR. The displays we awesome with a variety of sea horses and their relatives. We have seen some of these while diving in Indonesia last spring, but with currents and all it’s difficult to get a good look. Seeing them at the aquarium is wonderful, because they are healthy and used to our peering eyes. There were leafy sea dragons, dragon pipefish, weedy sea dragons, ribbon pipe fish, pacific sea-horse and pot belly sea horse. Also on display at the Aquarium were Jellyfish, the egg yolk jelly was particularly interesting. For the Great White Shark enthusiasts there was one on display as well.
