Travel help: 15 minutes from Tahoe

Going to Reno for a week. My mom's got an old lady softball tournament.

Beyond driving around Lake Tahoe and visiting every newsroom within a 15-minute drive (all of 'em), what should I do?

Not a drinker. Not a gambler. What are the other options?

 

There are some pretty good basque restaurants in Reno. The one I've been to the most often is Louie's Basque Corner - if you've never eaten at a Basque restaurant, it's definitely worth going to.

If you go through Truckee on your way in/out, you have to stop by a bakery called The Treat Box. It's one of the best bakeries I've been to (we get their cakes for my daughter's birthday party in Tahoe every summer) and it's tucked into a strip mall with a 7-11 and a decent Mexican place.

If you like science, you should check out the UNR Planetarium. They put on some pretty cool shows and it's a decent way to burn through an hour or two.

What else would you be interested in? Sightseeing? Shopping? Outdoors stuff? There's always plenty of bowling available...

 

If you are an outdoorsy type at all, the Truckee River runs right through downtown Reno and has kayak rentals and guided and unguided tours. Pretty easy rapids. And if you don't want to do that, pretty easy to spend an afternoon with your shoes off soaking your feet in the river and drinking beer.

A lot of the resorts (Northstar for sure, and is probably the easiest one to get to) use their chairlifts for mountain biking runs.

If I were driving anywhere, I'd head over to Truckee for a day.

--Also Patagonia has an outlet store there that my wife loves. It's out a ways, though.

 

Never too late to start!

 

Spend an afternoon in Kings Beach.

 

There are legal brothels about 45 minutes east of town ... just sayin'.

 

It's from the Basque area of Spain, up north near France where all the terrorists come from. Basically, all the food is served "family style" and you typically sit at huge picnic type tables - your party will be with other groups.

You typically start off with a lentil soup and bread and just keep getting food for about an hour straight. For example, from Louie's website:

"Meals are served in the traditional basque family style which includes soup of the day, french bread, basque beans, salad, french fries, first course, main entree, dessert, and complimentary house wine or soft drink."

The entrees are a cut of meat - usually lamb, steak or sweetbreads. Lots of garlic and simmering with the meat as well. If you get mediocre Basque it can be a letdown but Louie's is one of the best I've been to (the only other better one I've eaten at was in Bakersfield and is pretty much known as the best Basque restaurant in the US).

I can vouch for the float down the Truckee River. Of course, if you don't drink, you might not get as much out of it. And I know that the float was closed last year because the Truckee River was going too fast and it was considered to be an "unsafe" float.

Kings Beach is fun - lots of little antique type shops to choose from. If you go up the road a bit to a restaurant called the Bridgetender, you can get some pretty good steaks and other American "pub" type food at a decent price. The Mexican taco place in Kings Beach (Tacos Jalisco) is pretty good and very authentic. And you really need to check out the breakfasts at the Log Cabin - their bacon waffles are incredible.

 

Make an exception and gamble.
And drink.
And eat an awful-awful.

 

In Rhode Island, an Awful Awful is a shake. (Awful thick, awful good is where the name comes from, I think.)

 

And if you told me the name "Treat Box" was appearing on this thread, I would have bet $100 it would be in reference to this particular topic.

 

OOOPS ... beg your pardon!