Nevada City and Grass Valley, CA 11/15-19/10



Yuba River, near Nevada City, CA

This trip to Nevada City we focused on getting to know the community and the less-expensive nearby town of Grass Valley. We discovered a gem in the Sierras - a town not only beautiful and dedicated to preserving its gold-rush history and wild-west appeal, but also a leader in sustainability and spiritual and creative arts, and a friendly town. It reminds me a bit of New England, blended with the wild Sierras. Where else can you get a mix of fall foliage color with bamboo and palm trees? The weather offers a nice dose of sun with rare snow and mild summers (except in valley parts where it gets quite hot). 

We enjoyed our time in Nevada City, attending yoga and dance workshops, a sustainability seminar at APPLE (an awesome town-sponsored non-profit with a model green building and educational books and products), and the Tuesday night special lobster and steak dinner at the historic National hotel, with live piano and audience musician jamming. We even enjoyed our budget hotel the Nevada City Inn, with its quiet neighborhood and beautiful trees, across the street from a local funky cafe with great rice bowls, soup, and juice bar. We spent some time at Ananda Village, a 800-acre ashram (Paramahansa Yogananda lineage) with beautiful gardens at the Crystal Hermitage, which has a stunning view of Yuba valley; we manifested a private tour of the guru's hermitage by some residents.

We knew as soon as we arrived, when we checked out the local member-owned organic co-op and saw the bulletin board full of spiritual workshops and sacred music and cool dance and open mic gigs, that we found our kind of place. The town is also not far from engineering opportunities (for Kule) in Roseville and Sacramento. Nevada City has a vision to be part of the "solar belt" from San Francisco to Reno, including Truckee, where a lot of green building and solar engineering is leading the nation.

By the time we left we made semi-plans to come back in March to stay here for a while. Having arrived back in Eugene in Lost Valley (more to come on this blog), we are seeing opportunities here for us as well, so we shall see what happens....... It's great to have so many great options!