On May 16th, the AMGEN tour of California will start in Nevada City, and roll through downtown Grass Valley before heading out past Alta Sierra on the way to Auburn and Sacramento.
Nevada City will also see the 50th running of the Nevada City Classic cycle race in 2010. In 2009 the race was won by none other than Tour Def France winner Lance Armstrong!
The 27th Annual Sierra Festival of the Arts takes place on Sunday May24th in Grass Valley, California. From 10am to 5pm on Mill Street there will be fine arts and crafts on display, tasty food, live entertainment, and special booths for children.
Driving around Grass Valley and Nevada City a few days ago I could not help but feel that the building outline lights in downtown Nevada City were so much brighter and more festive than those in Grass Valley, which seemed dim and uninspired in comparison. I’d first noticed this during the Cornish Christmas evenings but it was really apparent the other night when things were a little quieter in the streets. Is it just me?
The NOAA weather site says “yes” with an 80% chance of precipitation in Grass Valley on Christmas Day. Their winter weather advisory states:
ANOTHER COLDER SYSTEM WILL THEN MOVE ACROSS THE REGION CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY…WITH SNOW LEVELS FALLING TO BETWEEN 1500 AND 2000 FEET ON CHRISTMAS DAY.
The day after Thanksgiving saw good crowds at Cornish Christmas in Grass Valley on a clear night with the temperatures in the low 40s F. While it felt busy, Mill Street felt like it had fewer stalls than usual this year, with a cluster down near the Del Oro and another cluster near Main Street, but isolated stalls in between. If this is the case then hopefully the good crowd tonight will bring more stall holders out for the remaining evenings before Christmas.
As always we frequented the Frontier Angel handmade soap stall and purchased a good number of soaps to send out as presents. Feedback on the soaps is always good from friends and family so why mess with a winning formula? We also enjoyed the bright lights of the stalls in Main Street and some of the Christmas window displays, the one at Foothill Flowers being particularly bright and welcoming.
If we’d not just enjoyed Turkey Dinner 2, then we’d have probably been tempted by some of the good smelling food on offer from a number of the stalls, and braved the line for the chestnuts too. Good to see some of our local shops packed out with people too, although navigating with a stroller in Tess’ Kitchen Store is not to be recommended when the store is packed out! I declined to enter Yuba Blue as it was even busier than Tess’. Good.