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Thanks,

Broad Street Inn

This past weekend, we went to the Green Life Eco Fest. We had a great time. Many local merchants and businesses were there to offer their information. The A.P.P.L.E. Center for Sustainable Living was there as well as Reinette Senum, a local who is very involved in the community, who shared her new portable shelter for the homeless. The local co-op, Briar Patch, attended and displayed the healthy food they provide in their grocery store. There was plenty to eat at the festival. A family-owned frozen yogurt business, Yotasia, was selling a few of their frozen yogurt treats. Each of Yotasia’s flavors are hand-crafted and homemade with no added sugars or artificial sweeteners. Each of their locations is on a college campus in the dining halls. We had a great time meeting other “green” businesses and getting new ideas on what we can do to be more eco-friendly.

Nevada City was proud to announce this morning that the city would be hosting the beginning of the Amgen Tour of California. It was supposed to start in Tahoe yesterday, but once it starting snowing, they didn’t want the cyclists riding in snow and possibly ice. Jeff Pelline, from FoodWineArt magazine wrote an article on his blog this morning with more information on the race. For more pictures from downtown of Amgen, pictures are posted on our Flickr. 

Do you love cars and wine? Join the Sierra Sports Car Group for the Foreign Car Show and Wine Stroll coming up on June 4. It’s from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in downtown Nevada City, just a short walk from Broad Street Inn! 

Yesterday, we made a trip up to Ananda, which they describe as, “A cooperative spiritual community dedicated to the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, founded by his direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda.” Each year, they plant thousands of tulips and other flowers in their Crystal Hermitage Gardens. The flowers are stunning and are a great place to take Mom for Mother’s Day! We spent about an hour just looking at all the different types of tulips. I took tons of pictures, which are available on Flickr. There is no cost to see the flowers, but a donation box is available. The gardens are available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and are open for anyone to see. If you need a map of Ananda, click here.

A new store opened in downtown Nevada City this past weekend called Abstrakt. Roi Lynn Arnold and her daughter Lize Hottegindre have been working hard the past few months to put together a store of fresh and trendy clothing, plus the all the accessories (belts, purses, jewelry, scarves, etc.) to make an outfit complete. After spending quite some time in their shop, I couldn’t leave without one of the many cute things I found. The prices were very reasonable and the clothing is excellent quality. They also carry a wide variety of gifts and home goods. From the start, they aimed at providing only American-made clothing. They found it a little challenging to keep the prices affordable on merchandise made in the U.S. but still try their hardest. They also own another store, Contrast, which carries jewelry and other accessories from the U.S., France, Israel, and other countries. Contrast is located at 234 Commercial Street with the outlet store across the street. Abstrakt is located next door to Gray Goose at 228 Broad Street. For more information, click here. The pictures were taken by Lize Hottegindre and more are available on her site. 

On Thursday, we (Valerie and Sydney) left for San Francisco to attend a TripAdvisor conference. While we were gone, Steve ran the inn. While at the conference, we learned all about what we can do to make our TripAdvisor experience better. Statistics say TripAdvisor is the most popular. What do you use when you are looking for a place to stay?