Family field trip

[Dawn]

Today we decided (over the kids' kicking, screaming objections) to go to Columbia State Historic park for the day. Columbia is probably the best preserved Gold Rush town in California, and a living history site.

We managed to get out the door at 10 AM sharp, which is unusual for us. We like to sleep in, dawdle and usually manage to drag our butts out more or less noon-ish, by which time everybody is hungry. This is usually followed by the inevitable lunch break which delays us an additional hour or so, so I was quite pleased.

It was at the first traffic light that Richard realized he had forgotten his sunglasses. "Turn around and get them," I recommended, "while we're still close to home." Dead silence until about a mile later when he says, "the glare is bothering me" and does a 180. So 5 minute delay while we go home and get his sunglasses. Still not too bad.

We're about half a mile further down the road from where he did the u-turn when I realize, no camera. Usually I have a pretty good memory, but I have been playing with a lot of kryptonite lately. Anyway, I decide we've been delayed enough for one road trip, so no camera, no pictures for today. Oh well.

So we're driving down Latrobe road, the scenic part with the rolling hills and oak trees, horse ranches and farms, etc. and Richard asks the kids, "isn't this pretty?" "Oh Dad," says Dearra, "it's just a bunch of grass and trees. Besides, we're not looking, we're playing a game." Natural beauty is wasted on the young, apparently.

We get past Angel's Camp and just before Lake Melones there is a vista point. So we pull off and take in the view. That is when Dearra sees a horse fly, is startled, steps off a curb and slightly turns her ankle. We are nothing if not inventive, and since we don't have an ice pack in the car, we have her put Richard's chilled drink bottle on her ankle, and hope that it isn't anything too serious.

Not too long after that we pull into Columbia, find the closest restaurant, sit down and assess the ankle. Looks like it's not swelling up or anything so we cross our fingers and order lunch. Half an hour later, two satisfied adults, one satisfied pre-teen and two unsatisfied 8 year olds (yep, the mac and cheese was homemade with real cheddar, wrong color, wrong taste, "I don't like it" - too bad they had to eat some of it anyway lol) go and check out the town.

Columbia was founded in 1850 by prospectors. Once word got out that there was gold there, a flood of people came. The town was only prosperous for about 10 years before it entered into a decline. Many of the buildings in the town were torn down in the 1870's and 1880's. The town survived but did not prosper until 1945 when a 20 year effort to have Columbia named a state park finally succeeded.

First we visited the jail, a stone building with tiny windows. Dearra couldn't believe how small and dark it was. Then we went and looked at a collection of horse drawn wagons and coaches. After that we went gold panning. The kids collected garnets, turquoise, amethyst, some other colored stones and a few very tiny gold flakes.

After they were all tired of gold panning, we went and rode the stage coach. Somebody made a comment about robbers as a joke. Sure enough, a few minutes into the ride, we were set upon by a bandit with a pistol. We had a good old time telling him that all our jewelry was fake and that he had just missed the coach that had all the gold on it. Strangely enough he believed us, told us we were all useless and let us go.

After that we checked out all the stores, had candy, ice cream, shaved ice, cookies, etc. Then the kids went and did a little old fashioned bowling in which you have to set up the pins yourself, roll the balls back down, etc. Dearra's ankle was just fine through all of this, thank goodness.

While we were gold panning I heard somebody talking about Murphys, a town a little bit down the road and more or less on the way home. So we took the north road out of Columbia and headed to Murphys. It looked like another nice little gold rush town, not a historical one, but one with shops and wine tasting and restaurants. We parked the car, thinking we'd hit a few of the shops, walk a little and then go home.

Wrong again. The kids saw the park and wanted to play, so we sat and watch them swing, slide, climb, etc. After that we walked up to the main street and, to the chorus of "I don't want to walk", "I'm tired" and "I want to go home", we checked out the few shops that were still open. Then we found an acceptable looking restaurant which was promptly shot down by the kids who didn't like the choices on the children's menu. So we walked back towards the car, let the kids put their feet into the creek and then drove on.

We did not go to Mercer Caverns, which is just outside of Murphys, while we were there, but maybe next trip. There are four large caverns along highway 49, Black Chasm Cavern, California Cavern, Moaning Cavern and Mercer Caverns. Mercer Caverns is the only one that we haven't visited.

On the way back, we stopped at Jackson Rancheria, one of the local Indian casinos and hit the buffet. Because it's a holiday weekend, they had their seafood buffet, which is usually only on Friday and Saturday nights. And to my great surprise, NOT, the twins did not like the macaroni and cheese! lol We also determined that Dearra doesn't like crab. Oh well, more for me! :-)

On the way back we missed our turnoff and ended up taking an unplanned exploratory drive down a back road that we had only seen before from the other end. It was a really pretty drive! We should miss our turn more often. I still think it was the kryptonite, though.