We have been wanting to check out gold country for awhile now, and since our hotels.com rewards were about to expire, we decided to take the trip to start off our Spring Break! James had been excited about visiting Jamestown for weeks leading up to this trip.
Amelia was not happy at Jamestown. "Why is there no 'Ameliatown?" There were tears. But she eventually got over it. After we left...
Jamestown was such a cute little town and so fun to walk through. They have an old operating Railway there, but we didn't end up having time to do that activity.
Amelia was fascinated by the oldtime fashions in store windows. "Why is lady wearing a weasel necklace?" Good question, Amelia.
After visiting Jamestown, we checked into our hotel in Sonora. The Sonora Inn was built in 1896 and has seen several celebrities over the years, including Grace Kelley. It hasn't been updated since. But it does have a charm to it and we had a great time. Amelia loved it. She never wanted to leave the hotel. We went to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner in Sonora and watched tv before bed. Is it just me or is The Bourne trilogy ALWAYS on when we are on vacation? I'm so over Jason Bourne, guys. After we arrived, Paul informed us that the place is also haunted! And if that wasn't bad enough, he downloaded a ghost radar app. James was so scared that he took Paul's phone and deleted the app.
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| The view from the Mexican restaurant |
The next morning we got up early and headed out to Angels Camp. The American Studies major in me kinda geeked out here. Having studied Mark Twain's many works in college, it was so great to see where Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain and to understand where he got much of his inspiration from! I loved Angel's camp. The story goes that Mark Twain challenged a boastful hotel guest to prove that his frog could jump as far as he said he could. And every year since the town hosts the Jumping Frog Jubilee!
The entire downtown area is lined with the frog of fame walk like in Hollywood...only the winning frogs of every year. The kids had a blast reading the silly names and comparing the jump lengths.
Amelia and the shiniest frog in town.
We found a great park while in Angel's Camp and let the kids get some wiggles out after being in the car for so long.
James wanted to see how far his arms could reach around this redwood tree in the park.
And so little sis did it too. My cute little tree huggers.
And then James found this little plaque that says that some boy scouts planted this tree!
More Mark Twain photo ops.
And then Paul decided to just drive. On this scary road. We drove past a bunch of caverns (we wanted to go in but just weren't prepared. Flip flops and short sleeves aren't really cave appropriate). We drove through a bunch of other towns I can't remember. The kids were convinced that a tiny smart car was "chasing" us. I finally just stopped telling them that that wasn't true and let them believe it. They were strangely satisfied by this.
We ended our adventure in Columbia State Historic Park. This place was my favorite. The town has been preserved as much as possible. You can't drive cars through the park as it's reserved for stagecoaches only! The docents of the park are all dressed up in period costumes. It was so fun!
The kids got a lesson on how to pan gold and found a few little flakes! They totally think they're rich now.
You know I took my kids in here and just felt lucky that I live in a time when I can go wherever I want!
The kids were hot so we got them some ice cream. Paul was wondering what I was thinking letting them have cones...but you're only a kid once! After this, Amelia tripped and fell and skinned both of her knees pretty badly. The ice cream shop provided us with bandaids and ice. Poor girl was so sad after that and just wanted her mama to hold her.
Before we left, Paul made Amelia's wish of riding in a carriage come true. While on the stage coach ride we were stopped by a gang of thieves! We were told to "stick 'em up" and Amelia kept her arms raised while the gun-toting, bandana-masked bandits made their way through the stagecoach. It didn't occur to me that she might think this was a real thing! So I whispered to her that he was just joking. Her eyes were so wide and she lowered her arms. Later she told us that she totally fell for it and thought we were being robbed and was trying to be brave!
It was such a great trip and so fun to check another place off of our bucket list!
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