On July 5, a holiday Monday, we planned a full day of fun with Grandma Hippo and Grandpa Penguin. We started out at
Old Hangtown's Gold Bug Park and Mine for a trip through an old gold mine. We wore radios around our neck to hear an audio recording to better understand what it was we were seeing. It was a little hard as all the adults had to push our button simultaneously in order to try to all hear, and of course it never quite worked! The kids thought the temperature change, and the fact that REAL men had been there working a long time ago was cool... but about halfway through Lauren decided enough was enough and started worrying about how to get out. After the mine tour we took a scenic hike (they had LOTS of well marked nature trails on the property too) up to an old stamp mill. Even the small replica made so much noise that I can only imagine you could hear the full scaled version for miles when it was still in operation! Our final project at the gold mine was going to be panning - they had sluice tables set up with "gems" to find, but the kids were asking to head to the next stop, and the tables looked like giant mosquito magnets, so we decided to try that some other time! We had planned on picking up Subway sandwiches and having a picnic at our next stop - berry picking - but Mikey had an even better idea, we stopped at Lava Cap winery, bought a bottle of wine and ate our subs while drinking wine at their picnic tables overlooking their vineyard. It was beautiful! The only downside came when I wanted a picture of the kids on a lava rock and as I was explaining it apparently Ian thought I said he was going to have to sit ON LAVA... so he detonated and it took several minutes of explaining what once was hot lava was now just a hot stone! After the winery we continued on to our destination for berry picking, but where we thought would be u-pick only had pre-picked, but since it was a fudge factory we went ahead and bought some fudge and played on their wooden train. The woman at the fudge factory gave us directions to another berry farm for u-pick, Patrick's Berry Farm. Unfortunatley, everyone had the same idea earlier in the day because when we got there at noon, they had a sign up saying there would be no more berry picking for the day. Oh well! It was a full and fun day which exhausted the kids and adults alike - and we all learned something new!
On July 5, a holiday Monday, we planned a full day of fun with Grandma Hippo and Grandpa Penguin. We started out at 
Old Hangtown's Gold Bug Park and Mine for a trip through an old gold mine. We wore radios around our neck to hear an audio recording to better understand what it was we were seeing. It was a little hard as all the adults had to push our button simultaneously in order to try to all hear, and of course it never quite worked! The kids thought the temperature change, and the fact that REAL men had been there working a long time ago was cool... but about halfway through Lauren decided enough was enough and started worrying about how to get out. After the mine tour we took a scenic hike (they had LOTS of well marked nature trails on the property too) up to an old stamp mill. Even the small replica made so much noise that I can only imagine you could hear the full scaled version for miles when it was still in operation! Our final project at the gold mine was going to be panning - they had sluice tables set up with "gems" to find, but the kids were asking to head to the next stop, and the tables looked like giant mosquito magnets, so we decided to try that some other time! We had planned on picking up Subway sandwiches and having a picnic at our next stop - berry picking - but Mikey had an even better idea, we stopped at Lava Cap winery, bought a bottle of wine and ate our subs while drinking wine at their picnic tables overlooking their vineyard. It was beautiful! The only downside came when I wanted a picture of the kids on a lava rock and as I was explaining it apparently Ian thought I said he was going to have to sit ON LAVA... so he detonated and it took several minutes of explaining what once was hot lava was now just a hot stone! After the winery we continued on to our destination for berry picking, but where we thought would be u-pick only had pre-picked, but since it was a fudge factory we went ahead and bought some fudge and played on their wooden train. The woman at the fudge factory gave us directions to another berry farm for u-pick, Patrick's Berry Farm. Unfortunatley, everyone had the same idea earlier in the day because when we got there at noon, they had a sign up saying there would be no more berry picking for the day. Oh well! It was a full and fun day which exhausted the kids and adults alike - and we all learned something new!
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