A couple of weekends ago, Jerri and the kids were headed south from Sacramento back to Altadena, and we managed to hook up for a much needed breakfast with friends. We had some good food and got caught up on all the important stuff (field trips, projects, video games, school selection, remodeling projects, internet balloons, etc.). I snapped a couple of shots of the kids.
Even though we had no good answer to Charlie’s question, “Why can’t they just come home with us?” we said our goodbyes. Our plan for the rest of the day was to continue driving east toward Mariposa to try our hand at rockhounding. As Finn would say, “It’s like mining.” It was a longer drive than I anticipated, but the countryside is lovely and there wasn’t any traffic so it was quite pleasant. Our first stop was Coulterville, which was in the guidebook as having good samples of mariposite. The guidebook was correct, and we set off with some tools to try to chip away at some by the side of the road.
After a little while (and not much success — it’s really hard!) we moved to the other side of the road. It was much prettier because of the stream running through, and there were good samples of mariposite.
They managed to collect quite a bit.
Finn liked washing duty.
After we’d collected all the rocks that would fit in the car, we took a quick look around Coulterville, a gold rush town that looks like not much has changed since 1850.
Unfortunately the museum was closed, but Finn did have some fun with the mining cart out front.
We then decided we’d drive the 45 minutes over to Mariposa since we were already so far east (nearly to Yosemite!). Along the drive we stopped a couple of times. First was to do some additional rockhounding, this time the rock was serpentine. I have no pictures from this stop because I was so tired I took a nap while the boys mined.
Our next pit stop yielded this gorgeous view.
I am always astounded at just how beautiful California is.
Mariposa has a museum that the guidebook said was great, but sadly we didn’t make it before closing time. So, we just ate dinner at a local burger joint and headed back home. The sky was so spectacular on the drive home that I made Bruce take a picture. Through-the-windshield shots are never very good, but you get the idea.
It turned out to be a very long day — we got home after 8:00 pm — but a fun adventure.