This past weekend we took Ella on her first road trip to an old gold rush town, Columbia. Grandpa, Ethan, and his parents came along with us. We all got into Grandpa's new
ride and headed off Saturday morning, which happened to be Grandpa's 70th!! Happy Birthday :)
Since we couldn't check in at the Motel at Columbia until mid-afternoon, we headed towards
Calervas Big Trees State Park first. After about 3 hours, we finally arrived at the park and it was well worth it!
This tree below began as a seedling in 600 AD and was cut down in the 1860s. Uncle Dominic pointed out that a new tree is now growing between the stump and the fallen trunk.
There were many other magnificent giants in this forest. This is my favorite by far, The Mother and Son. The 2 trees are connected at the bottom, but has 2 separate soaring trunks.
Here's the view from the bottom between the 2 trunks. Simply breathtaking!
We took a 1 hour+ hike through the forest and saw many more great sights. The best part is being in such a beautiful place with fragrant pine trees infusing the air. I loved it! Unfortunately, Grandpa's back starting hurting the night before and couldn't walk around as much as he would have liked to and missed some of the incredible sights...
These bright red plants were sprouting up from the drab forest floor all over.
Always love a good patch of moss and lichen.
The carvings left by tourists on this cut tree resemble codes from a Sci-fi. Could be encrytions from an ancient civilization or aliens...
On Sunday, we headed into
Columbia town and found a very pleasant surprise. It was the last day of the 16th annual
Diggins. The locals dressed up as Gold Rush settlers (all volunteers) from 1852 for 4 days and reenact daily lives of the first Gold Rush tent town settlers. We had a BALL! We had to buy everything with "eagles," or coins from back in the day since paper money didn't exist. We were greeted by Marvin, an old chatty carpenter, who told many stories with many tangents... We talked to many of the tent town settlers and they would give us a very realistic glimpse of what it was like in 1852, and it really felt like we traveled back in time.
The little boy here was stringing beans to dry for the winter while the girls were churning butter.
Another lady was weaving lace by hand. It took her 3 days to finish about 6 inches!
This was her tent, which can easily make a magazine page.
This fella here was teaching us all about panning for gold. It was tough work for sure!
We spent the morning at the Diggins and went into town after a little rest and snacks. Ethan did a little gold panning himself and found 5 little bits of gold along with some gems, which made his day, and it only cost his parents $12. Good bargain!
I was shopping for a bonnet for Ella and found a super cute one at our favorite store in town,
The Farmer's Friend, which sold gardening and gardening related products. I was very disappointed because the baby bonnet I loved was too small for Ella's big head. Now I have to find a pattern online. Stayed tuned for that project! I did walk away with some beautiful wrapping paper, so it was all good.
Finally around 2pm we sat down for some real food for the first time in the day. Ella couldn't stop high fiving everyone.
I would say her first road trip was fun for her, since she was all worn out on the ride home.
