Columbia State Historic Park

Columbia State Historic Park was my home base while on this vacation. I stayed at the Columbia Inn which was right in the park. The park is really cute, with all of the old time shops, museums, saloons, and jail. I went to the saloon and had a sarsaparilla float. It was okay, not the greatest. Those things are delicious independently. I'll stick with root beer floats in the future.

Snow!

You might not think it's a big deal to get excited about snow. But this was the very first time in my life that I had ever seen it in person. (Bear-son?) I have seen it on mountain tops from many miles away. But I was able to actually walk in it and form a snowball! Mind, it was in the mid 60's and I was in short sleeves, so nowhere near winter weather. It was melting, parts of the park were rushes of melting snow. But I did find enough parts where I could actually touch it, walk across it, and just admire it. This was at Calaveras Big Trees Park. They had some animals on display that at first I thought were real. They had been at once, which is why I thought they were real. The name of this park is fitting because many of the trees are, in fact, big.

One of these days I hope to actually be in real snow, when snow is falling, and the temperature is freezing, and people are sledding, and it is a winter wonderland. Until then, I will have the memory of just seeing and touching it when it's been sitting on the ground.

I did it!

I went ziplining, down the 1500 foot line. It was amazing! I went twice. The scariest part was ascending the rope bridge to the launch tower. Once I was buckled and launched, I felt amazing! I did it again. I also went down into Moaning Cavern. That was the firt and last time I will ever go spelunking. But I did it.

Beautiful

Highway 49 in Tuolumne County. California is BEAUTIFUL.

Jamestown Railtown

Jamestown, California: Railotown State Historic Park. Here is where they have a lot of old trains. They filmed parts of Back to the Future 3 here. I stopped at this park on my way to a weekend getaway of ziplining, rapelling, and exploring Gold Country.

Happy Easter!

I hope you had lots of chocolate and jelly beans!

Monterey Bay

Monterey is a place where you can spend a whole day exploring and still have more to see and do. In addition to the world famous aquarium and beautiful beaches, there are also museums, the Cannery, and Fisherman's Wharf. The museum at the Monterey State Historic Park has some great information about bears that used to roam the area. There are a couple of pirate themed gift shops at the Cannery and on the wharf.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I enjoy visiting aquariums. There is a great one in Monterey. The bay is beautiful, the sun is often shining, and the atmosphere is relaxing. This is one of the better aquariums I have visited. There are some great exhibits for children, or in my case, teddy bears.

I alked around for a couple of hours and I as ready for a lunch break. Their cafe had shrimp salads, tuna sandwiches, and filets of fish. Am I the only one who thinks this is morbid? I mean, here they are, showing off these beautiful creatures and talking about preserving the ocean and animals, and they go and SERVE them? It just seems so bizarre. Like, "Ooh, look at that fish, it's so pretty. Now I'm craving a tuna sandwich." I don't know. I had a grilled vegetable sandwich.