Tahoe For The Day

We have been seeing new sights as we have never been to this part of California before.  We are staying about 70 miles from Lake Tahoe so today we traveled there for the day.

I found a circle drive map on the internet with places of interest marked.  It is 72 miles around the lake.

We arrived at our first stop a little before 11:00.

Lake Tahoe was a popular destination for the rich between 1890 and 1920 with many building homes and others building magnificent hotels on the lake.  Tallac Historic Site features three historic homes on beautiful Lake Tahoe.

As we walked down to the lake, we couldn't believe the spectacular blue of the water.

Jim had to try out the water and it was cold.

We walked through the garden gate as we approached the historic homes.

We thought these plants were really neat.  They are Snow Plants.  The sign said they are a rare plant that contains no chlorophyll.  They grow like a mushroom.  If they are picked, they will die.

 This is the Pope House.  On the weekends, it is open for tours, but it wasn't open today.

They certainly had a great view!

This was a guest house.  We loved the wood detail on the top.

Here's a view of the inside.

We came to the boat house for the Popes.

Inside there is still an old wooden boat.

This is the Valhalla House which is used for events.

As we were walking around, we caught a glimpse of this paddlewheeler on the lake.  I zoomed in as far as I could to get a better picture.

We continued exploring the grounds and admiring the views.

Next, we took the 

walking trail.

The trail wound around passing by crystal clear ponds

and even a grove of aspen trees.

We came to the Stream Profile Chamber which was kind of neat.  You walk in through a tunnel that goes underground where you are level with the bottom of the stream.

We wound our way back to the car and continued on around the lake.

Our next stop was Inspiration Point where you get a magnificent view of the lake.

This is the only island that is in the lake.

The blue was unbelievable.

We continued on making this view our last stop before leaving Lake Tahoe.  In the distance, were snow covered mountains.

This is another place we would love to come back to spend more time.  There are great bike paths all over and we really enjoyed the 64 degrees temperature.

Lake Tahoe is definitely a beautiful place!

Sacramento For The Day

We made the drive (40 miles) today to Sacramento to visit the

It was number 1 on the attraction list for Sacramento on Trip Adviser and Jim had talked to someone at the park where we are staying that told us not to miss it.

We bought our tickets and made our way into the theater for an overview of the impact of the train on California's history.  It was a great overview for what we were about to see.  As soon as the movie was over, a tour began with a very energetic docent who led us to key parts of the museum explaining more history.  It was a wonderful tour.  We were then left to wander around on our own.

This place is gigantic when you think of all of the full size train cars and engines inside.

There are even cars that you can walk through.  This was the mail car.

We also went through a dining car. Each table had a different set of dishes from railroad lines who each had their own pattern of dishes.

Upstairs were the toy trains and a Thomas the Train play area.

Finally, there was a section of wood carved train exhibits.

The workmanship and details were superb.

The train museum was excellent and we certainly recommend a visit.

The train museum is located in Old Sacramento which is now a State Historic Park.

Almost next door to the train museum was The Big Four Building.  The Huntington Hopkins Hardware store in the middle was begun by Collis P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins.  They did not realize when they began that just a few years later they would be part of the transcontinental railroad.

Business concerns throughout California relied on Huntington, Hopkins & Company Hardware for mining equipment, construction and dredging machinery, and blasting powder.  Farmers knew they could order stones for milling grain and all kinds of plows through the store.  Lumber companies could procure axes and adzes, cross-cut saws, and huge band saw blades.  The firm also supplied typical hardware needs to a variety of consumers in Sacramento and elsewhere in the Golden State, even some in the territory that would eventually become Nevada.  Its catalogs were amazingly complete for the time.

Today, you can still go inside and purchase items.

There is also an exhibit of many of the hinges and tools sold.

As we were strolling down the street, we ventured in to one of the many candy stores.  It was truly a candy lover's delight.  You were even invited to sample some of the candy in the baskets.

Next stop was a boat ride on the Hornblower.  Luckily we had made reservations a few days before for this as they were all sold out for Father's Day.

We waited a few minutes before we could board and headed on up to the top deck.

We started our little cruise passing the Delta King, a paddlewheel steamboat that carried passengers from Sacramento to San Francisco on ten hour trips.  Today, it is a restaurant.

We passed more buildings on the riverfront.

We passed the junction where the American River feeds into the Sacramento River.  It was interesting that the American River is the one color (the darker blue) and the Sacramento River is another color.

 On our way back we went under Tower Bridge which is a vertical lift bridge opened in 1935.  It was interesting watching boats as they went through and the bridge would rise straight up in the middle instead of opening like a draw bridge.

We had a wonderful day exploring Sacramento.  We were hoping to go to the capitol building,  but time ran out.  I guess we will have to go back so we can see it. :)

Moving On

We spent Monday just getting packed up and moving to our next destination.  One of the great things about fulltiming is meeting new people.  Monday evening we visited with Michelle and Matt (LuxeLandYacht.com) for a couple of hours.  They are on their full time journey in an Airstream.  They are a neat couple and we're hoping to visit with them again when we will both be at Morgan Hill in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday, we left the park about 9:00.  We were only going about 150 miles, but we had to tackle going downhill Priest Grade and then the curvy road of Highway 49.  We both went slowly down Priest Grade in second gear.  It took about 30 minutes, but we did it successfully without me getting sick. :)

Next, we headed down Highway 49 which goes through the mining towns built after gold was discovered.  We followed our GPS and sometimes you're just not sure if it knows where it's going.  Before we reached our destination, Jim came over the radio saying he needed diesel.  Now there are not many gas stations on this road, let alone any big enough that he could pull into with the rig.  We continued on and made it to Ponderosa RV Resort without running out of diesel.

We're in Lotus, California on the South Fork of the American River.  We're only a mile from the original Sutter's Mill and Friday we made a visit to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park.

This is an authentic reproduction of the original Sutter's Mill made from original plans.  It has been moved up farther from the river to keep it from being destroyed in floods.

This is the part of the river where it all began.  James W. Marshall discovered gold in 1848 when he found shining flecks of gold in the tailrace of the sawmill he was building for John Sutter.  This discovery chaged the course of California's and the nation's history leading to the greatest mass movement of people in the western hemisphere.

There is a museum on site which documents the discovery.

This is the Wah Hop store, one of two remaining original Chinese stores.

Inside is an exhibit of a typical Chinese store during the gold rush days.

There was a blacksmith shop

with working blacksmiths.

We walked through the park passing the St. John's Catholic Church.

This was James Marshall's house.

Looking inside, we were surprised with the rooms.  There were two bedrooms downstairs and stairs leading to a loft upstairs.

There was also a living area.

We continued our 1/2 mile hike up the hill to reach the memorial to James Marshall.  The man who first discovered the gold died penniless.  The people in Coloma felt there needed to be a memorial to him and in 1886 placed this monument in his honor.  He is displayed with a gold nugget in one hand and the other hand is pointing to where gold was discovered.

That's the view below, the mill is the little brown building in the middle.

On our way back down, we saw a large magnolia tree full of flowers in full bloom.

Another great day of history!