Kayaking The American River

We are staying at a Thousand Trails park in a little town called Lotus and the biggest business here seems to be the river rafting companies.  Thursday, we decided to take our Sea Eagle kayak to check out the American River.

We are able to launch here at the park and there is a public takeout/launch site about 5 miles down the river.  We took my car down to the takeout site, then took the kayak to the river at the park.  I waited with the kayak while Jim took the pickup back to our site and walked back.

It was a warm day, but I sure was hoping we would not get dumped out of the kayak as the water is a chilly 57 degrees.

There were lots of rafting parties coming down the river so we followed one of them to give us a feel of the direction we should be paddling at the different bends.

We had a leisurely paddle down the river.  The water was flowing swift enough that we really only had to paddle to keep or change directions.  You can see by the dead grass on the mountains how much this  area needs rain.

This was our last rapids before we got to our takeout point.  It doesn't look like much in the picture, but when we hit that middle white section, we both got soaked.

We made it safely and quickly (the whole trip down only took a little over an hour) down the river.  Our biggest problem was maneuvering around all the rafting parties.

We had taken our lunch with us down the river, but when we finished so quickly, we just took it back to the rv to eat.

It was early afternoon, so we decided to head into Placerville to check it out.

We went to this building to check out the little museum inside.  There were two ladies inside who were extremely knowledgeable about the area and told us a lot about the early gold rush history here.

The El Dorado Historical Society is housed in this building, the oldest in Placerville.  It was built with with brick walls more than two feet thick and was the only building left after the fire of 1857.

We were shown a picture with miners going through the town and were told miners would pretty much dig anywhere they thought there might be gold, even in the town streets.

We went through this little museum that contained quite a bit in a tiny space.

We continued down the street stopping at the Placerville Hardware store, the longest continuous run hardware store west of the Mississippi.  We couldn't believe the inventory this store had!  I had been looking for a tiny dog bone cookie cutter and they had it.  They even had a tiny grater perfect for grating chocolate.  Items are still kept in wood bins here and there is a sliding ladder to get to the higher shelves.

 Our next stop was the bell tower in the middle of the town.  This was used to call volunteers to help with fires, a recurring theme in all of the early western towns.

Our last stop I didn't get a picture of, but it was Winterhill Olive Oil.  We had a great time sampling the olive oil and vinegar and didn't leave there empty handed. :)  

It was another fun day in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada!

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. :)