31 July 2007

Otterwise It's History



This coming Thursday my son and grandson will be taking off on one of our family traditions. Every vacation must include something that makes History fun. Anyone who has ever lived through an unimaginative history class knows how swiftly the eyelids can start to descend while the brain shifts into numb. Unfortunately, this may color their outlook forever on the subject. To combat this, all the children in our family get to do "History". We usually throw in someplace with rollar coasters for the sake of temptation, but it is almost always the "doing" places they end up enjoying most.

On this trip David will take a boat under the Golden Gate, drive through a wild animal park, pet dolphins and mix tide pools & fish with roller coaster on the trip to the beach. The history highlight will be panning for gold and climbing in caverns in one of the best child oriented places you can go Sutter's Mill and the Marshall Gold Discovery Site and California Caverns.

If you are planning a trip to California, Sacramento is a good central hub to head for Monterey to the southwest, San Franciso to the northwest, Gold Country, east and inland. Gold country is particularly interesting if you are tired of the usual tourist traps. The area features a State Park, Historical Sites, Ghost Towns, mining locations, cave hiking and climbing and the still operational oldest courthouse in the state. Of course if you miss the exit, you'll end up in Tahoe which isn't bad either.

7 comments:

Mo and The Purries said...

that is SO awesome!
my favorite Spring Break in college was NOT to a beach, but to a cavern used by civil war artillery men in Kentucky (they made gunpowder from the bat guano) -- and now it's a bat sanctuary.
history & vacations can be a cool combo!

Anonymous said...

Jamie....
you obviously taught your son well and now he in turn is teaching his son well..... nice legacy....

Rick and I have been discussing where to take our October vacation this year..... he's a BIG history buff... so it looks like because it's the 400th anniversary of James Town that it will win out...

I LOVE mixing history and vacations....

Linda said...

Dang woman, you are SO making me miss California! Santa Cruz has, by far, one of the best rollercoasters ever and the best way to top that off is a frozen chocolate-covered banana! Ah, the memories ...

Sounds like your grandson has got one fantastic vacation ahead of him. I am not jealous. Really. I'm not. Honest!

crpitt said...

Wow! I want to go cave hiking there. Well i am going caving end of august, if getting winched down a 300ft hole counts.

I had haggis tonight and it reminded me of you :)

Lisa Ryan said...

what a fun trip! and that photo is gorgeous. hope they have a great time.

Travis Cody said...

I agree that Sacramento is a good base for heading in all directions. You can get to some really good stuff inside of 2 hours.

I remember some seriously poor history teachers when I was in high school. Luckily I had already developed a deep love of the subject, and so study was not ruined for me.

enigma4ever said...

what a wonderful trip....and a good way to combine something magical, and fun with History....

I lived for a time in pacific grove- with my son and we could walk to Monterey...and we would sit on the rocks for hours and watch the otters...and the seals...and the whales...my bassatt was very confused esp. by the seals at night...she thought they were dogs and she would yodel back to them....

anyways...what a lovely tradition....