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.
