Birthday Bike Ride

Jacob wanted to go bike riding today for his birthday.  He wanted to go on a mountain bike ride.  So we went to the very low Folsom lake, as there are some trails there.  Well, they were certainly mountain bike trails!  We were going up and over rock cliffs, through trees, narrow switch back trails.  Shelley and Hannah didn’t like it very much.  Dad and Jacob rode on while the girls rested. 

Eventually, we decided to go try a more “relaxing” trail.  We headed to a portion of the American River Bike Trail, a 32 mile paved trail that follows the American River.  This trail is considered one of the best biking trails in the country, and we’ve never biked on any of it.  We picked a small area that goes past Lake Natoma near Folsom Dam. 

It was beautiful!  This is an area of the river that is dammed up due to the fish hatchery dam, and it creates a narrow but long lake. This lake is used for rowing races and they were practicing when we were there.

After our short ride along this part of the trail, we decided that we MUST do more biking on this trail!

After biking, we went to Red Robin (YUMMMM!) for mile high mud pie (and fries of course)

Mom, Can I Run Away To The Circus?

It’s no secret we love the circus.  Since my mom would never let me run away to join the circus, we just have to to go visit….. often….

It’s such high energy and great fun!  And we’ve learned that it pays to sit up close!  And 2-for-1 coupons are always around!  Pay full price at the circus? That’s for clowns!

We were glad that Mom and Dad got to come with us this time. They hadn’t been to the circus in like…..well, they couldn’t ever remember going to the circus.

Virginia City–The Way It Was

Over labor day, we had planned to go to Tahoe and take paddle wheel tour on the lake, and do some other fun things. 

We headed out, and when we got there, we noticed it was less busy than normal, and the fires near Yosemite had made for a smoky forecast for the Tahoe valley. 

The boat company we were heading too, called me and told me they were cancelling the outing we were signed up for, as we were the ONLY ones that had booked. 

Darn!!  Now we had no plans!  So we started thinking, and realized that we had talked before about going to Virginia City, had never been, and my only memory of going there was when I was a kid.  It was only an additional hour away, so back in the car and off we went!

The drive from Carson City into the mountains was beautiful and rises up to almost 7000 feet in elevation, past places called “Robbers Roost” and “Dead Man’s Point” where deliveries of silver were often robbed.

 

 

 

 

Back in the day, Virginia City was the first major place in the United States where Silver was discovered, and soon became the “richest city in America” in the 1860’s and a total of about 400 million dollars in Silver (that’s $400 million in those days, in our day, it would be billions!) was mined over the 20 years that Virginia City thrived.

Mark Twain wrote his first books as Mark Twain when he was living in Virginia City. 

Now, Virginia City is mostly a tourist destination (trap) and you can take mine tours, train rides, stagecoach rides, see museums, and many many other things.

It wasn’t too crowded, especially being a holiday weekend, and we had a great time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a steam engine train ride, and as it went through several tunnels, it was HOT!  The steam had nowhere to go, and it was like a sauna, as one of the tunnels was pretty long…..we were sitting behind the engine and we also got rained down on with soot – Jacob got some in his eyes as I snapped this pic in the dark tunnel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steam Train–Virginia City

 

We opted for the stagecoach ride – a bit pricey, but we were told it was like nothing we’ve ever done before.  It’s the ONLY place in the United States (probably due to safety regulations) that you ride in an actual stagecoach going the full galloping speed that would have been the travelling speed, which was around 25 mph…and bumpy!!  It’s a short ride, but definitely fun!  We wanted to go again!

 

 

Hannah was laughing at how much Mama was laughing and bouncing around!

 

Yep-this is us inside this one: (photo didn’t scan very well)

After living like a miner, we headed back towards Tahoe, and still had time to stop off quick at a beach and do some paddle boating and swimming.

 

 

 

Our alternate plans turned out great and we had a great time!