Gwilliam Gazette : Goodbye May Hello Summer!

Wow! May is over and it's June now! Summer is officially arriving! It's Saturday today and we spent the morning doing basically nothing and trying to decide what to do today! We finally, after hours of not deciding, decided to find some caches and eat some ice cream. We found a train tunnel a while ago and went to see it and the kids have been asking for months to go back there. We saw that there was a cache there, so we told the kids we were going to the train tunnel. They were so excited, they went out and got their old shoes (you get dirty because you have to climb up and slide down to/from the tunnel) and got in the car!

We made a pit stop first to the Griffith Quarry in Penryn (not far from Roseville). The Griffith Quarry was a huge granite quarry in it's heyday providing granite for the state capital and other buildings as far away as San Francisco. (Click on the photo to see a larger one easier to read)

There were many trails meandering around this place. One overlooked a big hole that is now full of green algae covered water in the bottom.

Another overlooked the valley:

Here is a very big rock we were standing on:

There were three caches we tried to find, but only were able to find one! It was a big tupperware container in a plastic bag wedged between a big standing granite rock. The owners (when they placed this cache) had just gotten back from a 3500 mile trip across the US and had placed all kinds of trinkets and post cards from their travels inside. It was neat looking at all the places they went.

Then it was time to head to the train tunnel, since the kids were asking every 5 minutes, "Can we go to the tunnel now?" With mom and dad saying each time "NO! We are going to find a cache here first!" After the 1st failed, and the 2nd failed, the 'NO' in that sentence got louder and louder! Finally the 3rd one we found and it was time to go!

The tunnel cache was a two staged one, with the 1st stop leading to a new set of coordinates. They were on a small magnet inside a metal gate at the top of a hill overlooking the valley:

We got the new coordinates which lead us to the base of the hill where the tunnel was. As mom and dad went to find the cache, the kids were already climbing up to the tunnel. Hannah, in the rush to get in the car, only brought flip flops and was falling down the hill trying to get up, crying and not having a good time, but she was determined to get to the top and see the tunnel! That last time we came here, she didn't go up to the top. Shelley and her stayed in the car, as it was too hard to climb with her. Not this time - she said she was NOT going to stay in the car this time!

Marissa had a flash light and went into the tunnel with Jacob....they wanted to see the other end. But they never did find it. The tunnel turns a ways down, but they never did see light at then end of the tunnel. Dad told them to come back, as they were too far in and if a train came, it wouldn't be good, since there was only about a foot at each side where they could stand and not be hit by the train.

Here is a dorky video (amateur) of climbing down the trail. Doug was taking the video and slipped a few times going down, as you will notice when you see the sky or the rocks close up.

Then it was time to go home, wash our feet, clean the rocks and sand out of our shoes and then go get some ice cream, at our favorite ice cream place, Leatherby's.

We used to each get individual items, but got smart when we realized we could all get our fill of ice cream for the price of TWO individual items. We get a huge banana split with Vanilla ice cream and Swiss Milk Chocolate ice cream, with ALL caramel topping (they have the BEST homemade caramel!) and chocolate whipping cream. We usually eat almost all of it and it is so good!

BEFORE: