Labor and Leisure

Blueberry season just opened up in the foothills!

Every summer I drag the kids to Bolster's Hilltop Ranch and make them pick blueberries with me. Pounds and pounds of blueberries.


This year was no different.


For a week and a half, I watched my friend's son, who is Josh's friend and classmate. He came with us and I made him pick too!




We picked for an hour, which added to about 10 pounds of blueberries. I rewarded the kids for their hard work by purchasing them a popsicle of their choice. The bribe usually works well. It's a tradition.


After blueberry picking, I looked up a couple Geocaches in the area. I thought this sign, across from the berry farm, was quite appropriate.


One was in this area, in a parking lot, in the middle of Placerville. I love the old crumbly look of the ruins.


The cache was hidden under these stairs.

And by checking the map for cool Geocaches, I found a State Park in Placerville that I hadn't ever heard of.


Gold Bug Park & Mine. It's an old mining area.


There is a old gold mine that can be explored on a self tour. The hard hats were required for tall people, because miners 150 years ago were short. Good thing I had my hat on. I bumped my head twice in the mine!






We could listen to a audio tour guide at certain spots in the mine. It was quite interesting. Even Carley enjoyed it and learned a few things.


After the mine tour, we toured the Stamp Mill. Stamp as in stamping the ore rocks to find gold, NOT stamps that are decorative or used to mail letters. Just in case you didn't know.


There was a working, miniature version of the big stamper.


The kids did some gold panning. Unfortunately they didn't strike it rich.


We also walked a couple trails. It was a beautiful day.


One trail led to another mine that is above the one we toured.


We found one out of two caches hidden in the park.

The other cache we claimed is a "Earth Cache," which was about the park itself. To claim that cache, we had to hunt and answer details about the park. It's the first Earth cache we've found.

We headed to the foothills to pick blueberries and ended up having an adventure while experiencing a bit of the 1880s.