field trip fun!

i took yesterday off of work so that i could go with blake and his school on their field trip. we went to the sutter gold mine. we panned for gold, went on a tour of a gold mine (which totally reminded me of the indiana jones ride at disneyland), bought geode's, and shopped downtown at the truly adorable small town of sutter creek. i learned that the mine still has over 2 million dollars worth of gold in it. they want to start mining again soon, but they're trying to figure out if they can continue to mine and have tours while they do it? eeeek. also, the only reason they stopped mining was because the price of gold fell to low to continue to make a profit. it was a truly fun, but exhausting day.






do you see the gold in that quartz drift???


our mine guide. he's a 4th generation gold miner.


downtown sutter creek. the american exchange hotels is one of the oldest hotels in california. i think. i could have read the sign wrong.