A new adventure in the Mother Lode awaited us today. Just over an hour away lies a whole clump of mining towns and Gold Rush history we've never day tripped to before. It was a beautiful day and the choice to go to Daffodil Hill was affirmed as we strolled through the warm sun surrounded by fields of fragrant daffodils.
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What exactly is Daffodil Hill? As far as we understand, it's a huge, privately owned piece of land that is open to the public for free. It boasts about 5 weeks of spectacular daffodil blooms-- completely carpeting the hills, growing out of planters, bathtubs and antique milk jugs and sprouting up around rusty and deserted farm equipment.
I jokingly exclaimed, "It's just too much beauty!" when we found the peacocks. The next discovery was an abandoned wooden shed filled with floating butterflies!
After picnicking at Daffodil Hill, we headed over to the Sutter Gold Mine. This was a great stop also. Dave and Kyle took the hour long tour in the mine shaft, learning all sorts of fascinating things about the historical and modern mining of gold. They also got to wear these cute hats and ride the Boss Buggy 500 feet underground.
I stayed behind with the girls and enjoyed the generosity of the gift shop tender. He gave us free water bottles and cracked open a geode for Ella. We learned that this is an ordinary looking rock that God filled with "sparkly treasure." We also did some gemstone mining. The girls used running water to sift through a bag of dirt and sediment and came home with a whole handful of real gems!
The drive home took us through the neat, old mining town of Sutter Creek. Of course, we had to stop at the Ice Cream Emporium to finish off a great day with some Kona Coffee and Pineapple Coconut cones.
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