Columbia (gold country), October 11-13

We enjoyed two days exploring areas where heavy gold findings were made.  Our first day started at Jamestown where we visited an old, working round house.

We had a great historic tour of the town of Columbia, site of many gold finds.

 We then toured the Iron Stone Winery, a beautiful, family run facility with many antiques and a large gold nugget.

This gold nugget weighs 44 pounds!

Sacramento, October 9-10

On our bus tour, we made many interesting stops.  The first was at the former home of Mr & Mrs Stanford.  Mr Stanford wanted to donate money to Harvard University, but he was not well received.  He came home and founded Stanford University.

Our next stop was at the state capital building.  Our guide told us that it has the fourth largest dome in the world!

Dome from the inside.

Eureka - we found it (gold)!

Christopher Columbus explaining Boccie Ball to Queen Isabella.

The lower house has 40 elected representatives.

The upper chamber has 20 senators.

The international peace garden sits on 40 acres with the capital building.

These trees were planted as saplings from Asia over a hundred years ago.

The grounds and capital building are patrolled by CHiPs.

The Viet Nam Memorial is very serene.

We toured "Old "Sacramento" which was originally lower than rivers.

We also had a great tour of their very interesting railroad museum.

Jelly Belly factory, October 8

On our drive toward Sacramento, we stopped near Fairfield to visit the Jelly Belly factory.

We were greeted by a spiffy VW and ..............

.......................... and a 4500 HD pickup truck.











The lobby has plenty of jelly bean decorations.

It took an artist a half-year to design and glue jelly beans to make this "picture."

"Sparky" Schultz Museum and Canine Companions for Independence

We started the day with a delicious and filling breakfast buffet at the Warm Puppy Cafe in the Puppy Palace, both developed by Charles Schultz of Charlie Brown/Snoopy fame.

After breakfast we walked across the street where we were greeted by Charlie Brown at the front of the Schultz Museum.

We viewed a giant, hand carved mural representing the 50-year evolution of Snoopy.

Then we saw a giant mosaic mural made from small tiles of 4-framed comic strips; Charlie Brown still could not kick the ball Lucie was holding!


Outdoors were figures of numerous characters and themes.

We bid farewell to our cartoon characters and headed to the Canine Companions for Independence training facility.

Interestingly enough, we found Snoopy again.  The land for the facility had been donated by "Sparky" Schultz.  The facility receives about 900 puppies per year to supervise the raising and training of assistance dogs.

About 300 dogs per year "graduate" to become assistance dogs at about the age of two.  They can then serve for 5-7 years providing physical and emotional help to their new owners.  The dog recipients get the dogs at no charge, even though it costs about $20,000 to raise and train them.  Fortunately there are many volunteers involved in the process, otherwise the cost would be much more.

After our busy day, we enjoyed an anniversary and birthday celebrations in the campground.

 

Alcatraz, October 6

Today we visited Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Factory, Pier 39, and Alcatraz. 

Mrs. Grossman started twenty years ago making a few stickers on her dining room table. 

Her business has grown to a major factory in Petaluma, CA with ninety employees providing products to all the world. 

They have the only laser sticker cutter in the world.

We then traveled to Pier 39 where we ate lunch and shopped.

The pier has a long board walk extending over the water.

There are a lot of boats dock along the pier.

There were two cruise ships in port today.

After lunch we boarded a boat and headed to Alcatraz for a visit.

After landing, we took a walking tour of the cell building.

 Our tour began in the shower room.

Jail cells are 6' x 9' with few amenities.

The jail cells are three levels high and four rows wide.

If the word were to get out regarding living conditions "inside the walls" there may be fewer criminals.

By the way, they did let us get out of jail (good behavior) and leave the island!