I thought that we should really try to visit one of the cavern sites in the area since it seemed like they would be pretty cool, and I thought it might be a neat experience for Parker. Actually, I wasn't really sure if he would think it was amazing or totally scary, but I hoped it would amaze him. Personally, I wasn't so sure that I wanted to walk down sixteen stories underground and then cruise around down there for almost an hour, so luckily it was Levi's nap time and I bowed out! I'm not really sure how it would have been going down there with Levi in the baby carrier, anyway. But Geoff, Jared, and Parker toured the Mercer Caverns near Murphys, and I think they enjoyed it--Parker didn't get scared, and it sounds like he did a good job negotiating the steep stairs up and down.
Although we had fun mining and exploring caves, our main reason for traveling to Gold Country was to visit Grandpa Geoff. Parker was so captivated by Geoff's tales of finding bits of gold on his property, that within seemingly minutes of our arrival Parker had begun his own little mining operation, gathering rocks and smashing them apart with a hammer--he had gold fever! He didn't find any gold, but we did bring some rocks home with us just in case. Geoff got to meet Levi for the first time, and we all spent lots of time together eating and talking, both at Geoff's house and during the next full day as we all spent the day together exploring.
After a few days exploring the San Francisco area, we headed east to Gold Country to continue our pursuit of treasure. Parker was super excited to go "gemstone mining" at the many caverns in the area--he literally was thrilled, saying he had the best day ever after finding all of these gems in his bag of sand. It was quite the highlight of the trip for him! He would shout to anyone walking by--"Look at how many gems I found!!" And he's not usually one to solicit the attention of strange passersby.
