Modesto and Patterson, California

May 7th we went on a drive to Modesto, California. We had planned to go to the visitors center to see what their was to do in Modesto, however once arriving there we found out it was closed on the weekends, which I thought was pretty strange. So we drove around and happened to stumble upon a farmers market going on and decided to go to that. While finding a parking spot we see the McHenry Mansion and took a tour of the building that was busy with the Mother's Day Tea.

After the tour of the mansion we went to the farmer's market and walked around. Nuts are a big thing in California. I couldn't believe all the different flavors of nuts that were available. We also attended a friends of the library sale that was taking place next door which had paperback books for .50 cents and hardback $1, we couldn't pass that kind of deal up.

Once we were done touring around Modesto we went Patterson, California. Now of course the Patterson's HAD to go to Patterson, California! On the way there we drove down a stretch of road that was lined with palm trees.

Patterson, California was a nice little town. We just drove through the main downtown area just to get some pictures.

Patterson was a nice little town, it was actually quite hot when we were there so we didn't walk around too much. It is weird to think that I think it is really hot right now and it has actually been a cooler year and is no where close to hot, that is kind of worrisome.

Columbia, California

On April 23rd we went out on a day trip to Columbia, California that is an old mining town from the Gold Rush time. The drive there was absolutely beautiful! We passed many ranches, dairies and just overall beautiful scenery. Here is a photo from a view point that we stopped once we reached the top of a hill.

On the way to Columbia the drive in itself was wonderful. Here is a lake that we stopped at along the way as well.

Finally made it to Columbia!

Once arriving in Columbia we took an hour long tour of the town and learned about how the old gold rush town came to be. We also were able to go in buildings that were otherwise not accessible unless on this tour, which was pretty cool! Here is the main street of Columbia.

After doing the tour of Columbia we went to the old school bowling alley that was used in the 1800's for entertainment after working all day long mining for gold.

At the butcher's shop! This fits me because last semester I worked as the Meats Lab TA at BYU-Idaho.

In the Columbia Museum. The town had A LOT of issues with fire burning down the town of Columbia. Here is a burnt board in the Museum that they were able to keep. It was the women in the town that did fundraisers to purchase fire fighting equipment so that the whole town wouldn't burn down each time they had a fire.

This old barn had a bunch of old carriages in it.

Weighing Gold

This scale is so precise that they had to put it in a case not to protect it from people, but because the dust from outside would mess up the scale and it wouldn't be balanced. This is what was used to weigh the gold.

On the way home from Columbia, absolutely beautiful country... mainly because their are cows!

Japanese Garden & Micke Grove Zoo in Lodi, California

Well I have been a little slow at posting blogs lately. Since our last blog we have had many adventures. On April 22nd Chris got the day off for Good Friday so we went to the Japanese Gardens and Micke Grove Zoo located in a park in Lodi, CA just North of Stockton. The Japanese Garden was absolutely beautiful! Their were many ponds with humongous Koi and the plants were very beautiful and had a quiet feeling in the garden. Here are some pictures of the garden.

After seeing the Japanese Garden we walked across the parking lot to the zoo. The zoo in Lodi is very, very, very small, however it was still fun to see the different animals. We even seen animals in there that we had never seen before.

Chris really liked the Golden Eagle. He was watching a squirrel outside the cage and we are pretty sure that squirrel would have been lunch if he was not stuck in a cage.

We also really liked the Tri-colored squirrels that I don't think we have ever see before. They were so fast that we weren't able to take a picture so we had to do a video.

We also really liked the Scarlet Ibis which we had never seen before, or at least we don't remember ever seeing one of them. They were a very pretty bird.