Black Chasm Cavern

 Grandpa came for a visit so we went for a little drive up to the foothills to check out some caves.

 Once of the perks of living in Northern California is we are in a central location to take in a lot of different terrain and sights. Even though I grew up in Northern CA. I never went to any of these caves. So we packed a picnic and headed out for the hour drive!

 I thought the kids might be bored by what they saw, but they do pretty well with stuff like this. They love listening to the guides and trying to answer questions and learn new facts. This cave is one of the best places in the world to see these calcite deposit formations.

 They look like crazy little worms that have been squished out of a mold, or fancy blown glass sculptures.

 This formation is called bacon.

 And here's a picture where I look like a bat. I thought it was appropriate, being in a cave and all.

 Waaaay down there, the little speck of blue is an underwater lake.

 I just like this truck.

 In the gift shop, the boys wanted to buy geodes. Before she helped them crack them open, she explained how they are formed. I honestly don't remember what she said. Something about heating up and cooling down.

 Ty's had cool little wormlike formations inside.

 Ashlynn chose to buy a back of "rare gems" in sand.We used the sluice they had outside to separate the rare stuff from the sand.

 Then we drove into Jackson to check out the cute little old mountain town. My Great Grandma use to teach school around here somewhere.

 We found the best shop in town. Grandpa said Grandma would have loved this shop!

 When we asked Grandpa what she would have bought he pointed to the white fudge and said, "Divinity". The kids said, "What's Divinity?" The little old man behind the counter quietly gave them each a sample and said, "I can't have kids leave my store who haven't tried Divinity!" The kids liked that!

Ashlynn and I vowed to come back and hit every single one of the antique shops someday, when the men fold aren't hovering over our shoulders!

Top O' the Mornin' To Ya'!

This is the lobby of the bank where Brian works. These pipers come every year and say they love the acoustics of the bank.

It's really hard for me to see bagpipers and not shout "WE HAVE A PIPER DOWN!" But it must be said with a thick Scottish brogue. (Can you imagine my excitement when one of my friends took up the bagpipes in high school! Playing the pipes really does make you light headed and she would be close to passing out quite a bit at first, which gave me ample opportunity to shout one of my favorite lines from "So I Married an Ax Murderer".)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


p.s. please don't comment on the fact that today is St. Patrick's Day, an IRISH holiday (of sorts) and I want to shout something with a Scottish brogue. I'm aware of the discrepancy... thank you...

Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam and Charity Never Faileth

I've been a little too busy to post much. I don't really have time right now, even, but

Holy Cow!

I've got to change the title of my last post! I've been getting some crazy responses to that last post that I think have to do with the title.

So this title is as benign as possible.

More to come...