Columbia, California

Dennis and Brett, on the busy walking street in old Columbia, a touristy area made on the site and to look like the old gold mining town from yesteryear. We enjoyed walking on the street, looking in to the shops. One store was glassed in and was a Dental museum, showing the old instruments and devices used on teeth back in those days. Some of them looked pretty scary!

We walked through a store of soap making and finished products and smelled the wonderful fragrances of the different soaps. My favorite was the Cinnamon soap. I always love the cinnamon and the orange/clove smells. They smell good enough to eat!

We walked through town, passing the singing cowboy playing on the street for money to be dropped into his guitar case. I treid to take his photo, but I guess if you are not contributing to his earmings, he doesn't want his picture taken. He turned his back each time, so I decided I didn't want his photo anyway! Ha Ha.

Brett found an amusing sign. Of course , it became more amusing after he figured out how to help it be amusing. I thought it was pretty funny too. One of the shops was a blacksmith shop, using an open first and a bellows to keep the fire going. They had all sorts of crafts made from horse shoes. I had pur chased a horse shoe hat rack for the Scorup cowboy room in our house in St George.
Of course, a Gold miners town would not be complete without a stage coach ride, would it? I liked the look of the horses, stage coach and the drivers. But we did not like the price! So, a free picture will have to do. We continued on down the Street to the Fallon Theater.

Dennis had bought tickets for us to attend the live theater presentation of "The Christmas Foundling". It was a cute story about a bunch of miners who find a young woman freezing on their doorstep. But before she dies, she gives birth to a baby boy. The miners raise the baby and become so attached that they refrain from swearing or talking about anything "harmful" in front of "the boy". Many years later, an aunt shows up looking for her long lost sister. Turns out the boy is her nephew. Anyway, it was a cute story with a surprise, good ending, so we enjoyed it a lot.
This is a picture of a side trip we took to see "Mark Twain's Cabin" Historical markers told us Mark Twain stayed here while he was writing many of his stories, including "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches_ (1867) by Mark Twain.
It was pretty humble, with only one room, but it did have a nice fireplace. Brett jumped the fence and toured inside and got a few pictures. Dennis and I remained outside. All in all, we had a really fun day. And, as an additional surprise, Brett had gone back to the soap place and bought me a large bar of the cinnamon soap and 4 smaller bars, Pink Grapefruit, Spearmint, Strawberry andSandalwood/Vanilla. Now, that's a nice surprise and shows what a wonderful, thoughtful son we have! Thanks, Brett! And thanks to Dennis for planning the whole day for us!