She was a girl, standing in front of a boy...
Movie fanatic Scarlett O'Brien dreams of a life as glamorous and romantic as all the big screen flicks she worships. When a chance house-sitting job in iconic Notting Hill comes along, she knows living in one of her favorite movie settings is an opportunity too good to pass up.
Leaving behind her skeptical friends, family, and fiance, Scarlett heads to London and finds herself thrust into the lead role of her very own romantic comedy. But can real life ever be just like the movies? Larger-than-life new friends, a handsome but irksome new neighbor, and a mystery from her past may prove to Scarlett that living her life like a RomCom is more complicated than she thought!

Sometimes reading a book that makes you feel good is reason enough to open its pages. This book was one of those. A perfect beach read that will be making the rounds to all my girlfriends. Fun stuff!

The Friends of the Library hosted an intimate afternoon with Hungrytown... and I loved it.

After more than a decade of world-wide touring and three album releases, Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson have earned a reputation for the quality and authenticity of their songwriting and I was excited to be a part of this awesome musical afternoon.
Hungrytown's music has received extensive radio airplay worldwide and has appeared on several television shows, including the hit series, Portlandia. It was a truly unique afternoon of great tunes and fun memories with two really cool musicians.
This is a video of a previous concert where they are singing my favorite of the songs they shared.

This quaint town is named for its setting in a bowl-shaped valley which early miners thought was caused by a volcano.

Although small, Volcano is a town of many firsts:

• 1854 Theater group in California
• 1854 Debating society in California
• 1854 Circulating library in California
• 1855 Private schools in California
• 1855 Private law school in California
• 1856 Legal hanging in Amador County
• 1860 Astronomical observatory in California

During the Civil War, Volcano's gold served the Union. The Volcano Blues smuggled this 800 lb. cannon, "Old Abe," into the town by hearse, to intimidate rebel sympathizers. It was only fired once during the Civil War and is the only cannon of that age in the U.S. still on a 19th century wooden carriage.
I have wanted to come to this cavern for quite some time. Jan and Chris joined me on the 50-minute Landmark Walk Tour that was interesting and a tad scary all at the same time.


I loved this description, "There are a variety of formations in Black Chasm Cavern, including stalactites, stalagmites, columns, flowstone, draperies, ribbons, angel's wings, cave bacon, soda straws, helictites, false floors, and numerous fun shapes that encourage one's imagination."


After an amazing explore we headed back to the surface and finished our Volcano day frolicking in the flowers.
This was our second visit to Daffodil Hill, a ranch owned by the McLaughlin family since 1887.




Daffodil Hill is situated in a beautiful mountain setting, with pine trees, the original 1880’s barn, wagon wheels, gold rush era mining equipment and antique farming implements. It appeals to anyone with a love of nature and history... Oh man, that is so us right now. What a diverse and interesting get away of learning and experiencing. Great memories!

Another one of those places on my "must see" list, this park was conveniently located on our path back to Tahoe.

Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park is nestled in a little valley with open meadows and large oaks that once provided the Native Americans of this area with an ample supply of acorns. The park was created in 1968 and preserves a great outcropping of marbleized limestone with some 1,185 mortar holes -- the largest collection of bedrock mortars in North America.
Chaw'se is the Miwok word for the mortar cups that formed as the Miwok people pounded acorns and other seed into meal.
There are over 360 petroglyphs with some of these carvings thought to be as old as two or three thousand years.

A Miwok village, complete with a ceremonial roundhouse, has been reconstructed in the middle of the park.


I loved this feather headdress and the image of the men in their regalia.
This was a special site, a place where the Native people's stories are being preserved and shared. It is still a place where celebrations are held and where traditions can be learned. I'm happy we visited and we plan to return for one of the many ceremonies that occur here.

Amador County's largest city, Jackson, was founded in 1848 so we figured it was about time we visited for an explore.

The early gold rush camp turned city was, like so many other gold rush towns along Hwy 49, destroyed by a raging fire in 1862. The city was rebuilt with as many as 42 of those Civil War era buildings still standing today on and around Jackson's Historic Main Street. 
This structure, the I.O.O.F. Building, is reported to be the tallest three-story building in the United States. A butcher shop and a blacksmith shop were located here prior to being destroyed in the 1862 fire. The land was then bought and the Union House Hotel was built in 1863. Ten years later it was sold to and dedicated by the I.O.O.F. lodge. The Oddfellows added the somewhat tall third floor in 1904, creating one of the most interesting Jacksonian structures. Wells Fargo & Co. located their office in this building in 1871. The 1855 date atop the building refers to the date of organization of the Jackson Lodge No. 36, I.O.O.F., not the year of the building's construction.
Chris and Jan, along with a waiter in the Rosebud Cafe, were totally into the Irish Spirit.
After fueling up on a great lunch, we headed to Kennedy Tailing Wheels Park, home of the most photographed mining relics in the Mother Lode, and iconic symbols of Jackson and Amador County. This mine was small in size, but second highest in gold production. Open on weekends only, we couldn't visit the mine but we learned a great deal about it at this park.
Interestingly, the Kennedy mine shaft drops over 5,000 feet into depth of the Mother Lode. It was reported to be the deepest mine on the continent, at its closing. By 1911, the Kennedy was among the most productive mines in the Mother Lode and its pulverized waste was piled high beside two old shafts and the new eastern, vertical shaft, about 2,000 feet away.  Then, in January, 1911, those waste piles were pummeled by a deluge of 20 inches of rain. That relentless downpour sent tons of   "slickens" - slime and sand - into creeks and onto farm and ranch lands below.  The slickens filled the creeks, and flooded or washed away farming land to varying depths.  Slickens covered some valley ranches and farms inches deep.
As a solution, a unique elevator-wheel system, connected by long launders or flumes, were created to remove waste from the mine site and lift it over two hills. 
The Kennedy Wheels, protected by corrugated steel sheds, operated with few interruptions 24-hours a day, from 1914 until the U.S. Government closed the mine in 1942.  Soon after, when the price of scrap metal soared, the wheels sheds were dismantled revealing the wheels to the world and the elements for the first time in 28 years. It wasn't until recently that the almost collapsing wheel was enclosed.

We then explored various cemeteries where there “...rest many of the men and women who first saw the beauty and value of this land and chose to remain and build the Amador County we cherish today.”
This is one of three burial sites for the miners killed in Argonaut Mine Tragedy of 1922. The Gold Country was the scene of the deadliest recorded mine disaster in California when 47 people perished.
On a happier note, we found the grave of Jean Marie Suize, known as Madame Pantalon, to be rather interesting. The scandalous Marie was said to enjoy smoking cigars and wearing trousers. AND she became the state’s first wine and brandy maker.
We then strolled to Saint Sava's Serbian Orthodox Church (1894), the first of its kind in America.
Spring was in the air in Jackson, with 74 degree sunshine and bees buzzing.
Dinner was at Stanley's Steakhouse in our hotel. Our host, was the owner, Stanley Lukowicz.

I have to talk about our accommodations. Built in 1862, and located at the end of historic Main St, is the awesome National Hotel. Painstakingly renovated and returned to its original splendor by current owner and local resident the aforementioned Stanley Lukowicz, the National Hotel stands tall as the sentry of a bygone era, and a veritable museum of the Gold Rush days when Victorian design, in all of its opulence and color, set the standard for the day. And was the perfect place to call it a night!

I had to go back through some older photos and rediscovered this picture from 2012 that I wanted to write about.

Fullerton Public Library attained a $35,000 grant that allows commuters, looking for a mental escape on their train rides, to choose from hundreds of best-selling books at this vending machine. "It's like a Redbox for books," said the library director. And what's really cool is that it's free with a library card.

I enjoy what our Chamber does for the community so when I read they were looking for volunteers for a day of information gathering, I signed up.

What made the afternoon even more special is the fact that I was paired up with Miguel, a man who had just moved here on Sunday and was eager to learn all I had to share about life at the Lake.

We visited eight business and surveyed them, gathering information necessary to develop strategies to ensure our community has a workforce trained to meet the needs of today and tomorrow’s employers. It was a unique afternoon- enlightening and interesting.

Steve took possession of his much anticipated new Ford Truck. On the way home from the dealership, we stopped at Cave Rock for a photo shoot.