This morning we got off to a late start. I got up around eight in the morning, dressed, ate breakfast, and made my lunch then we were all set to go in an hour and an half. We took the long two hour drive to Sacramento, California at 55 MPH, which was pretty slow compared to the east which drives at 85 MPH. On our way, we stopped at Starbucks so the teachers can get their drugs – the coffee, and us kids some Taco Bell goodies and bathroom break. Also driving to Sacramento, we saw the difference as the mountains fainted into dry plains. So far, Sacramento has been the only place we’ve gone to that’s in the country, but it was very beautiful.

As we arrived at Marshall’s Gold Discovery Museum, we looked around. They talked about how the gold mining had changed the world in a good way and how badly it had influenced the Indians. The finding of gold led the people to go crazy, gave up everything they had just to travel west to dig gold mines. Sometimes they found some and became rich, other times; they weren’t so fortunate and faced poverty. Not only people from inside the United States but from Mexico, China, Africa and Europe.

One of the most interesting things that caught my eye was the Chinese shoes that little girls started to wear around the age of five to get small feet as they grow into adults; Binding wrapping. As those girls enter adolescence and adulthood, they’ll have the small cutest feet in all of China. Geishas from Japan also wore those. Imagine wearing them and imagine what the old women’s feet looked like; those who wore them back in the old days. We went into the souvenir store and some of us got something and sat outside eating lunch.

After lunch was the adventure. We stopped by the blacksmith and watched as he described the process of doing metal works. He had some metals on display that he did himself, some done by other blacksmiths. He did a demonstration of how to do an S hook and gave it to us for free, which was really thoughtful. He showed us how he used a piece of iron, putting in hot coal so the color changes to red so he can bend or cut the iron easily. When done, he’ll dump it in cold water until it cools off and it becomes hard again. The blacksmiths that work there volunteer to work there once a week, which is cool. I wouldn’t mind learning how to do metal works. It seems fun, hard working and hot but it would be an enjoyable hobby. We left and went on to the Sutter’s Mill where the gold was really found on the river.

We even dipped our toes in the American River and threw rocks. I sat down on one rock in the water and almost fell into the water, but luckily for me, I didn’t get wet! It was gorgeous, with its country feeling. Some people had RV camps and tents set up on the other side of the river, and some kids were swimming, enjoying the hot Sacramento summer of 90 degrees. There was also a house on the mountains. Imagine living there, in the middle of nowhere, just you, the house, the mountains and the river. Must be a nice life, so quiet!

Next came the gold panning. We met this young man named Brian; he showed us how to pan for gold using this plate. We bended down against a tub in front of us filled with water, stone and stand preparing to pan for gold and become rich! We filled our bowl with sand and stone, shifting it until we get rid of all the rocks and leave just a small amount of sand and try to find those bright yellow stones which are gold. I caught a couple of garnets and a couple of gold thanks to the help of Brian. He helped the group as well, also he knew some sign language which was really cool because he would communicate with us, which is really rare that we find people that can sign out of the blue or ones that aren’t related to or know any deaf people. We had a couple of tries until it was time to go, we got a group picture with Brian and left.

We had one last mission.

We went into the Park that showed all those places, one had a building where the Chinese people lived and explained how they lived. There were a couple of signs with Chinese characters written on it and we had Kangni translate it into English for us and the middle one said Golden Mountain which was so awesome. There was an outhouse too which was funny seeing those things around these days. Imagine no indoor plumbing, if you have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, getting out then walking outside freezing to death in winter so thank God for indoor plumbing, no offense.

After all these amazing tours, we headed back to CSD working on our journals and looking outside the windows at all the drivers seeing how different they are from the east coast. One thing I can tell you for sure is that, they’re always on their cell phones. Now, we’re looking forward to day four already!