Ladd had to work up in Bishop this week, so we decided to tag along! We had never been there before and didn't have any plans, other than Ladd going to court, of course. So, it was all a somewhat spontaneous adventure, which ended up being a fun little vacation! It is about a 5 hour drive from here and we got there just in time to make it to a Railroad Museum just before it closed. This was a great find! It had a lot of buildings from the Gold Rush all the way until the 1930s. Most of the buildings you could go in and touch everything.
Fun+free+educational+totally unplanned= Awesome!
The boys especially liked the saloon with the WANTED posters on the outside.
Train with a bell that you could ring
There was a garage filled with wagons for all different uses. I think this was a freight wagon.
1930s house- the Train Masters Home, very fancy!
Old School house-We were all a little surprised to see that there was a bedroom in the school for the teacher!
The next day while Ladd was at work, we walked to a giant park that was right next to our hotel and played for hours, then walked across the street to a cute Danish bakery. There were all sorts of delicious looking treats and of course the boys chose regular old donuts! We needed a picture in front of this Indian statue with our sugary, fried goodies!
When Ladd was done, we found this random Native American Museum that was amazing and the one guy who worked there knew all there was to know about Indians and we learned a ton. This was a great find since we have been learning about Native Americans for school. It was a perfect little field trip, and might I mention also free!!
Grinding grain into flour
A model of a Toni and a cooking station. The boys are mixing and feeding the fire here...
The Museum was not too concerned with really old artifacts. This was a real arrowhead archeologists dug up that was out for people to handle. It was about 10,000 years old and used to hunt Mammoths, and my 5 year old is holding it! Yikes!
Hunter was quite affectionate towards this rock used to make the arrowheads...
The boys loved playing in these Toni's outside the museum...
After playing Indians for awhile, we headed out to South Lake, as suggested by our new friend at the Indian Museum. It was a great suggestion. The Sierra Nevadas are absolutely beautiful to drive through. The leaves were changing color and the weather was perfect. The best part was it wasn't a winding road, that makes me sick, like
our mountain roads. The lake and its surroundings were breathtaking and it made me a little sad that we live in the smog infested desert!
When we got to the lake, Ladd decided to rent a little motorboat. I stayed back with this little sweetie...
while the boys took off for an hour on the lake.
When they got back from their little trip, I noticed Hunter was laying face down in the boat. I asked him why and he said it was less scary that way. I couldn't blame him. I am not a big fan of dinky little boats either. But, Ladd and Tanner both thought it was "Awesome" to be out on such a beautiful lake. We then headed home where Ladd and I had about two hours of all little people taking a nap at the same time! Ah, the simple joys of sleeping children!
I am so glad we were able to turn this little business trip into a fun family getaway!
and the camera man were having issues at that moment! Oh well.
Hunter was "Speeding Cheetah" and taught everyone about how the Blackfoot Indians of Montana love to dance at Powwows.
We made Native American drums...
There are two new papooses this year in our school group, so things have been more low key. But, the kids always manage to have a good time and hopefully learn something in the process! Notice which two kids want to be the dancers at our little mock Powwow. Yes, Hoyal kids have lots of energy!
