A Year of Roving — Southern California (2022)

California is about gold and wine which is better than gold.

Feb 04, 2023

California is about gold and wine which is better than gold.

One can get lost in thought while gazing down on the stones below the clear water of the Carbon River, or any other river for that matter. Sometimes that’s all we need to do to get refreshed. This was on the last day of January in 2022. A few days later June, Liddy and I were on our way to Southern California for no other reason than to see what we could see.

I had purchased a travel deal (they never really are a deal, are they) before the fit hit the shan in 2020. It was a use it or lose it deal that had been adjusted several times already and as I had never been to Oceanside CA, that is where we would go.

Oceanside is just north of San Diego. Another half hour and we would be in Tijuana Mexico. From Tacoma, this would be a three-day drive. We still had some concerns about crowded airports and airplanes, so we chose to drive. As I said, I a long drive, so we broke it up with a few days in Angels Camp on the way south and a few more in Napa on the way north. The wonderful thing about being retired is that you have a lot of time for exploration.

Angels Camp

I had never been to Angels Camp or the surrounding area before. I chose the place because it was about right for a break in the driving and there were some vineyards in the area. I had no idea of the gold rush heritage we were going to find.

This is the town where Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was inspired to write a short story about The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras. The town started a true frog jumping contest in 1928 and continues it to this day at the Calaveras County Fair [Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee: Classic family fun (gocalaveras.com)]

Near Angels Camp is the town of Murphys. We went there to visit the Ironstone Vineyards as we had been told they had a very good product. We were not disappointed, taking a tour and enjoying a tasting of their fine wine.

What I found more fascinating was the mining museum located beside the amphitheater. Here we found this monster gold nugget. Well not really a nugget, but the largest crystalline gold piece mined in North America since the 1880’s or so the display says. The display also claims that this specimen is the largest piece of its type in the world.

It is impressive.

John Kautz, owner of Ironstone Vineyards, purchased this amazing piece of gold from the Sonoran Mining Company in 1994 to be the centerpiece for his mining museum at his vineyard. The piece was discovered in December of 1992 at a mine in Jamestown California. It weighs about 1,568 ounces according to the notice beside the display.

Angels Camp deserves another visit as we only scratched the surface of the area.

Oceanside

It was a leisurely, if you can call a drive through Los Angeles traffic leisurely, drive south to Oceanside.

What I didn’t know was that there are a number of sewing shops in the towns between Oceanside and San Diego. June, however, did know. So, on Valentine’s Day Liddy and I chauffeured June from shop to shop so she could chat up friends and purchase more fabric for her stash.

It had been a gorgeous sunny day right up until sunset when I made a mad dash down to the pier in hopes of capturing a killer shot. The sunset was meh, but I think this shot of the pier came up very nicely thank you.

Napa

From Oceanside we headed north through Anaheim where June found yet another fabric shop. This one, she swears, is better than Disneyland. We avoided the theme park and spent a couple of days enjoying the Napa Valley.

One of those days was a visit to the candy factory. The Jelly Belly candy factory actually. We were able to view the product being made and packaged up ready for the Easter season.