Empire Mine

Since we had been cooped up in the house, I really wanted to take the kids somewhere for a day trip during Spring Break. So we decided to go to Empire Mine in Grass Valley. It was so neat and the kids had a lot of fun. We also ran into a friend of ours from Oroville, Mike McBride. I hadn't seen him in 7 years. So it was nice chatting with him. I wasn't able to go everywhere because I had to keep sitting down from being tired. But the kids and Jason had a blast! Here's pictures from our day...

The kids and Jason in a mine cart. They played in this thing for 15 mins.


That is apparently real gold that was found in the mine. Crazy!! That could get our state out of debt!


They have real blacksmiths there that you can watch. This lady showed the kids every single step to what she was making and they were fascinated by it all. Sadee was the most excited one. She wants to be a blacksmith when she grows up. hahaa But this is the hook the lady made for the kids. It was pretty cool.


Here was the main entrance to the mine. It originally went 11,000 ft. down. But all of it is filled with water with only 150ft. left at the top. It was crazy to think of the history of that mine and all of the men that worked there. It made me appreciate miners so much more!



The kids and I in the miner's yard.


THe owner's home and grounds were beautiful. We didn't have a chance to see all of it, but we liked what we got to see.





We also went to the middle fork of the Yuba River.





It was a great day and we had a lot of fun!