coloma picnic

For a spontaneous April date, Nathan decided to take Kristin for a picnic in Coloma.  It was somewhat short notice, so we threw together a lunch.  Kristin came up with a really good turkey wrap using hummus and a red pepper chutney.  During our picnic, we discussed spirituality and how we could improve our spiritual unity and intimacy.  Then we set out on a walk to see the old gold rush town.

The American River, where gold was first discovered.  This discovery kicked off the gold rush of 1849.

This is a slightly odd-looking monument marking the location of the original mill.  Slightly up the river from this is the spot where they found gold.  That spot was marked, but it didn't make for very good pictures.  It's turned into a large, overgrown mud hole that is ripe for mosquitoes, so we'll just say this picture is sufficient.

Nathan's standing on the spot where the mill originally stood.

There was a quail playing in the mill.

The mill was a pretty simple design.  They would use a winch to pull logs up this ramp onto a sled, and the water wheel drove a cam shaft driving the saw blade up and down.  Then the boards would be slid off another ramp.

When we finished walking around, we read a chapter from Sacred Marriage and then drove to Placerville to look around.  We enjoy going to the Thomas Kinkade gallery there to see the new pictures, as well as the old, every now and again.  They had just released some really good paintings.  One was the Lion King from the Disney collection, one was a sailing ship out at sea, one was of Jesus walking through a garden with someone, and the last new painting was one that Kristin liked of a cross up on a mountain overlooking a wide river valley.  Nathan spent most of his time there looking for hidden things in the paintings (namely hidden "N"s and hidden hearts).