California Gold Country Anniversary Trip
Saturday-Sunday 26-27 July, 2025
Reflection in antique leaded glass at Empire Mine State Historic Park.
The Earth has circled the sun once more, and we sought a little romantic getaway for our anniversary. I went back to the tried and true Offbeat Overnights in California by Lucy Poshek, which has admittedly become more and more outdated since its publication in 1996. But I found Flume's End.in Nevada City. Both the inn and the town turned out to be as cute as they sounded.
We were late enough leaving on Friday that we got to enjoy the fireworks at the state fairgrounds from the freeway.
Eric photographed the entrance at Flume's End. Note the wreath of teacups to the right of the front door.
As adorable as the outside was, our room, Peachtree, was incredibly cute and romantic.
I also described it as daringly impractical, as there were so many concussion hazards. Eric said the whole room was a Dutch angle, and took my picture ducking under the attic roof.
Eric took a picture of towels folded into swans.
Eric also photographed the deep cast-iron tub. The depth was actually something of a liability, because Eric was recovering from a knee sprain that made it difficult for him to get in and out of the tub.
Our romantic attic room was accessed by a steep flight of stairs, which were also difficult for Eric. He photographed them to show what he had had to endure.
I had brought up some snickerdoodles from the kitchen downstairs, but Eric instead ate a fortune cookie they had left us. He took a picture of the fortune. They must all have been the same.
The decor at Flume's End was delightful, but a primary theme was teacups.
An array of teacups on the way from the entrance down to the kitchen and dining area.
The whimsical dining area.
There were, of course, more teacups. Everywhere.
We found this beautiful victrola in a small living area just past the dining room, sitting on top of an old-timey safe that was serving as an end table.
Eric found and photographed a kaleidoscope.
This made for a delay, as I felt compelled to do some more serious photography of the kaleidoscope.
We went out to see the gardens behind the inn. Eric photographed the back of the building with several cute patios. The level with the umbrella on it was a communal patio off of the breakfast area.
The gardens were quite lovely.
A creek ran behind the inn. It had a tiny waterfall that we could hear.
A bridge over the creek was so cute that I took Eric's picture on it.
Eric wanted to take my picture on the bridge as well.
The flume (old mining equipment) for which the inn was named.
"And there's a disco ball hanging from the flume," Eric groaned. "Why not?" I said.
It was too late for breakfast by the time we left the inn, so we had a French food lunch at Lika's Café, which had a lovely patio shaded by a large tree. The inn is walking distance from cute and historic central Nevada City, but we had to drive because of Eric's knee injury. I parked very far away from the café.
Our destination for the day was Empire Mine State Historic Park. Eric photographed the mine office building there.
The museum in the visitor center had exhibits on mining, including this scale model of some of the cars used to carry the ore up from the mine.
The museum had a large scale model of the actual mine beneath the park. Photo by Eric.
It is difficult to make the abstraction in looking at the model, but the gray pieces are only framing to hold the model in vertical space. The actual tunnels of the mine are represented by the colored parts, which are color-coded for their levels of ore production. The scale of the model is 80 feet:1 inch--the mine is enormous. Note that the deepest parts, depicted here, were down 11,000 feet/3,354 meters. The model had been a top-secret project among the owners and operators of the mine.
Eric took a photo of a model of a neighboring mine that Empire Mine used in a lawsuit over the other mine's water management, which was flooding Empire Mine. I love how people who want to keep government out of their business still want there to be courts to enforce their rights when they feel someone else is tramping on them.
Eric photographed a sample of gold ore.
The larger samples of gold were in a secure vault.
Stamping machinery. This machine was used to crush ore, which was then combined with mercury-coated copper and rinsed to wash away impurities and separate the gold.
A very large compressor.
I was impressed by this huge hoist.
I found this warning sign somewhat hilarious.
One of the highlights of the park is a view down into the primary mine shaft. I photographed Eric managing the stairs.
Looking down into the shaft.
A mine shaft may seem like an unusual place for an anniversary celebration, but there we were.
Compressor building.
I loved photographing reflections in the aging glass.
There was a large display of pieces of equipment in a central area of the park, including this giant gear.
Of course railroads were an important part of mining operations.
I was enchanted by the lettering on the equipment.
I knew that, if I looked hard enough, I would find a General Electric logo on a piece of equipment for my high school friends from Schenectady. I had been hoping to find a logo with the original name of the company, Edison Electric, but I didn't.
On the way back to the inn, we stopped to see a historic railroad exhibit, with this enormous snowplow. We looked for a difficulty 4 geocache, but didn't find it. We found no caches on the trip, because Eric couldn't hike up the trails at Empire Mine.
Eric found the River Downtown on Google Maps, and it led us to a terrific dinner. The place had just opened a few weeks before, with a historic bar salvaged from a fire. The menu was serious California fusion, things like poke nachos, ahi sliders, and samosas. The food was tasty and the staff incredibly friendly. We had a great time, enjoying the lovely historic architecture and hearing the bar bands doing their sound checks. The atmosphere in Nevada City was lively, and we would love to go back again.
We had breakfast in the morning at Nevada City Classic Café. They had a fantastic mural of the town.
I had to park very far from the cafe. I was going to park in the shady spot, but then I noticed this tiny stealth fire hydrant in the backup camera. The city is clearly just trying to find a way to issue tickets here.
Since Eric couldn't hike, we brought the Weeble with us, and took it to Bullard's Bar Reservoir.
The advantage of places with boat launches is that we don't have to carry the Weeble very far. The disadvantage of places with boat launches is that they are full of larger powered boats, noise, and wakes.
Eric photographed me as I swam in the cool water. We don't know the geologic reasons for the beautiful water color, but it certainly contained some minerals that were harsh on my hair.
Eric posed by the Weeble.
The sand was full of gold mica.
Anniversary paddling selfie.
All in all, it was fun and worthy anniversary celebration. We loved the adorable whimsy of Flume's End, and the wonderful food and the fun vibe of Nevada City. We plan to return for a future anniversary!