Cowboys, Gold, and Wine....not beans!

I have never spent any time in California gold country, but have considered going there.  The Turk loves cowboys  (in Turkish, it sounds like COOBOYS) and apparently this is true for most Turks of his era since their summer evenings were often spent sitting in the park watching John Wayne movies.  Combining gold and cooboys, and the added vineyards requirement, equals going to Sonora.

We stayed at a cute B&B in Sonora, Bradford Place Inn, owned by a couple who used to live in Silicon Valley.  We enjoyed chatting with them and eating their tasty breakfasts.

eggs benedict

skillet scramble

We soon realized there was much more to experience in the area than we expected. Jamestown was founded as a result of the gold rush in Tuolumne County and is an old cowboy town that highlights their railroad history and current winery focus. the State Park: Railtown 1897 is located there and its vintage railroads have been used in movies and TV shows since the 1920's. Bonanza, High Noon, Gunsmoke, The Virginian (with Gary Cooper, Walter Huston), Back to the Future, and even Petticoat Junction used scenes and trains from this park.

We walked past old buildings, and then trains, train pieces and train parts!

looking a bit rundown..but probably what it looked like 

a street of old buildings

the roundhouse - where trains maintained

turntable so train engine goes into the right bay of roundhouse

many many extra train wheels

working water tower for steam engines

original coach interior

engine being worked on

train workshop 

the Jamestown Train Station

 Back in Sonora, we entered an old storefront converted to a bookstore. Inside was a beautiful hand carved bar - for serving ice cream! - and a secret passage down to the basement.  We found out the basement used to be where a bank put its vault.  As we kept walking deeper into the basement, we were really going back in time to a gold mine tunnel.

Cold beer, knives, guns and ammo!!

ice cream BAR

Walking around Sonora, we passed a bar/retail store. I looked in and saw people sitting around the bar, but then I noticed that they also sell ammo, hunting gear....  And I thought - What could go wrong selling ammo in a bar!

Bank Vault in Sonora bookstore basement

We visited the big trees of Calaveras Big Trees State Park. My photos got lost, but the hike through the trees was beautiful and the trees were inspiring. We saw the fallen Tunnel Tree, also knows as the Pioneer Cabin Tree that has been attracting tourists since 1800's. this tree fell on my birthday 2017 during a driving rain storm. 

giant Sequoias

Calaveras Sequoias

Sequoia stump

from this standing thousand+ year old tree

to this from flooding rains, 2017

Of course we also had to try some wine.  The Lodi area is really coming into its own. This old wine region was originally focused on high production, low cost wines with no promotion of the region, or even the grape.  Now the Lodi region is being marketed and in addition to newer vineyards, the old zinfandel vines approaching 100 years old are highlighted.  We picked Ironstone Winery for the location, and the beauty of its winery.  The spring gardens were stunning...but my pics were lost.

We went over to the Reserve Wines bar and enjoyed tasting some old vine zins, delicious red blends, while talking with visitors and locals and a fun wine expert. Yes, we joined the wine club!

barrels of spring flowers everywhere

entrance walkway with hidden buildings around for tastings, restaurants, museum, event venus

Loved the old truck

in the great room/tasting room - massive fireplace

 We tasted more than just grapes. We also tasted apples!  This region is known for their apples.  Before heading down the road to Yosemite, we stopped at Indigeny, an apple cider and apple brandy distillery. They have more than 25,000 apple trees, 51 varieties. So their ciders are unique and delicious and came with us to Yosemite!