Sacramento Trip for the Fourth Grade Class

The Fourth Grade class flew to Sacramento for an amazing journey to our State Capital Building - which is surrounded by many points of interest such as a life sized statue of Father Junipero Serra, a Roman Catholic missionary (which the Fourth grade just studied) who helped colonize California for Spain, A California Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, a Memorial honoring Fire Fighters, several fantastic rose gardens, and I did not know that there are trees and shrubs planted on the grounds from around the world!

The Governor's Office has a new Bear outside the double doors. And we learned that Arnold is the first Governor to have his his name outside the office doors. Our tour guide had a plethora of trivia tid bits she would throw into her commentary. She was great. Our tour was with World Strides who flew us up to Sacramento, met us at the airport in a Coach (bus) and drove us to three locations.

This is the room where laws are voted on. Beautiful painted ceilings in here.

After we toured the Capital Building and the Museum grounds we got back into the Coach and drove to Sutter's Fort, where we toured the fort which has been fully restored. We saw the cannons that John Sutter and his men used and their gun room which was a big hit with Fourth Grade boys! John Sutter and his men were sent to aid the Donner Party and a doll that was cherished by one of the members of the Donner Party is on exhibit in the museum here.

Next we went on an hour long trip to Sutter's Mill in Coloma, Ca. The mill is next to the American River where we were given instruction how to pan for gold and then set out to pan on our own! How fun! And what a great day to go panning for gold. The sun was shining, we has scattered white puffy clouds, several groups of rafters went floating by... it was a lot of fun!

Our tour of Coloma began at the top of the hill where James Marshall Statue stands on top of his grave pointing to the location of the mill. We hiked down the "mountain" to see the first Catholic Church in California and the very first Catholic Cemetery in California. We saw the old shack and took several group photo's of the kids sitting on the steps. There was an out house which the kids were fascinated by... The hike took us down to the base where the jail is. Or what is left of the jail, and then we walked into the town of Coloma. Awesome! So many old, great buildings to see. They had a wonderful museum and we were taught by an official panner - how to pan for gold!

After we panned for our gold and saw Sutters Mill we got back into our Coach and drove towards the airport. We stopped for dinner and then boarded our plane back home. What a great day!