Nevada City, CA to Monterey, CA

We never did find any gold at Rye Patch, although Ron sure gave it a try. We did, however, find a different area to hunt, and made a new friend who showed us his 13 nuggets he had found at this area! So we have to go back sometime. The agricultural inspection officer at the checkpoint at California confiscated our only nectarine because it was damaged (darn thing was getting a little old). We were pretty stressed by the time we got to Nevada City from the heavy traffic, road construction, Donner Pass, and narrow roads. Nevada City is in the Sierras and is a beautiful mountain area. We toured a bit, taking a day to look at the Empire Mine State Park (350 million oz. of gold came out of it in its 100 years), driving to Yuba River State Park and its covered bridge, the old town of Downieville high up in the mountains, and then a day prospecting at the south Yuba River, where every gold pan I dug had flakes in it (but I couldn’t find anything bigger). I took time to work on my challenge quilt and sewed outside where I could spread out on the picnic table. The weather changed here from high 80s down to 50-60 degrees, all in a couple of days. Fall is definitely here. Monterey is a seaside town south of San Francisco, and we came here to explore the area and Ron was looking for a beach to metal detect for coins and jewelry. Our brother-in-law told us about a great campground outside of town at the racetrack, and told us about the 16% grade up to it but we didn't think it could be that bad! The poor truck started overheating and it had warning bells dinging, but we made ‘er! You can see we’re pretty high in the picture of the flower in front of the mountain. The next day we made it to the wharf for our first view of the ocean. Ron found a beach to work and I went for a bike ride along the bike route on the coast and found a quilt shop along the way. We toured the aquarium today (along with 60 million other people) and checked out the jellyfish. In the afternoon we drove along the Pacific Coast highway to Big Sur and saw some amazing coastlines. Today we're at Avila Beach by San Luis Obispo. Right now the campground we always stay at by Los Angeles is evacuated because of wildfire threat, so we’re going to try the Orange County Fairgrounds by Newport Beach and visit the family over the weekend.