Ghost Town Getaway

 We had the car loaded and ready to leave early on the 5th. It was a beautiful stormy day, perfect for driving. I love love love driving in the rain. The kids slept most of the trip, they were wore out from staying up late the night before doing fireworks. The drive was beautiful. We went up through Idaho...past Idaho Falls, Island Park and then on in to Montana to the small little ghost town that is Nevada City.

 My dad first took me to this cool old town almost 20 years ago (wow, that makes me feel really old) and really not that much has changed since then. You still check in at the old Nevada City Hotel and take your pick of which quaint little cabin you want to spend the night in. Behind the hotel is the creepy old ghost town museum. The weather was nice and cool so we changed into our jeans and sweatshirts before exploring. The old saloon complete with bullet holes in the bar is still there. (When I was younger we would play cards here and order sodas.)

 Part of the museum houses quite the collection of loud old music machines. We went through many quarters, dimes and nickles trying each one out.

My sisters and I use to dare each other at night to go touch the front door of the creepy old (and I'm sure haunted) house at the end of the road, it's now painted yellow so it didn't look quite as scary as I remember it, but it was still pretty darn creepy.:)

 After looking around we headed down the road for some gold panning. It was fun to learn the right way to pan for gold.  It's very relaxing to do and could be pretty addicting.:) We didn't have much luck finding any gold but we found lots of garnets and Luke found a Sapphire.

Holding their little vials full of treasure and standing in front of a cool old gold dredge.

 

The kids had fun exploring some of the old train cars.

 

After getting some ice cream from the little bakery next to our cabin we waited at the old train depot for a ride on the little train that runs back and forth from Virginia City to Nevada City.

 We ate dinner at the same little cafe in Virginia City that I ate at when I was younger. This was were I had my first buffalo burger as a kid and so of course we had to order buffalo burgers for the kids to try too.

 After dinner we walked around Virgina City. Luke  and Ava thought it was pretty cool to see where a band of outlaws were all hung. Then we drove up to a hill above the town to see the outlaw grave yard.

 We let the kids explore around the hotel that evening while the sunset and then ate peanut butter m&ms and watch a movie in the cabin.  I was too chicken this trip to run down to the old haunted house at the end of the lane and touch the door again before bed.:)

 

Our little lone car parked out in front of our cabin.

 Of course we had to take pictures of the two story outhouse at the back of the hotel.

One of my favorite things about Nevada City is that not many people go there, so you get to enjoy that feeling of being the only ones around. Which makes for a "deliciously scary" fun adventure.