GOLD COUNTRY: Jamestown & the Railtown Railroad, the awesome town of Columbia & a quick drive through Sonora

Our second day we woke up and made our travels up to the gold country! Again, a new place for me to see. Jeff and I love this kind of stuff. We are all about the old west in it's mining hay days, boom towns, ghost towns, old farm lands...LOVE IT ALL! Our first stop was Jamestown. We grabbed some local pizza for lunch and quickly made our way over to Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, and we rode the old logging steam locomotive. It was a 40 min. round trip and fun to experience. That train has been in over 200 movies and TV shows and our favorite, "Unforgiven" with Clint Eastwood! Also another favorite, "Back to the Future III!" The ride was relaxing and then we walked the grounds to see the roundhouse and other great items laying around. After that, we got back in downtown Jamestown so I could check out a few stores. I found the most adorable little shop and if I were allowed to, would have bought everything in there! The owner was the sweetest lady that also makes jewelry, so I purchased some earrings for a friend. We then went into an old candy/ice cream parlor & got some good tasting ice cream! Being a tourist is so much fun. After that little treat on we went to drive through Sonora. We didn't stop in that sweet little town, because the crowds were crazy there! So I managed to take a picture of the red church in the top center on the town (I took that while the truck was in motion). What Jeff was really excited to show me was the town of Columbia. Wow! You talk about a well preserved town. They block off the streets from cars, and only allow you in by walking, and we loved it. It makes you feel like the old west era. These towns developed around the 49er era, so really old, like 1850s. Columbia is where we had our dinner. We ate at the town's saloon, and I have a picture of Kent and Samantha looking through the glass in the doors. The people were so friendly. Another great thing about that saloon, out of everywhere we went during our trip, everybody served Pepsi products...well, good old Columbia served ice cold refreshing Coca-Cola! YES! We are Coca-Cola people all the way :-) So you can see we had a great experience on our unplanned trip.