Today we tried to get everyone up a little earlier so we could get our diamond hunting in before noon. After Noon the temperatures were supposed to rise past 100 so we didn’t want to be digging in the sun. When we headed out to the mine, Goat Dog stayed in the comfort of the trailer A/C monitored by Temp Stick so we could make sure she was safe and comfortable.
We got our $32 worth of diamond digging tickets, rented a shovel and wet and dry mining pans and headed to find our lump of dirt. We brought some sand toys too. People were coming in with huge shovels, wheel barrows and their own pans (serious miners), but we were happy with our make-shift set up. We piled some dirt in our bucket and to our surprise Elsa was more into panning for diamonds than Anna. Anna is our rock collector, but maybe the joy of that has something to do with the ease of picking up a rock. This was hard work. Elsa, Keith, and I poured hard dirt into our pan, covered it with water, mushed and pushed the pieces apart until there was no mud left, shook the big pan and then the little pan to find our little bits of clear rock and other rocks. Anna played in the sand and silty mud most of the time. We found about 10 small clear pieces of something that could be diamonds. After about 2 hours we headed to the washing station and went to get our rocks identified. Our possible diamonds were…drum roll…mostly Calcite and one was Quartz. No diamonds…sigh.
After some promised ice creams from the gift shop (a reward for everyone sleeping in their own bed that night), we headed back to the camper, took Goat Dog out and got some lunch. We changed into our bathing suits and headed to Diamond Springs.
When reading about this state park and the aforementioned Diamond Springs, I missed the part that it was a water park built next to the mine. In my head it was more like a natural spring we could hike to, but that didn’t stop us from paying the $40 to get in so we could spend several hours in the cool water, going down slides and shooting each other with water guns. It was a nice little water park. Anna loved it, she wanted to come back tomorrow. She jumped for joy the whole time. It was very refreshing and we left around 4pm to prepare snacks (I made stove-top popcorn again–still successful), shower, and make dinner (American Spaghetti with Ground Turkey and a Kale Salad in a bag). We played Yahtzee–which Anna won and went on a .2 hike to an Animal Blind (that had no animals but us crazies)–though we did pass another family with a dog that hated other dogs so we moved by fast as they tried to keep him at bay (luckily he was small and they could hold him). We explored a picnic area and the amphitheater as well where both girls gave riveting speeches (Anna’s included a riddle: What is big and small. Trash! & Elsa’s included an argument for dog rights and allowing them into all buildings). Shortly after we were back at the camper getting ready for bed.
See photos/videos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RFLqGxyCD5ZHaRrN6