Sutter's Mill

David Nicolai, former director of the Pardee Home Museum now living in China, was here visiting this last weekend and I took the opportunity to do some more history tourism with him, just like when he visited about nine months ago.

We now live in Gold Country, so it was a quick jaunt over to Sutter's Mill. Why is this place important? It's where gold was first discovered (well, by the people who cared) in California, setting off the Gold Rush and forever changing the landscape and way of life here. John Sutter had set up a mill simply to create timber...yet one day in the mill race (the water current running the water wheel) a big nugget sat shining and ready for the plucking. It was plucked and the world changed.

Here is David and my husband in front of a replica of the mill. The original was a bit further down the river and fell prey to time (it was understandably abandoned in favor of gold mining) and water deterioration. Here at the wonderful Sutter's Mill State Historic Park, there is a glassed enclosure of several beams from the original mill.

The next picture is my husband being a miner at the American River steps away. Glumly, he found no gold. We couldn't believe how blue and sparkling the water was. It is truly a gorgeous river, but we wouldn't want to stand in its icy waters all day to pan for gold, as the Gold Rushers did.


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Sacramento train station

This weekend I picked up an old friend at the train station in Sacramento, David Nicolai. He now lives in China and was visiting for a few days before returning back.

I made a point of parking so that I could go inside the train station and wait for him...and I was rewarded by the sight of a vaulted ceiling and what was once a very grand station indeed. It needs some work--and that scaffolding looks like it's been there a while. But I could see past all that to something beautiful that just needs a little rehab work.

There was also a fantastic mural depicting the arrival of the first transcontinental train. I asked David if George Pardee (Oakland mayor and Calfornia governor) would have been in the picture, and he scoffed and said no, far too early. And maybe even too early for Enoch Pardee, George's father and also an Oakland mayor. More on my adventures with David soon.



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Pardee porcelain on display

The Pardee Home in downtown Oakland---home to California governor George C. Pardee and his globetrotting, antiques-collecting wife--is hosting an afternoon tea with the chance to look over Mrs. Pardee's wonderful collection of porcelain. If tea isn't your thing, simply take a tour to see the exhibit.

The home itself is well worth exploring, with intact furnishings from the time of the Pardees (turn of the century collections that the Pardee daughters never changed. The last of the Pardee line died in the 1980s, and the home was then turned into a museum.) "You won't want to miss Miss Helen Pardee's collection of exquisite demitasse cups, teacups and tea pots." www.pardeehome.org.




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Governor's mansion in Sacramento

David Nicolai, former director of the Pardee Home Museum in Oakland, California, now living as an ex-pat teaching English in China, recently came to visit. We took full opportunity of historical sites in the area and "geeked out historically." We visited three sites in two days: the first was the governor's mansion in Sacramento, now a museum and no longer a residence.

Governor George Pardee (1903-07) was the first to use this as a gubernatorial residence; it was initially built for another family. Of course, we were interested in this house given our interest in George! He brought his wife and four girls in from Oakland and installed them in the three-story mansion.

Over the years, time has taken a toll on the building despite its still-stellar exterior. You can only visit the first two floors, although the third is due to open soon from water-damage reconstruction. We toured the building with the belief it was to close on July 1; our tour guide reassured us that the museum had been given a temporary stay of execution, operating with reduced hours. Yay!

The coach house, too, is fantastic viewed from the outside. Note the horse head over the entrance, still original. Inside is a nice gift shop. This coach house is larger than many homes. Must've been nice for the horses.



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