Dublin, May 2022

This year our humans were going to drive around California and other states. It would be Roger's 10th visit to America, and he was excited with the prospect of cruising the Pacific Highway 1 to Hollywood in Los Angeles. Then we'd tour Arizona, Utah and Nevada, before returning to California to follow some of the footsteps of the gold rush in the mid 18 hundreds.

Click each photo to enlarge

From Tonopah in Nevada we headed west, back towards California to explore the gold rush. On Highway 89 on the way to Lake Tahoe we stopped for lunch to enjoy the views near Lake Topaz.
"Have we run out of coffee?" Tom asked from the car.
"Yup! That happened on the border to California."
"OMG! I'll have to drink water then..."

Monitor Pass, California, May 2022

We stopped briefly to have our photo taken at the Monitor Pass. Apart from the 9600 feet near Larb Hollow in Utah, 8314 feet at Monitor Pass was the highest we reached.
"Brrr, it's cold" said McBear. "There are patches of snow around us."

Folsom, California, May 2022

From Lake Tahoe we followed US Highway 50 to Folsom. The Fairfield Inn and Suites would be our base camp for the next couple of days while we'd be exploring some of the Gold Rush towns and mines in the area.
We got a lovely room. The only issue was the usual issue of how much space Roger wanted of the bed, and how much he would allocate to the the rest of us.

Placerville, California, May 2022

Then we went gold digging! Just north of Placerville we visited the old Gold Bug mine. Once, they dug out gold from the mine. "It looks fairly dark in there, doesn't it?" Roger said.
"Yeah, I suppose so. Wonder how dark the tunnel was before they introduced electric bulbs."

Gold Bug Mine, Placerville, California, May 2022

We followed the tunnel and went deep into the mountain.
"Do you think we could find any gold?" asked Roger. "Imagine we came across an new gold ore..."

Coloma, California, May 2022

From Placerville we went on Highway 49 to Coloma. It was here, at the American River, that James Marshall in January 1848 found gold flakes in the river. When news slipped out a couple of months later, the gold rush started in 1849.
"Wow!" said Roger all excited. "Imagine we'd find gold nuggets! I bet we could find some nice pieces here."
"We should get some gold pans..." McBear agreed.

Coloma, California, May 2022

After the discovery of gold, Coloma became a gold mining town, and after around 5 years there were about a quarter of a million fortune hunters in the area. Unfortunately, there were nowhere in Coloma where we could buy gold pans.

Sutters Creek, California, May 2022

Sutter Creek is one of the famous towns from the gold rush time. It's also located at the Highway 49 - named after 1849, the year of the boom of the gold rush. We went around the town in search of gold pans. They had plenty of pans in the souvenir shops, but nothing bear sized.
"Typical," said Roger. "Just typical! We have to start manufacturing bear sized pans and start a wholesale..."
"I like your visions," McBear said in recognition.

El Dorado, California, May 2022

We also went to El Dorado, which also was among the gold rush towns. The town has its name from a mythical person from Bogota in South America. El Dorado was believed to spray gold dust around his body at festivals and then jump into the Lake Guatavita to wash off the dust. Now, we didn't meet any naked persons in El Dorado, covered in gold dust, but we had hoped to met a golden bear.

Napa Valley, California, May 2022

From Folsom City we went to Calistoga in the northern part of Napa Valley. In 2017 we had stayed in Ukiah to visit the wine region and it was great to be back in the valley.

Calistoga, California, May 2022

Driving around, we came across a good few old cars, and McBear got all excited as he spotted this beauty of a Chevrolet Impala from 1959.

Ledson Winery, Santa Rosa, California, May 2022

There are many winery and vineyards in the area between Napa Valley and Santa Rosa. Here's Ledson Winery on Highway 12 east of Santa Rosa.

San Francisco, California, June 2022

The last night we stayed at the Marriott just outside San Francisco Int. Airport. We gathered all the stuff we had picked up during our trip: there were salt and pepper from our outbound flight - incl. dressing! There were rock samples from Flagstaff and piles of coffee cups and bowls from various hotels - and gold nuggets from Coloma! McBear had proposed we'd get the nuggets in Coloma just in case we needed to make it look like we had actually found gold in the American River...

San Francisco Int. Airport, California, June 2022

Then it was was time to find our seats on the flight back to Dublin in Ireland. Grange had loved the days on the road in America, and he was looking forward to seeing the trip unfold on the bears' website TravellingBears.ie.

Dublin Mountains, August 2022

Inspired by all the gold rush and gold digging, Roger wanted to find out whether there was any gold in Ireland to pan. Roger studied history and mining in Ireland and learned that in fact there had been gold discovered. All excited Roger insisted that we'd go up the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains and find the source of the River Liffey. Not far from the mountain Kippure - with the antenna on the top - we found the source of the River Liffey.

Dublin Mountains, August 2022

Having panned for several hours we decided that we was time to return home for some well deserved coffee - and pastry.
"Ah, well," Roger said, "we'll be back panning another day....