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Monday, October 13, 2008

Panning for Gold at the Cave of the Mounds

After the gift shop the kids and Lisa toured the gardens on the grounds.

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Then Lisa wanted the kids to 'pan for gold' outside the cave. I'd seen the - what would be the word? - panning area/sluice on the way in

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but I thought it was a stupid waste of time. $5 or $10 for a bag of sand? So they could find one ten cent arrowhead or a rock or two? Fugetabouit.

But Lisa said 'go' and I said 'yes'um' and I'm glad I did.

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Those bags turned up a wealth of objects for the kids to find.

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I'm not kidding, the discoveries kept coming and coming. Arrowheads, brightly colored stones, bits of fool's gold, you name it. I was a little peeved, to tell the truth. Inside the gift shop I'd spent $5 each for a rock, while here in the panning area they got a handful of stones for roughtly the same price. Woulda/shoulda/coulda listened to Lisa in the first place, but why establish a precedent?

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Heck, it was so successful and such a good time that I sprung for an extra round of bags to continue the fun.

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On the way home we stopped at the Johnson Creek Outlet Mall, where a half hour venture into the Children's Place store was less than enjoyable. Even so YaYa walked out with a kickin' hat.

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Just a great day all around :)

3 comments:

Beth said...

That sounds like something *I'd* like to do!

Beth

Ken Riches said...

Looks like a fun outing. Reading about the bought rocks and the panned rocks made me laugh :o)

Laura said...

My kids would have LOVED panning for treasures. Maybe not so much the oldest one, who is too busy texting that his cell phone would get wet, but the younger two!