Throughout our trip to Arizona, our plan was to be as adventurous as we could, do as much as possible, spend time with family, and visit any/all abandoned things in Kingman (and along the way). I'd have to say, we were very successful! I am so pleased with how the trip went, and the fact that we got to spend some great time with my sis, her husband and their baby! The day I'm writing about today, is one of our favorite days, in Kingman. We started out the day trying to first find an abandoned community of houses. We couldn't find it, but we found a cool house along the way. We continued on to find what we had heard was called Luana's Canyon AKA Slaughterhouse Canyon. The story goes something like this... During the 1800's and the gold rush days, a gold miner and family lived in the canyon; in a small wooden shack. The husband would venture out, via mule, into the mountains to search for gold and gather food for him and his family. His wife Luana stayed home to care for their children. One month, the husband never returned. Soon, the family began to starve. Luana lost her mind, unable to watch her children continue to starve. After murdering her children, Luana put on her wedding dress, during a rainstorm, and chopped up her children. She chopped them into several piece, went to the river and tossed their remains in the stream. The next morning she returned and died while mourning the loss of her children. Tales are still told that some days you can hear her crying within the canyon. Sadly, the wooden house is no longer there. We were very disappointed after spending literally hours trying to find it. Hmph, on to the next adventure! Jesse and I, my sis, her two friends, my niece, and my brother-in-law took my brother-in-law's big truck and went off roading. We were in search of finding an abandoned mansion we had heard about. We were dying to go ever since we heard of it!! We didn't have perfect directions, and barely had cell service! It took us about an hour to get to a point where we had to stop because the truck couldn't go any further. The trail was too narrow and too rocky. We all ended up walking (except baby Charlotte) about 2 miles, until we found the mansion. Even though it was 90+ degrees, we still enjoyed our hike. Our first encounter was with this cow, in the middle of the road! He eventually moved. LOL. I will include the directions, at the bottom of this post. Like I said, we parked the truck under a shady tree and started our hike. We all found it so neat that there was water, as we got closer to the mansion! The sun was beating down and shining so brightly! Some pictures, unfortunately, have sun spots. :( And finally....THE MANSION!!!.. I fell in love with the arched doorways, the vines leading up the mansion; and how well preserved the building was! History lesson: In 1929, during the Great Depression, the two-story mansion was built. Built by the Gold King Corporation, the structure is made up of 6-inch reinforced concrete, high arched windows and doors, and some beautiful wall decor (that still exists). The mansion was built to entertain wealthy investors as well as the mine foreman. The Gold King Mine produced gold, silver, copper, and lead. Sadly, production never reached the level the miners had hoped for. In October 1929, the stock market crashed and brought an end to the mine and beautiful mansion. The Hualapai 4 Wheelers have since adopted the mansion, in order to keep it vandal- and trash-free. We walked over to explore the mine and found a few rusty sheds, spread out, and several large holes (about 15 feet?) There is no longer any glass left, but the building was surprisingly very well preserved! The Moss Mansion and Gold King MineThe mine was actually quite difficult to get to. It was up a very steep hill, full of slippery sand and rocks. That is what is left of the main mine. Like I said earlier, there were multiple, but this was the larger one. Now, here is the only picture (I think in existence) of the mansion and mine, in working use. (Sorry for the poor quality!) Directions to The Gold King Mansion and Mine: [Please note: This route to the mansion must be done in either a 4-wheeler truck or jeep,or some type of quad/desert vehicle.] Head East on the I-40, from Kingman Take the Blake Ranch Road exit, and drive roughly 10 miles, until you reach this sign.. Once you reach this sign, turn right onto the dirt trail road. Drive as far as you can, and hike the rest of the way. There are definitely some tricky parts to get through. Good luck! The picture of the day is one that is quite special! It is our very first jumpy picture together!!! YAY! Thanks for reading!! We have one more post from our Arizona trip. Until next time, Ciao
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Hey there! So, this is going to be a quick post of an abandoned house Jesse and I found off of Hualapai, in Kingman AZ. This house isn't very old, and no one ever lived in it. The house wasn't quite finished when it was deserted. I love this style and the cool rustic shed, in the backyard. Enjoy! So we first drove on Hualapai Mountain Road to see what the beautiful mountains had to offer. During the winter, these mountains are beautifully covered in white snow! We brought along my niece, Audi, so she could ride in the car and stick her head out the window to enjoy the scenery too! :) (She's a German Short-Haired Pointer!) Is she not the cutest?!! I love her so much!!! Cutest, sweetest dog ever! After we enjoyed the view, we headed to an abandoned house we saw along the way. So this house has been abandoned for a few years now, and as you can see, people have destroyed it a bit. The biggest vandals in this house? Birds. Birds have taken over and moved into this house. Never have I ever seen this many bird feathers, in my life! Even though the house was unfinished, I loved the wrought iron throughout, with horse shoes on it! Although the house wasn't old, creepy and was infested with birds, it was still quite neat!! Picture of the day.... Thanks for reading!! Until next time! Ciao Hey there! Jesse and I have been so busy lately, we haven't had time to hike. He randomly had 2 days off, so, naturally, we jam packed those days with fun activities! We had been dying to go out to Jacumba and hike to all the abandoned trains out there! Tuesday was beyond perfect to go! Jesse packed his giant "survival backpack" (as usual) and we headed to Jacumba. We drove to DeAnza Springs Resort (a clothing optional community), paid $5 to park all day, and started our hike! We honestly walked through bushes to get to the railroad tracks, and then walked along them the entire time. It's not too difficult to find. We chose to bring along one bike, since I have bad knees and was slightly worried about the 14 mile round trip hike. We ended up only hiking about 7 miles total; choosing not to go all the way. Less than a mile in, you'll come across the first abandoned train. We spent a good amount of time inside and on top of this train. So awesome and fun!! Some of the seats had tiny mattresses. LOL. I love all the spirals, though!! We found several bird's nests. Jesse shrieked when he realized the birds were alive and inside one of them! I'm not sure why I found it so cool that it was a two story train! He's always such a gentleman!! All of the hues were muted and gave off an 80's vibe. It was a tad eerie, but fascinating more than anything. We made our way to the front of the train and found all of the control panels. The textures and colors of the entire train came across as a form of art to my eyes. So engaging and fascinating. We searched everywhere to find a date to figure out how old this train is. We finally found one stamped on a window in the control room, dated '81. Jes was dying to go on top of the train so we made our way up, before we continued on the hike. [Please note: I am terrified of heights!!] Please excuse my hair. To say it was a windy day is an understatement. And now for our goofy-adventurous side, if you will. Am I allowed to have bragging rights? ;) I do call him "Mr. Perfect" for a reason! On to the rest of our train journey. There are many bridges, but it is extremely peaceful out there! Never count me out. We enjoyed the beautiful patterns in the mountains. An alluring mountainous view. Jesse wanted to 'capture my face' when I saw where we were heading next.. By the looks of this one, it was definitely older than the last, and possibly from Mexico. We sat for a little while, on the train, ate a snack, and played music on Jesse's phone. We saw a bird's nest above the door, by where we were sitting, and suddenly the birds woke up. I sat on Jesse's shoulders to get a picture of them! So cute, yet creepy lookin'!! Don't worry, I just used spit to write our name on the train. Left me with a few blue-stained fingers, LOL. We both wanted to continue on, but the wind was at least over 80 mph. It was not only cold, but pushing us over..even Jesse!! At times it was hard to walk and even ride the bike. We made it back to the first train and took more jumpy pictures. We most definitely want to come back and do the entire hike! There is much more to this hike that we did not see. After leaving, we knew we would drive passed the Golden Acorn Casino, so we stopped in. They didn't have any deals for signing up, so we decided to walk over to a restaurant and check out the $7.77 Prime Rib Dinner. Sounds unappealing to me, but we just had to. It's funny how minor things entertain us, and draw us in. The dinner came with either soup or salad (we chose the sausage soup) and the sides we got were mashed potatoes and "veggies". The mashed potatoes were actually quite good. My meat was super dry, the soup was good, and the green beans were soaked in butter. Oh well, at least we can say we ate the $7.77 dinner, right? HAHA! Picture of the day? Our prime rib dinner...LOL! Thanks for reading!! Until next time! Ciao
Happy Earth Day! That picture is from Easter, on our stroll through Barnett. Yesterday, Jes had the day off and we wanted to do an all day adventure, before we met with my pastor; for coffee, at 6! We decided to venture to Julian and get pie. We didn't have much of a plan. We drove up and our first stop was in Santa Ysabel, at Dudley's Bakery. I grew up eating Dudley's bread and it always makes me feel warm inside when I go there. After a wonderful service at church, for Easter, these crosses really stood out to us both.. As this picture says, Dudley's was founded in 1963. Dudley Pratt was a middle aged expert baker who had previous bakeries and wanted to start one in Santa Ysabel. After receiving criticism on the bakery being "too far away" he soon had customers traveling from near and far to taste his delicious breads, fruit bars, and pastries. Every Summer, Mr. Dudley Pratt would close the store for two months, to travel to Europe and get inspiration. He would search long and far for delicious and unique breads, pastries, cafes and more to find the perfect flavors to adapt to his menu; to please his customers. Ten years after opening the bakery, Dudley Pratt passed away. The bakery still prides itself on doing things the Dudley way. Quality, taste, uniqueness and freshness is their hallmark. The bakery now produces thousands of loaves of bread a day, and provides deliciousness to many bakeries and grocers all over San Diego County. After visiting Dudley's, we trucked along and made our way to Julian. We took a few delightful pictures along the way. It really was a beautiful day! Our first stop, in Julian, was the Julian Jail. This used to be my favorite place to go and peek in to. Before, they had the door open and a gate, so people could peer in and imagine being a criminal back in 1914. They have since closed the door and blocked off the window. It's sad that others have to ruin it for people like us, who aren't planning on throwing our trash in there; but, simply enjoying history. We continued driving and saw a sign for Lake Cuyamaca. We both hadn't been in a long time, and decided to explore that area. I was amazed with how beautiful it is, once we started driving around to the other side of the lake. The sun glistening off the water, the clear blue skies and my best friend by my side..how could I feel any happier??! We both glanced into the water at the water toys we could rent, and we knew then what we were doing for the day! The winds were considered "strong", so we couldn't rent anything other than a motor boat. We were so excited, since neither of us had rented a motor boat before. With Jesse's military discount, it was only $25 for a half day! Not bad! We went into the restaurant next to the rental shop, bought a veggie sandwich and headed down to the dock. Say "hello" to our little blue boat! We both knew I didn't have a clue what I was doing, if I was captain; so, from then on, I referred to him as Captain Jesse. It was so lovely to just sit back, take pictures, and enjoy the beautiful day. Knowing at the beginning of the day we had no idea we would be doing this, made it even more fun! Being spontaneous and enjoying life, really is the way to live. We went around for a bit, docked the boat on an "island", and enjoyed our lunch. Please excuse my "candid" moments. I prefer to be behind the camera, not in front. ;) After eating, we started our hike, on the "island". And now for our jumpy pics! I apologize for mine being blurry. We returned the boat, and made it back to Julian in time for pie!! We ordered one slice of Dutch Apple with a scoop of cinnamon. We will definitely be back!! Picture of the day is of two huge frogs we saw while leaning over the edge of the wooden bridge. They were SO big. I think they were fake, but Jesse thinks they're real. Who knows... Thanks for reading! Until next time, Ciao
HAPPY EASTER!!! We have been busy lately, so we haven't gotten to explore or blog as much. Today, we went to church and then had brunch with my mom and grandma, at my grandma's house. How adorable is my gram? She made my mom, Jesse and I Easter bags full of chocolates! Yum. But, OH MY! How adorable is my 1-month old niece in her Easter outfit! AHH! Can't handle it!!! Yesterday, Jesse and I got a booth at Kobey's Swap Meet, here in San Diego, and sold a bunch of our old stuff!! It was a long day! We came out of it with a decent amount of money, and almost 10 hours of selling. We both got so burnt! This Icee helped, though... Back to today. We had a very lovely morning with my family. We realized we could either: A. Take a nap and be lazy, or B. Hike and be productive. One severe food coma later, we chose to hike. We ventured to Barnett Ranch, in Ramona. It was more of a relaxed evening stroll, but we really enjoyed every minute of it! A bit of history (if you care): Augustus Barnett and his wife, Martha moved west, as he established himself as a pronounced businessman, in Cleveland, from around 1825-1840. The couple moved to San Diego in 1875. Barnett Ranch was built in 1877, in Ramona. The property was a working cattle ranch for over 100 years. Much of the vegetation is native and non-native grassland. The Preserve actually spans 728 acresThe Barnetts were important to the expanding of ramona; including gifting the Ramona Town Hall, on Main Street. There are two trails to choose from, but we started on the first trail we reached, on our left-hand side, and did the full loop. It is all flat, no steep hills, and I think it is 2.5 miles round trip. All of the beautiful greens and blues were overwhelming, yet calming. We fell in love with this spot to do our jump because of the greenery, the visual of the trail, and the picnic table on the other side! So peaceful!! We sat and enjoyed the view for a while and chatted. When we started walking over to this area, we heard a huge group of coyotes howling, not too far away. So many beautiful green hues!!! Jesse said this tree looked like alligator skin! Lol. Spike-y area of doom!!! Here's a coyote and his 4 friends waiting for him. He tried staring us down with intimidation. The trail was overall extremely peaceful. The weather was perfect and we ended up having a delightful day, all around! This is such a nice tranquil trail. It was also a bit romantic. Picture of the day is of my cat, Mr. Barnes. Thanks for reading! Until next time! Ciao
Yesterday, Jesse got off work at 4, so we decided to find adventure somewhere new. If you have ever driven south on the 5, in Encinitas, and looked right, you have probably noticed a lagoon. Also next to the lagoon are these cliffs. To me, these cliffs look nothing more than just boring old cliffs with tons of brush around them. Boy, was I wrong!!! This location is incredible, and nothing like what I ever expected! Lets start from the beginning. I Googled how to find the trail and where to park. I couldn't find the answer I was looking for. I found that the area is called San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve. So, naturally, I just mapped it on my phone. What came up was, to me, the place to go: San Elijo Lagoon County Park. We exited the freeway, drove to the end of the road and got out; so excited for our adventure. We found this trail, (AKA not the one we wanted) but still a cool trail. So, back on the road we went. We exited Manchester, turned left, and parked in Mira Costa College parking (after asking the police officer if that was alright). We crossed the street and were shocked to find... DEER!! Who would have thought?? Now, I'm trusting you with telling you these directions, in hopes that you will not disrespect nature, in ANY way!!! I want others to enjoy it, like Jesse and I did. Please don't litter, carve or destroy the nature. We continued on, until we found this fence. A jogger was coming toward the fence from the other side, so we crossed through. How pretty is that? I love hot air balloons! We passed parts of the lagoon and I am now convinced that the Loch Ness Monster lives in the lagoon!! (Ok, not really, but something creepy like it!) Not only did we see at least 3 snake-like creatures, but we saw, and mostly heard, more under the bridge. And, no, it wasn't our imagination, or ducks, ok?! We continued on the path, reached another fence, walked along the trail, and finally reached the bridge. You want to walk under the freeway bridge. My anxiety was pretty high, because it was nearing 7PM, so the sun wasn't going to be up much longer. We had a ways to go, and still wanted to enjoy it. So, we started jogging. There were two trail options, after the bridge. Take the right path. We did pass a few of these. Oops. Sorry mom. The true thrill, lay behind the yellow signs.. Of course, my monkey had to climb. :) Ah, my dangerous monkey scares me sometimes. I had to tell him to get down, 'cause he didn't realize how high he had climbed!! I considered doing some climbing of my own, but then I thought, mmm..better not! Lol Like I said, some parts get extremely narrow! I was beyond excited when I realized we had made it to the top in time to watch the sun set!! Sadly, we had problems taking motion shots :( But it was still fun. We do this jump everywhere. We were sad to leave this beautiful site, but it was getting so dark and creepy, we had to! Something you must know about me is that I am terrified of the dark!! Yes, I will openly admit that. Mind you, it was basically pitch black on our way back. We chose to take a different way back, due to the fact that it was a bit quicker, and the other way back didn't seem too appealing. At one point I was basically on Jesse's back as he macheted through "the forest", with his hands and body. We sometimes choose to make our own trail. (respecting the wildlife, obviously) Famished when we finally reached the car, we decided to stop and grab a bite at The Habit, off Lomas Santa Fe. This place is amazing! Awesomely delicious food, super cheap (like In-n-out) and unbelievable shakes and malts. The Habit Burger Grill was established in 1969, in Santa Barbara! They donate to various charities, schools, food banks, humane societies and more. I ordered the strawberry milkshake with a charburger + avocado. MMM! The best part? They have caramelized onions on their burgers!! Heaven! Jesse got the teriyaki charburger, which has pineapple; and he also got the chocolate malt. All in all, another amazing adventure. Now, here is my favorite picture of the day! Thanks for reading! Until next time! Ciao
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AuthorA passionate lover of food, adventure, traveling, and enjoying life! Archives
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