#hist124

[allovercalifornia-blog]

For photoset 7, I went to Old Town and visited the stable museum. It showed some of the first wagons, which even one included a wagon that traveled to Los Angeles as well as San Diego. 

[allovercalifornia-blog]

For photoset 5, I went to the First Courthouse of San Diego

[allovercalifornia-blog]

For photoset 4, I went to Old Town and visited this village, showed the homes of first California

[allovercalifornia-blog]

(Sorry for the horrible quality, they were taken on my old phone) but this is from a little over a year ago when I was in Orange County and went to the Aliso Creek and Laguna Beach. I think hiking is amazing and the beach will always have a piece of my heart.

[allovercalifornia-blog]

I visited the Whaley House in Old Town, San Diego. I had taken 79 photos, but only could post 10 so I picked the most interesting/significant during the self tour.

[hajira-khan]

I frequent Old Town as often as I can and almost always stop in for a self-guided day tour of The Whaley House Museum. Here are a couple of photos I snapped before my phone died during one of these visits.

These photos are of the living quarters, which for the last 13 years has been restored to what it may have looked like in that era. A busy time period in which the home was occupied by residents, a general store, a courthouse, and the Tanner Troupe Theatre group in the upstairs front bedroom. 

The courtroom was initially built by Thomas Whaley as a granary in 1856. The rest of the home was added on beginning in late 1856 and was finished the following year. Stories passed down and whispered around town for over 150 years tell a tale of death plaguing the land that the Whaley house was built on. Just before Thomas Whaley purchased the land, a 6'4" man named Yankee Jim Robinson, a tried and convicted thief, was hung by the gallows to his slow death. Years after the home was built and scenery changed, one thing remained constant: death in the home. Among the Whaleys that have passed in the home or on the Whaley grounds were: 18-month old Thomas Whaley who contracted and died from Scarlet fever (1858), Violet Eloise who committed suicide after a divorce and deep depression (1885), Anna Whaley (1913), Francis Hinton Whaley - the eldest son who began restoration of the home in 1909 - (1914), and Lillian Corinne - the youngest Whaley and last to reside in the home - (1953).

The Whaley House was the very first two-story brick home in San Diego at the time, and eventually began to deteriorate around the time Lillian resided in the home alone. Restoration efforts continue, thanks to the Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO), and each visit to the museum contributes to the continuous restoration of this haunted gem in Old Town San Diego.

[breerees2]

Julian Mines, my husband and I make an annual drive to Julian to take in the sights, have some fun and revisit the place where we got married.  Last year we did not get a chance to visit because I had just had surgery, not to mention our little girl.  So we went last weekend.  

These are some of the tools used in local gold mining.  This particular mine was a stamp mine.  This means that after they dug the gold from the ground they would put it in a giant machine that "stamped" the rocks and crushed them to remove the gold.

[ninamillar]

So, I just remembered I have these photos! A few summers ago I road tripped with some friends up the 101 - and we visited the great redwood forests in northern California!

For some background on the Avenue of the Giants: "The Avenue of the Giants is a scenic highway in Northern California, U.S.A., running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It is an old alignment of U.S. Route 101, and continues to be maintained by the state as State Route 254." Some of the trees we are photographed with are nearly 1,000 years old! Now that tree has seen some history :)