Soveriegn Hill!

We drove a couple of hours up into the flat lands and hills to the town of Ballarat for a few days. Our big event was going to Sovereign Hill - an interactive museum of a gold mining town and Parker's dream come true! However, we no sooner than arrived when Parker came down with the second round of the stomach flu (all three came down with it on Christmas Day and we moved this trip out a couple of days in hopes that everyone would be well). We arrived at the town, panned for gold for about 15 minutes and then Parks begged to go back to our house and became totally ill again and then fell asleep until the next day. Poor guy. Back the next day for round two with Parker feeling better! This time we made it an hour before Ireland threw up all over me in the bakery and it pooled in my shoes and we headed back to our house again. And then Parker got sick. Again. Bless it! I drove back to the museum and explained our situation and they gave us tickets for a third day on them. Such nice people! So, on to day three and this time we made it! What a gloriously fun day with everyone feeling better and we could all enjoy this amazing recreated town.

 We explored the ins and outs of this very cool authentic town from the 1850's. I'm sad I didn't grab a photo of the police officer who kept stopping us for things like inappropriate clothing. He was hilarious and also became increasingly intoxicated throughout the day. :) All of the workers in the shops and museum "wanderers" are dressed the part and never break character. We were amazed and delighted to find that most of the products they sell in the authentic storefronts are made by hand in their shops by the original methods of the 1850's. This outdoor, interactive museum was a delight to all of us!

 Parks modeling some "tear catchers"

 Two eager firefighters ready to put out some fires!

 One of the kids' favorites - the bowling alley! It was incredibly long and the balls were incredibly heavy! And no automatic pin reset of course - you bowl one ball and then run down to set up the pins and roll your ball back. Of course the bowling alley owner explained with great detail how to play this game as it had recently been created and brought to this town and nobody had ever "heard of it before".

 Quick stop in one of the many churches.

 Another favorite! The candle shop. The ladies here informed us it will take 80 dips on this hand cranking machine to make each and every candle. The kids got to try their hand at dipping and making their own decorative candles.

 The view from the top of the mining tower.

 Another favorite experience! We road a gold car deep underground (with over a minute in complete and total darkness! - Ireland did great!) and went on a sound and light experience recreating the most tragic mining event in Australian history - when 27 men became trapped in a flooded mine. The tour had real water and rushing waterfalls trapping us and a solemn and historical sound and light play telling us about this historical event. It was quite and experience for everyone!

 On to Parker's dream come true - mining for real gold! We bought little containers for each of them and actually collected quite a bit of gold (flecks) out of this awesome mining river with pans. It took us a few hours but Parks could have spent an entire day here. The staff was quite impressed at how much he collected! They told him they sell vials with less than he collected for quite a it at the museum store! This boy knows his gold and has been mining the creek behind our house for years!

 The tinsmith at the foundry! This was probably Jeremy and I's favorite shop because we were enthralled with what these men make and do all day in this hot shop on machinery from 1851! They also made wood items as well. They were so talented!

 Part of Sovereign Hill had a Chinese Miners Settlement on it with their own store and Evie was so excited to find this sun parasol for $4!

 The transportation around town.

 The redcoats! They arrived in town mid day and marched through the streets before climbing to the balcony of a hotel where their leader made a big speech about the various places the redcoats inhabited and were currently fighting for freedom. Then they fired off their muskets - so impressive!