Mining, Minions, and Ziplining - Day 7

Today flew by in a whoosh!  We woke up just before 9 and decided to expedite our breakfast and just do cereal.  We were all dressed and ready to head out at 10.

We were trying something new today... I found this place online prior to our trip that offered gem mining.  In essence, you pay for a bucket of dirt that is preloaded with fossils, gemstones, rocks, etc.  Then you take it over to the "river" and sift through the bucket to collect your treasures.  It looked a little hokey from the parking lot but we figured the kids would enjoy.  Boy, were we right!  They LOVED it.  It took about an hour to sift through our bucket, wash our treasure and have it assessed.  The kids were so proud of their collections... amethyst, emerald, topaz, fossilized squid, clam and plants, petrified wood, shark teeth, several sea shells, and an arrow head.

We could take home all of our finds but decided to have one of the amethysts cut for Sammy since its her birthstone.  We'll decide later if she wants a piece of jewelry made.  Tyler had his choice for a souvenir and zeroed in on the Megladon teeth.  He is SO excited about this one!

We wrapped up at the Gem mine and decided to take yet another go at seeing the Minion movie.  And, the third time was the charm!  We got in just in time although we did have to sit in the very front row.  Seriously, I've never seen a theater so small.  There weren't even 50 seats in it.  We all enjoyed the movie and the air conditioning.  The weather was warm today - over 90* - we just aren't used to that!

We headed home to have some quiet time, hoping to be well rested for tonight.  I made supper at 3:45 and we got on the road by 4:30 to head south-east to Pittman Center where we would go Ziplining at ClimbWorks.

This is the same company we used in 2014 and it was gorgeous...  9 zips, the longest over 1250 ft long... At times over 100' off the ground.  It takes about 2.5 hours to complete and the entire way down the mountain you are staring into the National Park.  BEAUTIFUL!

Disclaimer:  Sammy did have a hard time for the latter half of our evening... she just couldn't deal with the heat.  So there aren't a lot of pics of her smiling but we did have a great time.  We had an amazing guide (again) who has experience with autism who helped make it fun for her in spite of her frustration.

At the very end, we got to repel down out of the trees.  It is so intimidating to just step off that platform.  But so much fun!

We headed right home after we finished the zip lining.  Sammy was back to her sweet self once the A/C kicked in and she had cooled down.  Kids were both in bed by 10:00 pm.

We all agreed it was a great week and today was the perfect way to finish!  Tomorrow morning we will pack up and head for home.