This time since the trip was just a few hours long, we didn’t stop. The kids slept all the way down to Peabody. We arrived around midnight or so. On the way home we stopped for ice cream at Queechee Gorge. There is a gift shop and Ice Cream place. The kids got some ice cream and TJ and I got Black Raspberry shakes!
On the other side of the gift shop, they had a sluice way set up. Now, while the entire get-up was completely fake the kids really, really enjoyed finding crystals in their “mining ore”. Basically, we went in the gift shop, bought a big bag of dirt and when they dumped it into their pans they unearthed crystals, arrowheads, and fossils. Pretty neat. Skylar is WAY into crystals. He’s even created an entire game around crystals. So while you can purchase the get-up here, and buy the dirt-complete-with-crystals here, the boys really had a good time. Not to mention that Skylar came home and matched up all his gems to the poster on his wall. 
My mom and I went to Queeche Gorge last summer while Liz was at Not Back to School Camp. There a diner there called The Farmers Diner that is absolutely fabulous. Almost everything they serve is bought locally and a lot of it is organic. The food is amazing.
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