Chaw-Se

Recently, my son and I took a short trip to the California Gold Country to visit Chaw-Se, Indian Grinding Rocks State Historic Park.

My son and his dad went camping there once when he was a young teen and he really loves this spot that has been occupied by Native Americans for thousands of years.

According to the State Park brochure, this site has "...the largest collection of bedrock mortars anywhre in North America. The Miwok women used this large outcroppings of rock to grind acorns for centuries, and there are over 1100 grinding holes located through out the park. Most of them are on one very large outcropping that even has a viewing platform over the fragile rock so visitors can get a close look at both the mortar holes and petroglyphs.

A reconstructed roundhouse and individual bark houses are also in the park. The roundhouse is partially underground and was traditionally the center of the community. It was used for ceremonies for special occasions.

I could almost hear the voices and laughter of the women as they worked at grinding their acorns.

I enjoyed our little jaunt up into the foothills to this beautiful spot and the interesting history attached to it.

Are there any fun places near you that you would recommend visiting?

Finalist

I'm excited to announce that High Seas Deception has recently been recognized by not one, but TWO different contests.

A couple of weeks ago, I received the news from the Kindle Book Review that High Seas Deception was a Semi-Finalist in their Best Indie Books of 2012 contest. Herel is the list of all the semi-finalists in the romance category: http://thekindlebookreview.blogspot.com/p/romance-semifinalists.htm 

Needless to say, I'm very excited and pleased to be included with many other excellent authors. Five finalists from each category will be announced on Sept,. 1st and I'm keeping my fingers XXed that High Seas Deception will make the cut. But in the meantime, I get to display this really cool badge.

Earlier this week, I received more exciting news.The eFestival of Words is sponsoring the "Best of the Independent eBook Awards, and they nominated High Seas Deception as a Finalist in the Thriller category. 

So join me in doing the Snoopy-happy-dance!