Celeste's Creations: Preston Castle/Sutter Creek

I woke up early on a Saturday morning (which I really do try to avoid) and quickly got the itch to go somewhere. The weather was suppose to be PERFECT for a July summer day in Sacramento (82 degrees), so to me that meant roadtrip. Last weekend I spent all day on the couch trying to get rid of a migraine, so I didn't want to waste another one by being inside on the couch.

I went looking online for different daytrip ideas. Living in Sacramento we do have plenty of options. I didn't want to go somewhere on the coast, as I'll save those cooler daytrips for the 100+ degrees of summer. I then thought how about Jackson/Sutter Creek as it would be cool enough to walk the streets and take some photos of the quaint little towns. While on the internet I searched for things to do around Sutter Creek and found a interesting location; Preston Castle.

The description of an old abandoned boys reform school in a 46,000sq.ft. castle that has been featured on many television shows of the paranormal peaked my interest. I did a quick search for images and saw it was full of character and creepiness to make me want to go. I called mom around 9:30am and she quickly called Fonda to get ready and head down to my house to get on the road to Ione by 11.

The website (http://www.prestoncastle.com/history.html) said it was open for tours from 10-1pm, so that gave us what I figured about an hour to wander the castle. They are only open for day tours the first and third Saturdays, with an additional option of overnight tours coinciding with the full moon (no thank you). We arrived at the castle in less than 40 minutes from my house. There was a long line of Harley bikes parked in front. We were surprised at how close to the main road it was, Fonda and I were both picturing a long dirt driveway. We walked into somewhat confusion as to where to go and what to do. We found the table where to pay your $10 fee, but it was surrounded by people with a very unhappy older woman manning the cash drawer. We finally got to pay our $10, where we were told to sign our names and given tokens in return. Turns out they run tours on a first come first serve basis. There is no self guided tours allowed. We took our coins and walked off to wait.

As we come out on the huge porch we were greeted by an old man who asked us if this was a county or state. Fonda and I both looked confused and told him we didn't know as we just got here. He then proceeded to ramble on about how if someone (I was assuming me since he was looking my direction) didn't stop the pounding he was going to hit them. Not sure who this crazy person was, we just agreed and walked away hoping to avoid further contact. I went inside to see how much longer it would be for us to start as it was now around 12:30 and didn't have any idea how long the tour was. I found someone who explained the process, each tour group has a number (we were 12, they were on 10) and we start by watching a 10 minute video. She said it would be about 15 minutes before we would start.

We wandered the grounds a bit and then went inside to wait for our number. Crazy old man followed and proclaimed himself as Smokey the bear and should be addressed as Smoky and starting rambling on about someone coming down outside. I wasn't sure if he was seeing ghosts or what, but it turns out one of the tour guides is his daughter and he has Alzheimer.

Luckily our number came up and they crammed the remaining people into the small video room where the guide was clearly annoyed with the length of the video and turned it off before it was done to get us through quicker.

We went through the door and before the tour really began another tour guide showed up to take half of the group and we quickly jumped to the new guide, as it seemed ours was in a rush. It ended up being a good decision, as we got a patient guide and the most well behaved family with kids. Our guide, Stephen Gatz, took his time explaining everything about the school, it's occupants, what life was like for them back then, and the deaths that occurred onsite. The school opened in 1894 closed in 1960. It has since been named a landmark and has been featured in many paranormal shows, included Ghost Adventures and a recent Vampire B-movie was filmed there last month.

To tell you the truth I didn't really listen to much of the information the guide was giving as I was too busy wandering off to take photos. The place is full of creepiness, but mostly I found the decay and deconstruction of the place fascinating. And all the nice muted colors they had it painted made for some amazing pictures. The tour lasted over an hour and half and I ended up taking about 200 photos. I will definitely go back and maybe even listen to the tour guide this time. Basically my version of the tour was, this was a school for bad boys who lived and worked in not so good conditions. Someone murdered the cook and hide her in the back of the kitchen, a few boys who tried to escape were shot there. They all showered, went to the restroom, worked, schooled and slept in close quarters and the pool wasn't for swimming but for "cleansing" them when they first arrived.

After the tour we were starving as we had no idea the tour would last that long. We drove into Jackson and had lunch at Perkos. I had a great BLT with avocado and mom had a burger and fries. Fonda thought we were going on a picnic or something so packed her own lunch and ate it in the car on the way to lunch. We ended up going to Sutter Creek and wandering the shops for another hour, as most of them had already started to shut down around 4pm.

Sutter Creek is a little town full of antique and unique shops. We went into one consignment shop and meet their little mascot, Mitzi, the Westie dog. I snapped a few photos of her as she started to pose for me (I ended up sending them to the owners), she was so cute and sweet. We went to our favorite gallery/store Fine Eye. This is a store full of unique and beautiful artistic items. Unfortunately most of them are out of my price range, but its still a great store to get inspiration from.

We ended up coming back to my place and hanging out in the garden. It was a great daytrip to get out and discover new places. I highly recommend a tour of the Preston Castle. Maybe in Fall when the weather is cool again, as they obviously don't have a/c and they said they will be opening up the third floor for tours in six months. In the meantime I'll have to watch some of the Ghost Adventures and see if the ghosts are wandering the halls.