What should I do with $30,000?

My gram recently died :( and she was worth quite a bit, so my mom and brothers and I are all getting a good chunk of change. By the beginning of 2013 I’ll have about $30,000 dollars. My mom is giving us the just straight up money that my grandma had sitting around the house (which was a lot…she only used cash and, of course, didn’t trust banks)...she’s giving it to us in separate checks of under 13,000 a year so we don’t have to pay an inheritance tax on it (what fuckin bullshit!) ....anyhow! What should I do with it? I went to the bank today and the banker told me essentially a CD is pointless, because you can’t touch it and interest rates are so low now it’s pointless. I’m more interested in something like gold or stocks. I’ve owned a gold coin before and I liked that, but I also get nervous about having a tiny, quarter sized thing worth 2000 dollars…I’m afraid of losing it!! I move around a lot and travel a bit and would feel…I don’t know, just uneasy. Stocks? I literally don’t know the first thing. Are there any other options?

FYI, I will be using a couple thousand dollars, putting it in my primary checking account just to make myself a bit more comfortable. And, like I said with the CD above, I want to be able to use it if I need to. And by need I mean, if I want to travel or need to fund something large, probably a trip.

I’m just looking for some input, basically. Thanks. :)