January 15, 2008  Sacramento
2008 begins our New Year with longer trips to start exploring our home state first. The plan is to head north to Napa and Lake Berryessa, the largest man-made Lake in California, and visit with Daddy's Aunt for a week before heading to Monterey for a week or two stay. We hope to explore Santa Cruz, Seaside, Carmel and Big Sur. We wanted to stay at Lake Tahoe, but 40-foot coaches and snow are not a good mix. We're compromising with a day-trip to do some skiing and will follow up with some Tahoe-Time in the spring, perhaps on our way toward Canada. Following this exhausting trip, maybe we'll spend a little time with Grandpa and Grandma at Lake Morena.
We stopped to sleep atop the Grapevine.  If you look close, you can see the snow on top of the mountain. This is the view from the rest stop.
Papa in deep thought.
Ruff....Ruff. Okay pillow, I am going to tear you up if I catch you.
I'm a big girl now!
Taaa daaa.
{C} Here, this will scare 'em Sophia.  

 

{S} Oh sure, whatever.
I'm a princess and my daddy takes good care of me.  He holds me while I eat and hugs me 'till I sleep.  My daddy Loves Me!

And I love him too.
Gentle rolling hills soon after sunrise.  What a great scene to wake to.
Just north of Stockton is this water tower in the town of Tracy.  Christopher says "look at the big silver ball".
What a quaint little farmhouse.
I hope they don't expect this thing to supply water to all these folks in Sacramento.  I never knew they called it the "City Of Trees".
We've been studying the U.S. Geography and looking over maps recently.  When this truck passed us, Christopher exclaimed "hey, it's California".  At first we thought he read the words, but he had recognized the shape.
Headed around downtown Sacramento.
We went downtown to check out the capitol.  A Hard Rock Cafe?!  Who'd have thought?
These palm trees are bending.  What cool trees.
What!  It tastes good.  Would you like to lick it?
Looking up at the Courthouse in Sacramento.
Okay! He was looking at the fruit in the basket.

This was a statue in front of the courthouse.
Christopher had to take a picture with every statue.  And they had no shortage of statues at the Capital. 
Christopher told everyone "move please we want to take a picture."
California State Capital Building from across the street.
Sophia, Christopher and Papa posing in front pf the Capital.
Now it's daddy's turn.
What a beautiful building.  There were a large number of students and buses out front.  I'm not sure if this is a demonstration or a field-trip. 
... and the close-up.
The ball on top looks like gold.
The rotunda?  A round room with statues and amazing architecture.  This is a really cool building.
View up from the main floor.
They kept many of these original offices in historically accurate condition.
This is the office of the Secretary Of State.
This is one of the early maps of San Diego.  We tried to get a copy of it, but they do not sell them.
This was the label for the above map.
Need I say any thing more?
Inside the Governor's Private Office.  I don't know if you can see it, but a wire is coming down from the chandelier.  They powered part electric and part gas in the same chandelier. I am surprised the building is still standing.  Every room was like that.
All you need to do is read. hehe
And the office. 
This is the stairwell looking up.  The rails looked like they were large pieces of solid Cherry or Mahogany.
(Papa) It's roped off. (C) I don't care, let me talk to him
Note who's office this is.
Christopher has no shyness about asking for what he wants. At the front of Arnold's office stood a Sheriff and Christopher walked up and asked  "Hey officer can we go see the "Goverman"  (translation: Governor).
In Christopher went and we followed. This was in the carpet of Arnold's secretary's office.
After getting in Christopher took over acting like he was the Goverman. He walked over and asked for a pen and was about to start writing on some important documents when the secretary jumped up fast and said "NO" let me give you some paper Goverman.
This was the ceiling in the north hallway.  I like the picture. 
A Close up of the light fixtures in the hall.
Papa and Christopher strolling through the halls looking for places of interest, uh, places to get in to trouble.
I looked and looked for the money, but it look like the politicians got to it first. 
Look, they left the safe open.  
This is just a spectacular rotunda I took a lot of pictures from different angels.
Looking up from the center.
Legislature meeting and voting room. 
Christopher & Daddy elated to be able to see this in person.
Christopher & Papa.
I have typed it below so it's easer to read

During the gold rush days of 1857 the sisters of mercy came to Sacramento to care for the children of the miners and to serve the sick and homeless.

In those days, the sisters of mercy purchased land in the heart of the city to build a school.  Passage of the Capital Bill in 1860 resulted in the sale of that property to the State for it's original price of $4,850 This is now the site of the State Capital Building.

The Sisters Of Mercy have made significant contributions to the history and progress of the State of California. Their mission to care for the sick, the poor, the elderly and the uneducated continues today throughout the world.
I will try and read this and write it later if I can
This is the Statue of the Sisters Of Mercy. 
This is the Cuba War Veterans memorial statue.  I didn't know they had one, let alone at the Capitol.
It is located in a pond in the back park of the Capital Building.
Some more of the pond. Look close at the waters edge and the water fall.
A close up Turtles. 
This bridge looked cool so I took a picture.
This is a 1911 Draw bridge that crosses the Sacramento River. we found this when we were looking for Old Sacramento.
Look, we found it after making one big circle.
Some old west buildings.  Makes me think of May West "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"
Of course Christopher had to see the trains.  He was acting silly.
Okay the story goes like this.  Papa and Daddy went to Savanna Georgia and were on the rivers edge when Papa said "hey go stand by that big paddle boat".  So, with out looking, Daddy stood proud and smiled.   After uploading the pictures Daddy looked at it and above his head read Delta Queen.  So after seeing Delta King Daddy made him take another picture.
Christopher directing Papa and Sophia on where to stand for the picture he wanted to take.
Sophia Is so excited now that she can walk.   Papa is so Proud of our little girl.  We are missing Sarah.
She wanted to walk everywhere.  Now we are going back to the coach to head up to Napa
This is fun for the kids to look at and I enjoy it myself.
This is a tall dam, but the water is down right now
Daddy holding Christopher up so he could take pictures of it with "his" camera.   In case you're wondering, it's the Kid-Tough Camera by Fisher-Price.  This thing is very durable and has survived a lot of bumps and even drops.  I think it would survive most anything except water.  It takes low-resolution pictures and our four-year-old learned to operate it in about five minutes.
Napa County Line ...  we made it.
Christopher could not get just the right picture.
So we walked around to every angel we could imagine to get more.
This was looking across the road.  The geology here is fantastic.
Now it is Christopher's and Papa's turn to find the right angel.
And Again.
A smiley face greeted us as we turned down the road to the resort.  Next posting we'll show the resort and other interesting shots.