Our first time getting a weekend away after Luke was born was to celebrate our five year anniversary. We were lucky enough to get a weekend away while Aaron's mom watched our little 11-month old. (A feat that has only happened once more for my sister's out of town wedding!). We chose to get away to Sacramento, CA. I love living in Central California and being about 3-4 hours away from most touristy spots in the state. Neither one of us had been to Sacramento since our fifth grade class trips respectively, so we were excited to do some exploring. We stayed in Old Town Sacramento which allowed for us to walk pretty much anywhere we wanted to go. We walked over to the the Old Sacramento State Historical Park and took in the sights.
They call this the Big Four House. It is actually 3 separate buildings (you can only see the middle building in the picture) that were built between 1851 and 1852! It even housed the first Central Railroad office for 11 years starting in 1862.
I made Aaron take a photo of this little sign, he didn't find it as amusing as I did :)
We walked over to the State Capitol. It was such a nice walk, we found Downtown Sacramento to be beautiful. We toured the State Capitol, however they didn't really allow photos to be taken. Quite the feeling of gravitas to be in a room where laws were created and voted into being.
Loved seeing the different sculptures around the Capital Building.
These buildings were across the river from us. I do not know what they are, but they looked really neat!
Aaron was just starting to dabble in photography at this point, so he loved taking pictures of everything. This bridge was pretty close to our hotel. It is called the Tower Bridge and is a vertical lift bridge built in 1911. I just love the history that is Sacramento!
The Tower Bridge at night.
We also spent time visiting Sutter's Fort. (Have I mentioned I married a history major? :) ). I wish we would have taken more photos there. It was actually really cool to check out. You can explore different rooms and see John Sutter's desk.
The next day we visited the California State Railroad Museum, also located in Old Town Sacramento (have I mentioned what a great area this was to stay in??!).
There was A TON of history about the formation of the railroads and I loved that you could tour everything on your own. You could actually walk through train cars that were used way back when. I loved getting to see what it was like to have train travel as new and the main source of transportation.
Can you believe how large this locomotive was!
It looks so powerful, so graceful.
During the months of November and December, you can take the Polar Express to the north pole and even get a visit from Santa!
As we set off for home, we made a quick out of the way stop at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA. They offer free tours of the facility and even provide little samples of jelly bellys at the end of the tour. Checking out the Jelly Belly art was probably my favorite part- aside from the FREE Jelly Bellys! My absolute favorite mix is Pina Colada and Cotton Candy- eat them at the same time and it is amazing! You will thank me later :)
We came home to this little guy. Gosh, this seems like ages ago- he wasn't even walking yet!
Our trip to Sacramento was SO. MUCH. FUN. It was one of 2 times we have gotten a night away from our kids- you read that right, 2 times in almost 4.5 years :) and MAN it felt good. Of course we talked about Luke constantly and worried that he was sleeping well for his Nana, but it was so nice to just be Aaron and me.
I look forward to taking the kids back one day and really sharing some of California's history with them. What things have you enjoyed doing in Sacramento?
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