Family Getaway to Tahoe

So we made it to Lake Tahoe and met up with the family. It was thundery when we got there Monday, but the weather was great the rest of the time we were there--and of course lots of smiles all around.

Day 1 -- we decided to scope out the area and see what we could find. Didn't take long to enjoy the lake.

The water was very clear and pretty cold. Some of us ventured into the water the first day, but we decided to heed the cold water sign and just put our feet in it. But the rocks were pretty killer on the feet--guess we just have sensitive city feet. 

And of course there were a lot of these little guys around. They either loved to pose for the camera or they wanted a tip. I think we took several dozens shots.

Couldn't keep from having fun at the beach. 

And if the beach somehow got a little boring, one could just turn around to river wilderness awesomeness. Always something pretty to look at in Tahoe.

So the next part of our trip took us to Emerald Bay. We decided not to go down to the beach but to soak up the views up above. 

First day and we are all having a blast! Check!

We decided to be a little adventurous and check out the waterfall. Kind of blazed our own little trail to get there.

On top of the world!

Some of the trees were very cool.

So we went to another beach on day two, but someone else has those pictures. So once we get those pictures we will post them.

On day three we said our good-byes and split from the group. After stopping at In-n-Out for some lunch, we checked into our hotel and had a little extra time to go to the Sacramento Temple, which was very beautiful! 

Day 4  --  Sacramento

Capitol building was our first stop after breakfast. Sacramento is such a pleasant city--especially downtown. Having lots of trees really livens up the place.

So basically everything inside and out of the capitol building is immensely detailed and is full of images and carvings (this is taken from the state seal). For example this piece of artwork is on the ground right outside the bathrooms--if the bathrooms have this much detail around it, the rest of the place must be awesome, right? Yes!

The assembly room where the assembly men and woman meet and vote on laws. This is also called the house of representatives.

So much detail on everything. The tour guide lady told us that the building was started around the same time that Abraham Lincoln was President. Even though they had to renovate the building in 1970 to support the building better with cement and steel, everything is still as it was when it was originally built. The chairs down there are originals. There was one guy in charge of making all of those desks in both the Senate and Assembly rooms (along with the chairs where the public sat). It took him 9 years to carve all of those desks and chairs.

This is the Senate Room. The Senate room is red and the Assembly room is green to copy the House of  Commons and Lords from England. House of Commons is green and House of Lords is red--which is royalty color.

The great seal of California is everywhere. I bet there is a game to see if someone can find all of them because there must be at least 100 images of the seal.

The detail is incredible. This is right below the dome and is above every entrance into a hallway.

This little guy is also above every hallway. (If you can't tell what it is it's supposed to be a bear.) I like how it has a pink mouth and all the other statues are gold.

The ground in this hallway is a mosaic and depicts the state flower, the golden poppy. When they renovated the building the contractors had to take a picture of the hallway, remove all of the little pieces, and then put it back together again like a puzzle. It took nearly 3 years to put back.

The stairways in the capitol were my favorit part. They were just so big and so detailed and had cool paintings to look at going up or down.

Oh bear--always has a place just about everywhere in the building. This happens to be a carving of a bear on the doors leading out to the balcony on the second floor.

Rachel waiting her turn for the governor (that's his office). Guess the bear usually gets first dibs.

You can't tell but there are like 3 policemen standing right next to Luke as he takes the picture.

A view of Sacramento coming out of the Capitol Building.

This is tower bridge. It is gold. I'm not sure why, but it is the actual golden bridge in California I guess.

Old Sacramento! So we decided to tour the first major settlement in Sacramento when the gold rush was taking place.

Just getting some candy with our pail. All in a days work in these parts.

And I guess these guys belonged in Old Sacramento too...

And we'll finish Old Sacramento with some crazy hats and masks.

Friday the 13th at the Ballpark

So we finally made it to AT&T Park--home of the San Francisco Giants (as shown below). Rachel and a bunch of her co-workers got some tickets to the game and we decided we might as well make it to the ball park.

It was pretty fun--and even better that the home team won. Always makes going to games a little more enjoyable. So the big food item here are garlic fries--every one around us had a plate. One of Rachel's co-workers had some garlic fries and we tested them. Not bad--but the line was pretty long so we decided to get them next time.

And there happened to be some fireworks after the game. The game lasted until around 10pm and we decided to stick around since we didn't get up close to any on the 4th of July. It was a pretty foggy day but most of the fireworks were near the water so it was still visible.

All in all it was a great trip. I rode the train to meet up with Rachel in the city and we heard it gets pretty crowded after the game with all the people wanting to go back. And it was SUPER crowded. We all crammed into the cars and every time the train would make a stop it would jolt everyone around. This couple kept falling onto us at every stop--it was a very fun trip back.

Boxes

So we finally moved our stuff--despite the fact that our first mover canceled on us and we had to scramble to get someone else on Craig's List last second. But we got it all to our new place by 5pm and we have been unpacking and going through things for about a week now.

Our new place has lots of space and wood floors/tile throughout--except for the bedroom which has carpet.


We are very excited to decorate and make this place look like home.

So our new kitchen is a lot larger and more spacious than our old place. In fact, it feels like its more roomy than any kitchen we've ever had growing up--especially since its just the two of us.


Its nice to finally have enough counter space that we can even leave the Kitchen Aid for those waffle emergencies in the morning...

So this is the bathroom area. Its funny how spacious our entire apartment is but the bathroom is the smallest thing about it. Imagine the width of a toilet and tub--that's pretty much the size of the bathroom!


But we can't complain. The area's great and Luke has a 5 minute drive to work. Also, the closets on the side is where we keep our clothes because our bedroom doesn't have any closets.

Last but not least the bedroom. Pretty normal as a bedroom goes. And yes--we have cleaned up a bit since this picture was taken.