On one of our passes through San Francisco, Tawn and I made a day trip up to the state capital, Sacramento, to see a high school friend and her family. While we attended her wedding in 2000, the opportunity never arose to meet her children, who are now eight and five years old. It was a lovely day and I’m glad we made the effort to go there.
We loaded into the minivan (ah, suburban parenthood!) and drove to downtown Sacramento. First stop, lunch at Burgers and Brew on R Street. Lively place in a renovated neighborhood near the light rail line. We had a tasty meal and an opportunity to bond with the children over French fries.
Bacon burger, extra crispy fries. Yum… (You didn’t think I could do a post without sneaking in some food porn, did you?)
We then drove to the nearby capitol grounds, which are covered with a beautiful park, lots of flowers and trees, and an impressive capitol building. Jack and Kaitlyn posed gamely for many photos. Very well-mannered children, friendly and engaging but also well-behaved.
The capitol grounds have many trees that represent California’s agricultural industry, including many different varieties of oranges. The trees were fully of fruit and we were curious what the oranges tasted like, so Uncle Tawn kicked off his shoes and climbed the tree to pick one. A very uncharacteristic act!
Yay – we have our orange! When we returned home, we tried it. Unfortunately, very sour.
We made our way to the west side of the capitol building, which is the most photogenic side. Here, Tawn and I pose with Sandy. Not sure if the low shooting angle flatters us, but at least the entire dome is in the shot. Interesting trivia: the California state capitol’s design was based on that of the United States capitol building in Washington, D.C. The dome is the same height – 210 feet.
Back at home, Sandy’s husband Neuzil started preparing some baked barbecue ribs for dinner while the children entertained us. As you can see, Uncle Tawn discovered Wii.
Later, Jack picked up his tape measure and was measuring anything and everything: walls, doors, the television, Uncle Tawn’s neck size.
Time for an early dinner with the whole family before we drove back to San Francisco. It was such a pleasure meeting the children and seeing Sandy and Neuzil again. We’ll have to make it a point to include Sacramento on our travel plans again soon.
christao408 
Such happy pictures. All capitol buildings and rotundas impress me. Next time when you come here, we will go visit Springfield, capital of IL. You will also get to see the Abe Lincoln Museum.
Kids are so cute! Brought out the inner-kid in Tawn! 🙂
What fun you all had! It gives me such happiness to see the kids and Tawn just having a good old time. Love the pic of the boy measuring everything! You look happy and relaxed as well. Thanks for sharing!
fun fun fun road trip
too fresh of the orange that made it tasted sour…? anyway Wii is an options from traditional exercise/workouts 😛
I love a good hamburger and fries
Yummy hamburger and fries and entertainment by family YAY
I didn’t realize Sandy was living in Sacramento now…guess I missed that conversation. Our hello to her the next time you’re in contact. Her children are beautiful.
Food porn. Always a welcome addition to a post.
i’m jealous of tawn now. i would love to have climbed up the tree and picked them oranges myself 😦 by the way, uncle tawn seems most cheery when he’s around kids. he even danced!!!
Great town, great restaurant and kind people make athe world better ! In friendshipMichel
@fauquet – Oh, that’s very true Michel. Thanks for the comment.@rudyhou – Yeah, Tawn and I both do very well with children.@Inciteful – It would be remiss of me not to include some…@jandsschultz – Yeah, they moved up to Sacramento after completing internships in the St. Louis area, where they went to school.@Fatcat723 – The best combination, right?@Randy7777 – Yes, that’s something that we don’t have here in Bangkok. Actually, I’ve been trying several new burger places here and might to a post comparing them one of these days soon.@agmhkg – We grew oranges in our backyard when I was a child, and I recall my dad telling me that orange trees need a lot of water in order to make the fruit sweet. Underwatered trees tend to produce sour fruit. Not sure if that is true, but that’s what he said.@vsan79 – Yeah, it was… hard to believe its been a month already.@CurryPuffy – I was startled when he climbed the tree, a very un-Tawn thing to do.@awoolham – Jack was funny – he was literally measuring the walls, doorways, everything with a yard-long measuring tape.@ZSA_MD – I would be honored to visit the Illinois state capital with you!
oops… missed this entry. Jack looks so cute. I was not expecting a picture of Tawn in a tree. He must have done this before as a kid.
@ElusiveWords – I was shocked when Tawn climbed the tree. Atypical behavior.