Sacramento

Vineyards, I think.

Although we spent a solid week in California, I don’t actually have too many stories to tell. We weren’t there for the tourism; we were there to visit family. In Sacramento, I split my time between editing papers like a maniac and watching TV with Grandma Kathy and Zach. We soaked up the green landscapes all around (and eyed the orange and lemon trees in people’s backyards enviously), not knowing that we’d be returning home to sunnier, warmer weather than California.

Carli often visited me when I was working. She didn't want to be petted, only to gaze regally out the window.

Me when I was 20, in
Sac'to for the first time

I fell in love with Sacramento the first time I visited, in early 2010. After almost a month of palm trees, beach vistas, and tropical flowers, the deciduous trees and Sacramento River made me feel more at home. I stayed at a really cool hostel in downtown, visited the capitol building, and felt, for the first time that trip, that life would go on after a heartbreak. I had no idea then that I would end up marrying someone born in this city, this last stop on my second big solo trip.

This time visiting, we didn’t actually go downtown, heading instead to the outskirts to visit the spillways that have been opened to keep the Sacramento River from flooding the whole city. Grandpa Ray drove us around the farmland, sometimes edging over water that skimmed over the pothole-filled roads, and we visited a wetlands preserve (which was very, very wet) to spot snowy egrets, black-necked stilts, and a huge flock of snow geese. 

If you get a chance to visit Sacramento, I highly recommend it: the city has an 1800s charm to it, and is very walkable. Although it’s not as tropical as SoCal, it’s still full of flowers and greenery in the winter, making it a nice relief from a St. Louis winter— well, a typical St. Louis winter, anyway.

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