sacramento, ca

Our last full day in California, we went further North to visit my aunt and uncle, cousin and her fiancée in Sacramento.  Given how tired we were, we got a late start and ended up having lunch in Pleasant Hill near Ruben and Sarah’s at a lovely bistro/bakery called ShaadZee (actually it was where we’d stopped for a snack the day before).  Super tasty.  Well, we actually stopped at Jamba Juice first hoping to get breakfast but we were a little late and thus opted for the JJ smoothie + ShaadZee lunch combo.

Afterward we did a little caching. We could actually walk there from lunch so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the cool art deco movie theater there as we walked.
The cache was a virtual (meaning there’s no thing to find just a place to find and a few questions to answer) about the Soldier’s Memorial Monument in Pleasant Hill.  The monument is rather deco as well.
  This was our only cache in Pleasant Hill because the other 2 we tried to find – well, we failed after which we began our trip north.

First stop, the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, CA.  It seemed a logical stop on our way north given that it was supposed to rain (which, of course, it didn’t).

A small sampling of the jelly bean portraiture that they are so well known for.

The tour was actually really cool – of course, I’m biased because I heart factory tours.  We got to taste things as we went along and see all the various stages of jelly bean “life.”  At one point on the tour, they were making Very Cherry jelly beans and the whole factory smelled AMAZING!  I was really sad that we couldn’t take pictures because it combined 2 things that I love – bright colors and shiny industrial equipment. 

As we drove north, I was reminded of the California milk commercials – Happy Cows Come from California – by the scenery.

Our next stop was Will’s boyhood home in Vacaville.  Ok, one of his boyhood homes.  It didn’t hurt that we also found a cache nearby.

Present day and the pony picture that made this house “famous.”

We ended up in Sacramento early so we tried another cache before heading to Old Sacramento to wander and check out the Sacramento River before dinner.

The California State Capitol Building.

 

We then met up with my aunt, uncle, cousin and cousin’s fiancée to go out to dinner.  Will hadn’t met my cousin and I hadn’t met her fiancée so it was fun.  Dinner was good too.  We went to 33rd Street Bistro. 

Eventually we made our way back to Pleasant Hill with the help of the lovely Suki – Sarah’s GPS.  Actually she’d been our faithful companion most of the day.

Our kind and generous hosts were still awake when we finally got back to the house.  Apparently the cats, Myla and Chloe can’t be facing each other.
 

And except for the trek back to the East Coast (boring) thus ends our fantastic trip to California.