A "Capitol" Day

Well, my birthday's coming up just around the corner and I have to say, I'm not too excited about getting even closer to 30 years old.  Sometimes it seems like time stopped for me in my early twenties, yet it forgot to tell the rest of the world.  I don't feel like I should be almost 30.  And I definitely don't look the part either.  It sounds like too big of a number.  Thirty years of being alive.  It just sounds crazy for some reason.  Though I'm in no way saying that being 30+ is old, before someone tries to twist my words. :p  It just seems unreal to me that so much of my life has already passed me by.  Oh well, though, that's just how life happens sometimes, I guess.

Anyway, so back to the last day of my dad's visit from the beginning of this month.  At the end of the first post I made when we visited the mines, I said we'd be visiting the zoo in Oakland.  That didn't happen.  Turns out, I'm more of a fan of going to the zoo than he is, so we ended up starting out the day by traveling to the capitol building up in Sacramento. (or Sac-of-tomatoes, as some Californians refer to it...)

Closeup of the front as we were walking to the doors. 

Inside, looking up into the dome!  Beautiful!

Rows of seats in the Senate Chamber... this view caught my eye because of how some of the seats aren't pushed all the way down.

Absolutely beautiful chandeliers!

Just a view of all of the desks in the California State Assembly room.  Can you find the "rebels" in this photo?!

After our visit inside the capitol, we decided to head over to Old Sacramento to look around.  I was more than a little disappointed in the area though, because it was catered more towards tourist shopping, rather than photo opps.  And I'm not a huge fan of "just shopping."  I'd much rather be taking photos.  Ugh.  Though there were some pretty neat old buildings, but it just wasn't what I was expecting.

We did find this nice, relaxing place to eat lunch at though, called The Firehouse Restaurant.  We ate outside and it was a perfect day for that.

Overview of the restaurant's patio from where we sat.

My dad, oblivious to the fact that I was taking a photo.  I think he was looking for the waitress to order dessert.

My dessert.  I forget what it was called now.

The chocolate bomb that my dad and Erin ordered for their desserts.

Just a bridge in Sacramento that stands out.

Next on our adventure, we traveled down to Berkeley (around 1½ hours away) to meet up with Jacques after he got off work.  We took a slight unexpected detour along the way and ended up at the Berkeley Marina first...

And that pretty much ends our day, we walked around some shops in Berkeley, then ate dinner at the Emeryville Marketplace and then my dad headed on his way to SFO to catch his plane as we headed home.

It was nice being able to spend some quality time with my dad, and having the extra guest bedroom to be able to put him up for at least 3 nights and save him some money he'd have had to spend on hotels.