OLD SACRAMENTO

The recent silence on the blog front was due to our recent trip up to Sacramento. The initial reason for travelling to Sacramento was to attend the Carnivores tour; a concert with AFI, 30 Seconds to Mars and Linkin Park. We decided to make a long weekend of it once we realised it was a 5 hour drive each way!
We won't say much about the concert, except that it was incredible. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute and there was a great mix of ages. Lots of parents accompanying younger teens, two adorable little boys with mohawks, a giant cat mascot and more bizarre people made up the audience. We even met a guy who had flown over from St Albans!! We came away from the concert unable to hear properly, due to the ringing in our ears, but having had a fantastic night.




Sacramento is the capital city of the state of California. It has a very impressive state capitol building which we wandered around. The gardens surrounding the building had some very touching memorials, including one to firefighters who had died in the line of duty. There were so many different types of trees and plants in the park though, it was quite fascinating to wander around. 




The part of Sacramento we spent most time in was old town. In old town they have re-vamped the buildings and have dedicated it to learning about California during the gold rush era. You can wander around the streets and feel like you are back in the 1800s. There are a few museums to wander around and a variety of modes of transportation to take including ferry, carriage and, most excitingly for Andrew, train! There were also lots of little shops to look round, including the old hardware store. That was really crazy, all those small drawers with bits and bobs in them!





My favourite part of the old town was the school house museum. It gave you insight into the way school was run back then. Having watched a fair amount of Little House on the Prairie it was rather exciting to see a school of that era in the flesh. I don't think I would have gone into teaching then as there were some rather crazy rules for teachers, including not being seen at ice cream parlours. I really wouldn't have survived without my ice cream. But the more romantic side of me likes to imagine myself as a teacher in the big skirts, with layers of petticoats (you had to to wear 2 a least!) and without the governing nuisance that is Ofsted. 




The evenings in Sacramento were spent out having dinner and chilling out in coffee shops until late at night. It was lovely to be that relaxed and try a few new places. We found an amazing German place called Low Brau who did insanely good bratwursts. We also found a great coffee spot to sit and relax. 

Overall it was a great break away from daily life. You may have spotted that Macintosh is noticeably absent in the photographs this was because spent that time staying with our friends. He had a wonderful time there, I'm not sure he wanted to come home. In fact when we arrived to pick him up he gave us quite a bit of fuss and then went to sit back with his sidekick Cal. Obviously we aren't cool enough! 

Stay tuned during the rest of the week for a couple of posts from Andrew. Train, plane and food related surprise surprise! 

H

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