Tourists in Our Town: Summertime in Sacramento

Downtown

 It's no secret we love Sacramento, and even though we've had some scorching hot 110 degree days, we've somehow still managed to get out and explore a bit. Back in late June while my sister was visiting we spent an afternoon wandering around downtown and old town. Even though I've been to the capitol building several times, I still manage to find a new little corner or statue or piece of art that I never noticed before. This time we came across the Peace Officer's Memorial which was sad and touching, with a statue of a mom holding a crying child. There were fresh flowers on the memorial and Ez walked along with Ray and I taking it all in and listening to some of the names and hometowns we read aloud. After the memorial we gratefully escaped the heat for the nice, air-conditioned capitol building. Unfortunately a lot of the legislative rooms were closed when we went, but there was still plenty to see. Afterward we went to old town for a bit of shopping, and so the boys could check out the trains (Ray included). Turns out boys never really outgrow their love of all things with engines ;)

Sunflower Field

Thanks to Instagram I started seeing all these gorgeous field of sunflowers photos floating around my feed, and since they were only about fifteen minutes away from us of course we had to go check it out. I remember having giant sunflowers like these in my backyard as a kid so they brought back fond childhood memories. However I don't think I've ever seen quite so many sunflowers all in one spot. These pictures don't do justice to the giant sea of yellow that field was, stretching back pretty much as far as the eye could see. Of course, Decky being Decky, he wasn't content just looking at the flowers from a respectable distance. He had to defiantly march right into the midst of field to get the up close and personal experience. He's my little explorer through and through. 

Sacramento River

We've done a few walks along the river since we moved here, but until last week we had yet to find a good swimming spot. Especially after all the rain we had earlier this year, the river was pretty deep and fast moving and definitely not kid friendly. And then as we were driving home from Target one day we noticed a bunch of people hanging out on a beach and made a mental note to check it out. When we went back we were excited to find a nice sandy beach with calm, shallow, clear water complete with gold flakes and tons of tiny seashells. It's the perfect spot for kids and we've already been twice in the past two weeks. 

Tourists In Our Own Town: Consumnes River Preserve

How many hearts with warm red blood in them are beating under cover of the woods, and how many teeth and eyes are shining! A multitude of animal people, intimately related to us, but of whose lives we know almost nothing, are as busy about their own affairs as we are about ours. Squirrels are busily laying up provisions and lining their nests against coming frost and snow foreseen; and countless thousands of birds are forming parties and gathering their young about them for flight to the southlands; while butterflies and bees, apparently with no thought of hard times to come, are hovering above the late-blooming goldenrods, and, with countless other insect folk, are dancing and humming right merrily in the sunbeams and shaking all the air into music.

Wander here a whole summer if you can.

~ John Muir

All this extra daylight has us itching to explore and we've already lined up a few more summer adventures in the coming weeks. We've lived here just under five months, but already we've found so many beautiful places that have quickly become favorite weekend spots. The fact that we can drive a few miles and be in the state's capital, or a few miles in the other direction and be surrounded by nature has made us fall more and more in love with this city and I know we've barely scratched the surface as far as discovering all Sacramento has to offer. 

This past weekend we visited Consumnes River Preserve for the first time. The hike was fairly easy - if you count keeping a certain two year old from running headfirst through the thorny blackberry bushes lining the path or toppling down steep banks into the river as easy. Once Declan was safely contained in the backpack munching on graham crackers it was a nice relaxing stroll along a mostly shaded path with water along one side and green fields on the other. Gorgeous scenery every which way we turned and it reminded me of wandering through a swampy area that you'd usually find on the other side of the country, minus the gators though (thankfully!)

Next up we're planning a beach trip, a lake trip, and lots more hiking trips (as long as it's not sweltering hot). What's on your agenda this summer?

Our Weekend: River, Roses, and Bubbles

This weekend was somewhere between spring and early summer. Everything is blooming and lovely but the sun is also making his presence known. It makes me want to do all the outdoor things before it gets HOT. 

We kicked off the weekend with donuts from our new favorite donut bakery (gimme all the fruity pebbles donuts) followed by a trip to the Sacramento Historic Cemetery which happens to have a lovely rose garden this time of year. For some reason Ez knelt down like he was paying his respects at a tombstone so I went to look at the name. It had one word: Mother. So sad/creepy. Then Declan took a liking to a pair of tombstones, which just so happened to say....you guessed it - Mother and Father. Of all the ones they could have taken a liking to, they chose those three. Creepy. 

After enjoying all the gorgeous, fragrant flowers we headed to a nearby Food Truck Festival but we were too stuffed after the donuts to actually eat anything. We just wandered around taking it all in and Ez had a grand time pointing out every trash can we passed by. Not joking. That is seriously one of his favorite pastimes. Every day is basically a garbage can scavenger hunt. Then he got it in his head that the garbage truck would be coming, perhaps because of the quantity of trash cans out, and explaining that wasn't the case burst his little bubble pretty badly. That was our cue to head home for naps before our next outing. 

There's a river walkway near our house and we finally got around to checking it out for some boat watching and rock throwing on Saturday afternoon. Declan nearly yanked my arm out of its socket trying to leap into the river each time he threw a rock, and about 33,549 rocks later we dragged them away for some playground fun before heading home muddy, sweaty, and exhausted. 

Sunday was farmer's market day where Joe beelines to the asian pears stand and breathes a sigh of relief every time he sees they're still in season. Ten pounds of pears and a couple bouquets of flowers later we headed across the street to a craft fair where I got a few cute cards and knick knacks and we played corn hole. Then it was on to the playground to run off some energy before lunch time. 

We had a fun little treat that afternoon when Gangy and Grampa stopped by for some bubbles and garbage truck fun. After lots of running and giggling the boys fell asleep and we ended the weekend on a quiet, peaceful note, which is pretty much the best way to end any weekend. Until that evening anyway, when both boys were wide awake wayyyyy past bedtime. Every nap time has a price ;)

Hope you all had a lovely sun-filled weekend as well!!

Tourists in Our Town

Lovely Spring weather after lots and lots of rainy days can only mean one thing: time to get out and explore this city we live in. This is already my third TIOT post (read 1 & 2 here) since we've moved to Sacramento and we've barely scratched the surface of doing all there is to do and seeing all there is to see. I love that there are so many hidden gems, great little shops and small businesses, festivals, delicious restaurants, tons of parks to keep the kids happy, and lots of reasons to get outside and walk around. Here are just a few of the things we've been up to lately:

1) We were walking around downtown one weekend morning and came across this amazing bookstore. I can never resist wandering through a bookstore and this one was just floor to ceiling books with an adorable little kid's area that Ez and Declan immediately fell in love with. A stack of books and one meltdown later (over a vintage toy car that wasn't leaving the store) we left in search of lunch.

2) Originally we had planned on going to a restaurant we'd already tried before and knew we loved but as we were walking there we passed Jack's Urban Eats and the food looked and smelled so good that we stopped in our tracks. Now we have a new favorite restaurant to add to our list, although at the rate we're racking up favorites I doubt we'll be able to visit any of them twice. Too much yummy food and too little time/stomach space. If you ever go there Ez highly recommends the mac & cheese, as well as the grilled cheese, and fries, and apple slices...he seriously ate all his food and Declan's. Bonus points that we were near enough the train tracks to see a pretty long freight train go by. It really doesn't get much better than that.

3) Sacramento does a great job of promoting small businesses and artists. We happened to come across a local arts and crafts fair and decided to stop by for a bit. There were tons of cute handmaid items and I had a hard time not buying something from each stall we stopped at. Afterward we went to the playground where Ez made a new friend who apparently likes playing with wood chips as much as he does. Fun for everyone.

4) Sacramento actually just changed its city motto from: "City of Trees" to "Farm to Fork Capital" - apparently this is pretty controversial if you're a local because many people were attached to the City of Trees, but Sacramento definitely does embody both of those things. There are a few really great farmers markets in the area, and tons of unique little restaurants with seasonal and local menus. Joe's Sunday tradition is to pick up about ten lbs of asian pears from the farmer's market (not exaggerating), which he usually does before the rest of us even wake up. But every now and then we go with him and we finally got around to taking Ez and Declan to the park right across the street.

5) The park has a huge lake, a space-themed playground, a community pool, and a huge open space on the other side of the lake which just happened to be the starting point for the March for Science that Declan and I went to over the weekend. I'm not sure why it took us so long to finally explore this park, but Ez and Declan loved it. Plenty of sand for Ez to dig around in, and lots of dangerous climbing things to suit Declan's interests. 

6) Last week our friends invited us to a food truck festival right down the street from our house. None of us actually ate any food, but it was a great community event with music, karaoke, and fun stuff for the kiddos, including inflatable bounce houses and slides that Ez couldn't get enough of and Declan couldn't get out of fast enough. Joe and I were surprised because Declan is usually our fearless little daredevil and Ez is more reserved but Ez took over the bounce house like he owned the place. And even though he had to maneuver and push his way to the front of the line for the slide, then scale a ladder that was pretty tall, he did the slide over and over and over again. I think we all slept well that night. 

I've said it before, and hopefully I'll say it again, but we're really loving this town. It's the perfect blend of city + nature + small town feel. Definitely a good fit for our family.