Vacation: Northern California

This was our next summer's trip which began as a surprise for my brother's 9th birthday. He lives in Sacramento, CA. I had made the drive multiple times before but it was still as shockingly beautiful as ever. After our long drive we arrived, my brother completely unaware, at his Aunt's house. There was a lively pool party going on and my brother was thoroughly surprised when he saw us.
We stayed at my brother's Mom's house (he is my half brother) in a smaller suburb of Sacramento. He was excited to show us around his neighborhood so we walked up the street to the "lake" which turned out to be more like a big pond. Anyways, My Love began to skip rocks which amazed my little brother so He began to teach him how to skip rocks. It was sweet and fun to watch. The next day we were able to spend with him we took him to see Wall-E for his birthday and then they took us into Old Sacramento.
Old Sacramento is a great place to spend a nice day. It is an old little main street type area with an abundance of quaint family owned stores. We particularly enjoyed The Candy Barrel which was a fun and festive candy store. There was tons of taffy, classic candies, and all of the newest treats as well. After shopping around for awhile, and buying our magnet we decided it was time for lunch. Joe's Crab Shack is right on the water and has a very fun atmosphere. After a little bit of a wait we were able to get a table right on the deck next to the water. We watched the boats pass as we talked and laughed and enjoyed our lunch and last day in Sacramento.
After saying goodbye it was off to Lake Tahoe for Fourth of July. My sister lived there at the time so we stayed at her house in South Lake. Being that it was too perfect of a day not to go to the lake that was the first thing we did. We headed down to Pope Beach, which is a great locals beach and never too crowded. I had learned by now that anything close to the stateline in the summer is packed with foreign tourists and is the farthest thing from relaxing. The water is clear 75' deep in most of the lake and there are interesting and mysterious gold flakes floating in the water. The beaches are all really shallow pretty far out. As you can see you can walk out for quite a ways.
After spending the day at the beach we went home and had a relaxing night together. The next morning we decided to go out to do some fishing and hiking. I have fished many times and never caught anything (except a turtle but that is another story for another time) and this trip was no different. But it did help my ego when My Love ended the day fishless as well. After a few hours of our fishless adventure we moved on to hiking.

Fallen Leaf Lake was our chosen hiking destination. It is a placid smaller lake with lots of little falls, trials and rock formations. We were enjoying our hike and had even brought a little packed lunch
to eat but then we came across this little guy... Ahhhhh!! That was a bit of a shock and enough to decide it was time to turn around. We headed home. We built a fire in the pit in the backyard and had another relaxing night together.

The next morning, Fourth of July, we decided to walk around town a bit and see if we could take a Gondola ride but it was all sold out for the day. We grabbed lunch at Baja Fresh and went home to relax before going out that night. We got a little dressed up and went to Cabo Wabo Cantina (my sister's work at the time) for dinner. Cabo Wabo is located in Harvey's Casino which is an experience in itself. Although we were too young to gamble when

we took this trip we took our time making our way downstairs to the restaurant. We are big people watchers and there is tons to see in a tourist spot/casino. We had a fantastic dinner, some yummy nachos, fajitas and tacos and then walked over to the harbor for fireworks. After finding nowhere close to park 10 minutes before the fireworks were to begin we started hustling to the beach. Me in my heals and My Love pulling me along. When we finally reached where we wanted to be we came to a 6ft wall. Me in my heals and My Love pushing me up from behind we hopped over the wall and we made it just in time for the fireworks. It was a great end to our Northern California adventure.

Destination: Sacramento, CA

Points of Interest:
Old Sacramento http://www.oldsacramento.com/
The Candy Barrel http://www.thecandybarrel.com/
Joe's Crab Shack http://www.joescrabshack.com/


Destination: Lake Tahoe, CA
Points of Interest:
South Lake
Pope Beach http://www.aboutlaketahoe.com/beaches/pope_beach.htm
Fallen Leaf Lake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Leaf_Lake_(California)
Baja Fresh http://bajafresh.com/
Cabo Wabo Cantina http://www.cabowabocantina.com/cantina/tahoe/contact
Harvey's Casino http://www.harveystahoe.com/