Special visitor

We had a special visitor to our home recently.  Some great pics of our time together...we had a great time too!

To my daughters who are Moms and their hubs...

You really need to watch this video if you haven't seen it...it is the funniest!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/the-parent-rap_n_1791726.html

Love,
Dad


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Old Sac

Vickie and I had a wonderful time in Sacramento, CA last weekend. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable time for...walking, talking, and just relaxing. Oh...and did I mention eating? You can see how much fun can be had in just a day and a half!

A LITTLE HISTORY
Sacramento is a really nice small city about an hour northeast of San Francisco...it has all the good parts of California cities but is without the massive size, and it seemed to us to be much lower-keyed. That's a good thing If you want to relax and not get stressed driving or caught in crowds. It's also close to wine country...we visited this area 30 years ago in a whirlwind top to bottom west coast tour...our first real vacation ever. On that one we took Danielle with us in a stroller, and Jamie too but she was a little less trouble since she wasn't born yet. This time we did it without any help ;).



ARRIVAL
We arrived on Thursday evening in time to go to dinner. We picked a place called OneSpeed, an eclectic California pizza joint. This was not your NJ pizza by any means, and we enjoyed our meal and a nice chill time. I had a business meeting to attend in the morning so we made it back to the hotel and crashed early.

DAY 1
My day started at 7 with a conference call followed by a good session with a customer.
I had taken Friday afternoon off...we started out visiting a place called Tower Theater, an old movie theater that is still in operation, but has the original charm of theaters from the 30's. We remember going to this type of place as kids, me in Plainfield and she in Newark. There is a really charming grill attached that has an outdoor garden seating area, so we sat for coffees and a delicious chocolate bread pudding dessert.


Then we took a short drive to old Sacramento, or as the locals call it "Old Sac". The touristy area was really nice and clean, and had a charm that is so pleasant. We walked around the shops and took a few pictures (something we never remember to do when we vacation). And of course they were some of our favorite places!





Dinner took us took us outside our comfort zone...we never, I mean never eat French cuisine...mostly because of price, but also because of value, because they don't give you very much food, and you know how we LOVE to get our moneys worth. Chinese, Italian, seafood, but never French. This time we tried it, and LOVED it. It was a kinda unique French restaurant because the prices were reasonable. They had a $10 steak on the menus that they claimed was the best ten dollar steak you've ever tried, or your money back. We didn't try it but found other yummy things and left totally satisfied. In fact, we were so happy that we decided to go there again for breakfast the next morning.


Side note - I love using Yelp as a way to find good restaurants, and we did so successfully this time! if you haven't tried this app you will find it great to read the reviews form actual people who have tried the food, and also the app lists the price range and often the menu...it also has directions, which is especially helpful as you know men hate to ask for help.

DAY 2
Saturday after breakfast we headed out of town to Frasinetti Winery. I was looking to go to some place that resembled wine country, and to learn a little bit about wines. It was a little disappointing, mostly because neither of us are wine connoisseurs and we didn't get a tour and there wasn't much happening. But, it WAS a quaint old place that has been in business since 1897 and did have a nice atmosphere.
We ended our time back in Old Sac where we visited an art museum. We again don't love art, but we were attracted to the place because part of it was housed in an old mansion owned by former railroad barons and political leaders for early California. Late lunch and to the airport.

CONCLUSION
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that we have been having the time of our lives together lately. We've never had this much freedom to go places, at least not in 30 years, that is. Having a companion pass doesn't hurt either. So we have decided we had better do is before its too late and we are too old. We loved the time we had raising children, and love our family so much, be we are finding out how much fun two people who are made for each other and have spent so many years together can have.

Love you, my wife!




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