Our Trip To California Part 1

We recently went on vacation in California to see some friends and go to a wedding. We drove to Chicago Midway airport and didn't get stuck in traffic, and then each leg of our flight was early, which was really nice. When we got to Sacramento, the capital of California, we were picked up by our friend's grandma and taken to their house. Sarah, our friend who was at summer camp in Romania with us, was at work so we hung out with her grandparents for a while. Her grandparents have also been to Romania so we watched a video of their pictures and had a great time getting to know them. Mark & Kristin, two Heart 2 Heart missionaries that we got to know during camp, stopped by to see us and we caught up on what we've all been doing since camp. Then another friend from camp, Marci, stopped by to say hi before she had to go to work. Later Sarah came home and Marci came back after work, and we spent the rest of the night hanging out and catching up with each other.

Friday morning we went to see Sarah at work at the local coffee place. She made us some wonderful drinks. When her shift was done we headed out to San Fransisco for the rest of the day. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the ride there and the sights we saw. We went to the Exploratorium first, a place were there were lots of cool science demonstrations. After that we headed over to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz as seen from a far away bridge.

Driving on the Golden Gate Bridge was fun as the clouds began to roll in.

We enjoyed a beautiful view of the bridge and the sunset and the fog rolling in over the mountains was really cool. After that we went in search of dinner, so we drove down by the pier area. We walked down to pier 39 where we watched a guy twirling flaming torches and then we decided to go to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to eat. When we looked at the menus we were surprised by how expensive it was and how little we liked on there, so we quietly left. It was pretty weird leaving like that but it was worth it because we went to a great pizza place and split a pizza. Overall the pier was really neat with all the different shops and restaurants.

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On Saturday morning we went to where Marci works: Starbucks. We got some good drinks and enjoyed the sparing between Sarah and Marci over which coffee is better. Then we went to downtown Sacramento and walked to the capital building. There were beautiful gardens all around and lots of orange trees as you can see above. We ate at a great Mediterranean place for lunch and then headed back to Sarah's place to get ready for Mark & Kristin's wedding.

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At the wedding we got to see lots of people we knew from Heart 2 Heart. We enjoyed catching up with them and it was nice to know that we were going to be a part of that organization.

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The wedding went great and the reception was fun. It was great to see Mark & Kristin and we wish them the best in their new marriage. They are going to stay in California for a year and then return to Romania to minister to the orphans there with H2H. So then we will be working with them again.

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On Sunday we went to church with Marci, and then we had to say our goodbyes. We went to the airport and met up with Jim & Jodi Sorrels, the founders of H2H. Anna & Austin, their daughter and son-in-law and JT their son were there too, and we flew out with them to San Diego. You can read about the rest of our vacation in the continuation of this post in a couple days.