Family is Where the Heart Is

Tim and I took a trip earlier this year to see my mom in Sacramento-area. We jetted off for a long weekend (4 days, which never turns out to be long enough) to spend some quality time with my side of the family (minus my sister and her husband, unfortunately!). It was a perfect, relaxing 75-degree weekend in sunny California.

As you can tell, our first trip was to Wise Villa Winery and, I mean, can you ever go wrong with wine tasting? I think not. It was a wonderful afternoon and we topped it off with the best happy hour at Ruth's Chris: $20 for a great glass of full-bodied red wine and an absolutely delicious steak sandwich. Tim and I decided we need to hit up its happy hour more often!

The next day, my mom took Tim and I to Downtown Sacramento. My entire mom's side of the family is from Northern California so I grew up visiting the area, but it's always fun going back and seeing new, touristy attractions. And my mom makes for the best tour guide <3

After we visited the rose garden, we toured the Capitol Building in all its ornate beauty. It's definitely on the top of our list as one of our favorite extraordinary examples of intricate architecture. These pictures definitely don't do it justice, but just look at the detail:

And if you thought the capitol was beautiful, check out the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, just across the street from the Capitol Building. It's truly breathtaking:

Below is a few other random photographs from around town. Fun fact: the two photos directly below this are of Stanford Mansion - the home (now museum) of the family who founded Stanford University!

After we finished walking around the center of downtown, the rest of the afternoon was well-spent at the Crocker Art Museum. One of the exhibitions on display when we visited was Andy Warhol's Portraits. Amazing is an understatement. They wouldn't allow photography, otherwise this entire blog post would probably have been filled with his work! It was beautiful.

The next couple of days were spent mostly relaxing, eating great food, and going out for drinks with my mom, brother Shawn, and brother-in-law Manny. We visited La Provence for the best and most affordable French brunch in the area and Knee Deep Brewing for some tasty beer and food cart snacks. The best part of the brewery was its laid-back feel; we spent the majority of our time playing Jenga. And let me tell you: the game was intense!

Overall, the trip was absolutely perfect (other than family time never seems to last long enough). Thank you, mom, Shawn, and Manny for being such wonderful hosts and tour guides! We had such a blast.