30th birthday road trip!!

in June I had my 30th birthday! I have been dreading this birthday for a while- it seems like such a big one that I am not ready for. I have loved being in my 20's but I am hoping that my 30's won't be very different. the great thing about age is having more experience, wisdom, talents, and a broader sense of the world that can hopefully help you appreciate life more. those are things that I love about getting older and I will try to still retain the things I loved about myself and my youthfulness in my 20's into my 30's. 

for my 30th I always imagined spending it somewhere wonderful like Europe or Hawaii- but we realized that going to Europe in the peak season probably wouldn't be the best idea for prices and having to deal with huge crowds. we decided to plan a Europe trip later that year and instead go on another California road trip for my b-day! we drove all the way up to Redwoods national park and camped for a few days before making our way back down the state. I loved being able to spend more time in the Redwoods and Jason did too as that was one of his favorite parts of our west/northwest road trip a couple years ago. it was a very long drive but totally worth it to us. 

we left on Saturday the 25th and drove all day to Sacramento. we had never been there before so we decided to spend a day there. as we were driving into the city I couldn't believe how many trees there were compared to the rest of Cali! I love how green and lush it is. as far as I could tell it would be a great place to live. it is only about 2 hours away from San Francisco so you could visit often without having to pay exorbitant rent. also it is less than 3 hours from Yosemite and about 5 1/2 hrs from the Redwoods. plus it is a beautiful city in it's own right with a lot of great food and fun stuff to do. 
the next day on Sunday morning we went to the capitol and explored. 

these rooms where they pass laws were really beautiful.

there was so much pink in this one.

we walked around downtown and to Old Sacramento which was very cute with all it's historic buildings. 

we went to this cute vintage clothes and furniture store.

we ate some tasty ice cream at a cute old fashioned ice cream shop called Vic's which was by a big pretty park we could walk around.

 we ended the day at the American river which is only about 25 minutes outside the downtown area. I am glad that we decided to spend a day there- it is a great city!