We spent a little over 2 weeks in the Sacramento, California area. A few of these days were spent at the Lake Minden RV Resort, just north of Sacramento, where our kids got to trick or treat. We liked this RV park, though there wasn’t much to do in the immediate area. Our next 2 weeks were spent at Ponderosa RV Resort, and though there was a little more to do around there, we didn’t like this park as much. I believe this was mostly due to the fact that our AT&T cell phones and internet didn’t work here, so we had to spend a lot of time in the family lounge on their internet to get work done. We also couldn’t make calls unless we were in the lounge or a few miles down the road.
On the first Sunday morning, we went to Bayside Church where they had a big fall festival with crafts, games, inflatables, and rides after church! David flew out one weekend to Connecticut to do some work at a church there, and the next weekend he was in Oregon doing workshops and leading worship. We kept busy in the Sacramento area by finding places we could go where I be productive, and the kids could play safely and we found some great spots! We went to one place that was set up like a little town called Busykidz, where the kids could dress up and do crafts, another day we went to an indoor playground called Climbaroo where they have a kids dance party every hour, and we spent two days at the amazing Wacky Tacky play area that had 3 large playgrounds! The kids played hard and I was able to get all of my work done while David was out of town which was a big feat!
We attended Jesus Culture Sacramento the next Sunday where Kim Walker led worship. It was a refreshing time! The nearby Palladio Shopping center nearby was lots of fun too!
In our last week in this area, we finished exploring Sacramento. We visited the Sacramento Children’s Museum, which was the smallest museum we have been to, but they had an amazing bug and reptile show there that Ellie especially loved! Tyler got 4 Geckos put on his hat (I will try to link the video soon) and they both got to touch and learn about all kinds of bugs and reptiles.
We attended Jesus Culture again on our 3rd Sunday in the area, and went to the well preserved Old Town Sacramento. There were old trains here, the Tower Bridge, horse carriage rides, and lots of shops and restaurants.
Ponderosa RV Resort was only a mile from the spot where James Marshall found gold that started the Gold Rush in 1849! We spent some time there in the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park learning about the gold rush! We also struck Gold of the sweetest kind on our way to a new coffee shop, when we stumbled on The Parlor, where they make tasty ice cream sandwiches out of doughnuts and homemade ice cream! We went to a Christmas festival and craft show a couple miles down the road from where we were staying. Since we had been in Sacramento over 2 weeks, and this has been the first location in the country where we didn’t have cell signal or internet in our RV…we were ready to move on from here to new horizons.
A little ways south of Sacramento, we stopped in Lodi and visited a few of the many Harvest Host Vineyards there. They were beautiful places to stay, and we also explored the town of Lodi, and even got to meet our friend Dana’s Dad who works at one of the vineyards we stayed at. While in Lodi, we went to the park and the World of Wonders Museum where there were a lot of educational, interactive exhibits. Tyler’s favorite part was the pinball machine, of course!
The Free Family 