Friday, March 24, 2006
Two Weeks to Sacramento
In two weeks, I will be in Sacramento with Hayley and her 4th grade class. The trip should be fun. I went with Bethany and her 4th grade class 3 years ago and had a good time. The trip is similar, but different enough to be interesting. It is an overnight trip on Thursday / Friday. They are two long days with a flight up and back included. However, the trip is a lot of fun.
The funny thing 3 years ago was what the highlight of the trip turned out to be. When we visited the capitol building, we had a chance to meet our state senator and state assemblyman. The state senator visit was ok. The thing I remember the most was a kid asking if he had met Gray Davis (governor at the time). After an affirmative answer, the next question was if they were friends. Gray Davis is a Democrat and our state senator is a Republican, so I was very curious how he would answer this to a group of 4th graders. The answer: "He's not a very warm and fuzzy guy." Pretty good.
Anyway, on to the highlight (for the kids anyway). Instead of our state assemblyman coming down, he sent his Chief of Staff. Why? Because the Chief of Staff attended the elementary school that we were coming from. The kids loved that! They had a ton of questions about the teachers that he had (3 of them are still there), the sports he played, where he lived, etc.
For me, the most fun was panning for gold in the American River on day two. We didn't get much, but there was definitely a visible amount in our little bottles. I didn't get to keep mine though. One of the kids dropped and broke her little bottle of gold on the rocks as we were leaving. I gave her mine. Anyway, it was really cool to me to have this chance to do some "real" panning for gold in an open river without paying someone for the privilege.
This time, we don't get to pan for gold in the river. However, I still think that the trip looks better overall. Some of the boring stuff has been replaced with more interesting items.
Some highlights:
* Paddle Wheel Riverboat Tour of Sacramento
* California State Railroad Museum
* Gold Country Underground Mine Tour
* State Capitol Tour (see how it is different with our new governor)
* Old Town free time (Bethany and I rode a horse and buggy -- Hayley wants to do the same)
The funny thing 3 years ago was what the highlight of the trip turned out to be. When we visited the capitol building, we had a chance to meet our state senator and state assemblyman. The state senator visit was ok. The thing I remember the most was a kid asking if he had met Gray Davis (governor at the time). After an affirmative answer, the next question was if they were friends. Gray Davis is a Democrat and our state senator is a Republican, so I was very curious how he would answer this to a group of 4th graders. The answer: "He's not a very warm and fuzzy guy." Pretty good.
Anyway, on to the highlight (for the kids anyway). Instead of our state assemblyman coming down, he sent his Chief of Staff. Why? Because the Chief of Staff attended the elementary school that we were coming from. The kids loved that! They had a ton of questions about the teachers that he had (3 of them are still there), the sports he played, where he lived, etc.
For me, the most fun was panning for gold in the American River on day two. We didn't get much, but there was definitely a visible amount in our little bottles. I didn't get to keep mine though. One of the kids dropped and broke her little bottle of gold on the rocks as we were leaving. I gave her mine. Anyway, it was really cool to me to have this chance to do some "real" panning for gold in an open river without paying someone for the privilege.
This time, we don't get to pan for gold in the river. However, I still think that the trip looks better overall. Some of the boring stuff has been replaced with more interesting items.
Some highlights:
* Paddle Wheel Riverboat Tour of Sacramento
* California State Railroad Museum
* Gold Country Underground Mine Tour
* State Capitol Tour (see how it is different with our new governor)
* Old Town free time (Bethany and I rode a horse and buggy -- Hayley wants to do the same)
Labels: Bethany, Hayley, Rob, School, Vacation
# posted by - Rob @ 4:57 PM 
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My last trip to Sacramento included Lee's niece, Marla, getting sick all over the train traks at the train museum. This was when we drove up to Vancouver, B.C. for the Expo in '86. Since then we've just driven thru and not stopped really.
Prior to that, I saw Sutter's Fort on a trip with my family. We didn't pan for gold, but we swam in the Sacramento River. It had an icky, sticky bottom that sucked at your feet.
And on a completely different note, Donna & Jim gave us Jim's telescope today while Lee was down fixing Jim's computer at work. It's a big 'ol monster that probably cost a lot, but since Jim's only taken it out once since he bought it, Donna thought our guys might get more use out of it. So we'll be checking the website on your prior post once the rain clears up.
:)
Prior to that, I saw Sutter's Fort on a trip with my family. We didn't pan for gold, but we swam in the Sacramento River. It had an icky, sticky bottom that sucked at your feet.
And on a completely different note, Donna & Jim gave us Jim's telescope today while Lee was down fixing Jim's computer at work. It's a big 'ol monster that probably cost a lot, but since Jim's only taken it out once since he bought it, Donna thought our guys might get more use out of it. So we'll be checking the website on your prior post once the rain clears up.
:)
Haha! When I chaperoned Caitlan's class trip to Sutter's Mill, we hit the twisty part, and a girl near the front of the bus vomitted after just a few minutes. Then the rest of them started. Amazingly, even though I spent the next 20 or 30 minutes wiping up barf I did not get sick. Me! The car-sickness king!
OMGosh it was awful. My stomach is flippnig right now, remembering it, 6 years later.
OMGosh it was awful. My stomach is flippnig right now, remembering it, 6 years later.
BTW: email me (robert at pixelrangers dawt com) and let's see if there is any chance I could end up in Sac with my son Nicholas during your free time.
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