Travelogue: California Day 2

Thursday, June 6, 2019

I awoke at 2:30 a.m. PST, which was my normal 5:30 EST time, and the baby "slept in" until 3:00 a.m. My other early riser, John, was up and eating cereal when I emerged to the kitchen and my late-sleeper got up at 3:30.

We had a grand old time playing board games, doing puzzles, and read our books quietly. John is ensconced in "The Lord of the Rings," Mary in "Huck Finn," and me in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

We had so much time on our hands that we decided to attend the 7:00 Mass at St. Stephen's Catholic Church. It was an unexpected mother's dream to see her son serve at the parish where she converted to the faith and where she later married.

We met my dad at 8:00 a.m. at the Pancake Circus diner for breakfast.

Then it was time to head downtown in our separate cars to go on a tour of the State Capitol, where Chris used to work before deciding to leave politics for a career that better suited family life. I searched for a downtown parking spot for 45 minutes, finding zero street parking, and finally parked about a mile away in the third parking garage I checked. The parking situation in downtown Sacramento is a notorious disaster, as the politicians have purposefully refused to build new parking structures in order to force people to use supposedly ecologically friendly transportation (such as light rail, where we hope we won't get knifed by a criinal or sit in feces deposited by the homeless people)--but you can't force human behavior. For example, the Capitol moved in 3,000 new government positions but put in only 290 parking spaces to accommodate them. Insanity!

We met our friend Tom Hudson for the tour, as he used to work at the Capitol with Chris. The Capitol docent gave a great tour and Tom added a lot of colorful commentary. Poor Baby David had been awake for 10 hours by then, so he was screaming with fatigue, but would not fall asleep in his stroller or my Ergo.

(Photos below are out of order, as they are compiled from three cameras.)

There were homeless men camped about with all their worldly goods in the exquisite Capitol botanical gardens, but I think I successfully avoided photographing any of them.

We had to skip our planned lunch because the baby was in misery, so we drove back to the house for naps at 1:00.

Then I woke my little guy at 3:30 to drive back downtown and bravely face downtown parking again in order to tour the cathedral. We also had to dodge numerous homeless people camped on the cathedral steps in order to enter.

Having skipped lunch, we ate an early dinner at Dos Coyotes (an original Davis favorite of mine, now located in half a dozen locations) and drove past my second-ever apartment (with the falling-down stairs, lack of insultation, and the pigeons which lived in my attic) and McGeorge Law School where I attended.

Back at home, we played board games, shrieked with laughter, and ate ice cream--the kind of relationship-building activities I don't have time to do in my normal course of duties.

In Charlotte, the three amigos were playing like little cherubs and having a fun time with their grandparents and uncle visiting.

Notes on California: It is worth mentioning somewhere in this series of blog posts that I was surprised and disappointed by three aspects of California, new or worsened since I last visited 5 years ago and certainly since I lived there: homelessness/vagrancy, alternative lifestyles being celebrated for the whole world to see, and legalization of marijuana.

Homelessness: As news coverage is showing, the problem of the homeless being allowed to camp on the streets is severe in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but it is certainly bad enough in Sacramento too, California's state capitol. They are all over the place in camps on the sidewalk and in all the public parks or tourist locations. This sparked numerous conversations with my 10- and 12-year-old who were shocked that both people were allowed to suffer at the result of mostly their own poor choices without intervention from authorities, and that private property laws, physical safety, and sanitation completely lost out to the rights of the homeless to be anywhere and do anything where they want.

Article 6/26/19: "Up 19%, homelessness in Sacramento County hits 5,570. Officials ‘frustrated’ but hopeful"

Alternative lifestyles: We are religious and from the South, so having pride celebrated for alternative lifestyles everywhere we went was disappointing and also sparked conversations. In the state capitol itself, there were displays in numerous places about how wonderful and important it was to celebrate this lifestyle. Of course, this was "pride month," and, in fact, on Sunday was the Sacramento pride parade, so every time we drove downtown, we were seeing folks dressed up in nasty and immodest costumes. There was no hiding this topic or delaying its introduction, as if all children, no matter how young, need to know and see these details, thus removing a parent's right to introduce these topics in due time. Our world needs much prayer.

Legalization of marijuana: This went over the heads of my children, but there were billboards in many places advertising cannibas shops and mail order services.