mt. marcy

Last week I was in Sacramento visiting my sweet brother Jacob. My mom flew in, too. Dad had a big project at work and had to cancel at the last minute, but we managed to still have fun. Jacob lives close to his office, in a suburb called Citrus Heights. The funny thing about where he lives is that in the town square full of colorful chickens and roosters roaming wild (but on purpose). It's hilarious.

There is a high-speed train that goes into San Francisco, so we took that in and stayed overnight in the city. Jacob had warned me that it would be chilly, but I underestimated my tolerance for cold. ...Lord help me with North Dakota winters! It was SO cold that I absolutely had to go to Barney's and get jeans. Since I am going to be a poor student in a few weeks I had to buy some necessities like a cardigan that will look oh so chic in the library and an english riding hat for driving my nissan to class. We went to a Giants' baseball game, rode the trolley and I got my curry fix at an Indian restaurant.

We also took a day trip to Lake Tahoe and hiked 9 miles along a trail that followed the lake. We oohed and ahhed the entire time. We drove up to Squaw Valley, too. Squaw is like Vail condensed, with little boutiques and six dollar a scoop ice cream parlors.

Back in Sacramento I got to see where Jacob works, where his boss lives (because Jacob is going to sell so much insurance that he has a two million dollar house one day, too) and plays. After all we ate, thank goodness we made it to his gym twice.

Also, Jacob and I have decided that when we are finally able, we are going to buy a vacation home together either in Colorado or Utah. I am pushing for a ski in/ski out chateau.

Click here for the complete picture slide show.