The Governator...

Yesterday the kids and I hung out at the hotel until about 11:00 searching for something to do that would be nearby. We finally decided to bag that idea and head to the capital building. We were so glad we did!

Downtown Sacramento is beautiful! Very clean, lots of trees, and the weather yesterday was perfect! We walked around for awhile and got signed up for a tour. Then we walked past the governors office, where we had to stop and get a picture!



That's when we noticed that there was a cameraman positioned outside the governors office. So we asked if Governor Schwarzenegger was in. The guards said yes, but that he probably wouldn't be coming out those doors. We walked around for another little while and noticed more news people hanging out. That's where Addison came in handy. One woman, obviously a reporter was oohing and aahing at Addie and asked if we would like to see the governor. We said yes, we would love a glimpse. Then she told us that he was having a press conference on the front lawn at 3:30. So then we had a decision to make, do we trust her and take our hour long tour, or do we wait outside his office with all the newscasters and a large crowd of anxious people? We decided to trust her and went on our tour.

We learned tons about our new state and it was really educational for all of us! Here are pictures of where the house of representatives and senators meet and vote on laws. Very elaborate and beautiful!


























After the tour we headed outside to the Veterans Memorial where they told us the governor would be. We found out that he was going to be signing a bill for a new law allowing families of veterans that passed away in Iraq to have a Gold Star license plate. There were tons of veterans and Gold Star families with posters and t-shirts of loved ones that had fought and died, very moving stuff! After about an hour of waiting, a black escalade pulled up on the corner and out comes Governor Schwarzennegar! There were a couple of speeches and then he signed the legislation. Then we had time to pose and try to get him in the background. So fun!

First here's a shot of Arnold.



Now us with Arnold in the back. He, he!





Needless to say we (at least I, the kids weren't too totally impressed) felt very lucky that we showed up on a day when the governor was not only there, but hosting a press conference! The whole capitol was very fun! Here's the picture Christian's sending to his class, so cute!



Love,

The California Rays