The Rest of the "Forward"

(Today's Blogger: Fr. Michael)
So Elena was supposed to write about all the things we did in Folsom with Ben and Pam and the kids, our sightseeing in Sacramento, and our weekend seeing friends in the bay area. Hence, the "forward"(her choice for the title of the last post). I guess she got distracted by the dog. Anyway...as Paul Harvey would say, and now the rest of the story.
On our last full day in Folsom, we drove into Sacramento, spending the morning with Pam as we toured Sutter's Fort, the original settlement in the Sacramento area. We saw musket and cannon demonstrations, and heard great stories of the early settlers.
After a quick picnic lunch, we headed to the State Capitol, where we toured the Capitol building, visiting the Governator's office. The guard at the door told us we could take one of the governor's cards from the desk. He suggested they might be worth something someday. Elena, ever the financial wizard, figured she could sell them on eBay and plotted how she could take a stack. We also dragged the kids through the California Railroad Museum, which Vicky and I thoroughly enjoyed and the kids did their best to endure.
The next day we said good bye to the Hembrees and headed east toward San Francisco. On the way, we stopped for a tour of the Jelly Belly factory, enjoying lots of free samples of all of their flavors, including a few not commonly found: none of us tried the barf or rotten egg flavors, but Elena tried the toothpaste and I sampled a pencil shavings jelly bean. It tasted just like, well, like what I would imagine pencil shavings would taste like.
We continued to Orinda, just outside of San Francisco, where we'd be parking the trailer overnight. We were greeted on arrival by Fr. George Washburn, who'd barbecued chicken and prepared a great meal to welcome us. We enjoyed Vespers that night, the first service in a few weeks since we had been staying in areas with no Orthodox churches.
The next morning, we enjoyed a beautiful Liturgy and saw many old and new friends. The church happened to be having a Mexican lunch that day, to raise funds for their SOYO group going to Project Mexico this summer. I was able to speak a little to the parish about the orphanage and our time there, and spent time with the teens answering their questions about what they'd be experiencing on their trip. From there we enjoyed the beautiful sunny day by going out for gelato with a friend we hadn't seen in years but lives in the area, David Hanna, along with his sister Nadine and their beautiful families.