Old Sac!

Bekah and I made it to Sacramento!  Our train was two hours late getting into the station, but our fabulous host waited and was there when we got in so he could bring us home.  God has blessed us with wonderful people to meet and stay with on this trip, and I’m so thankful! 

We definitely couldn’t have done any better with our first day in Sacramento!  We went downtown and the first thing we did was check out the Farmers Market.  This was so awesome because I absolutely love fresh fruits and vegetables, the people at the stands were so nice, and there were huge shady trees everywhere!

Bekah walked a little bit ahead of me and when she got to the end of the row she turned around to see where I was, and all she could do was shake her head and laugh at me!  This was because in five minutes I had managed to get my hands full of a big bushy bunch of some sort of vegetable and some HUGE breadsticks!  I hadn’t meant to buy anything, especially the vegetables, but it just kind of happened!

Here’s how it went down: I had been talking to one of the vegetable vendors about his produce, and I hadn’t known what one of the things was so he gave me a bunch of it and told me to go home and try it— he recommended frying it up with bacon!  After I had thanked him, I moved on to the next booth and started talking to the vendor that was selling fresh bread.  We were chatting about the different kinds of bread and how it had all been made last night and packaged that morning and stuff and I ended up buying breadsticks for Bekah and I (thinking they would be about the size of a Fazoli’s or Olive Garden breadstick) only to find out that each breadstick was the size of a loaf of French bread! 

Thus Bekah turned around to see me loaded down with some sort of leafy vegetable and two huge sticks of bread!  Haha see what I mean that it just happened?! ;)  It was all ok though because Bekah ended up buying some cherries and nuts and stuff so I wasn’t the only one unable to resist the fresh deliciousness of the Farmers Market!

When we had finished up at the market, we kept walking until we came to a cute little coffee shop called the Chocolate Fish (the name alone was enough to make us go in!).  The guy who was at the counter gave us a ton of good suggestions of things we could check out, the best of which was Old Sacramento.  Cobblestone streets, dozens of little shops and café’s, an old school house... oh yeah, we were so there!

I was shocked by how many candy shops there were in Old Sac!  The first place Bekah and I stopped sold a million different kinds of candy apples, so we bought the one that had every kind of candy imaginable on it (of course) and they sliced it for us and ohmygoodness,  IT WAS SO GOOD!  It was called the Monster, and I’m going to post a picture of it so you can marvel at its sugariness! 

We spent the next few hours exploring Old Sac and stopping in pretty much every boutique and shop (candy and otherwise) and browsing and buying postcards or whatever.  We got to meet a ton of nice people, and snack on so many deliciously unhealthy foods!  I have no regrets. ;)

I think Bekah especially liked when we stopped at the old school house.  It was so cute, and they even had a lady dressed up like an old-fashioned schoolteacher standing inside!  There were readers and little chalkboards on every desk, and of course there were huge chalkboards covering each of the main walls! 

The thing that got me was the list of actions students would be punished for, along with the corresponding amount of lashes a disobedient student would receive for his or her actions.  If a student came to school with a dirty face or hands, they would get eight lashes!  That seems a little excessive, but I guess it was effective! 

After the schoolhouse, we took the train home and just relaxed until we left for the college age worship night at their church.

The worship night was absolutely fantastic!  We got to meet a ton of awesome people, and we even ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings with a lot of them after the service!  (I’m glad that we got to know everyone tonight because our hosts are having a 4^th of July barbeque for all these people tomorrow and now we’ve done all the get to know you stuff so we’ll be able to just have fun!)

The message that Sean preached about tonight was really interesting.  He was talking about James 3:1-12 and the importance of guarding our tongues and using our words to build others up.  I absolutely love how often the Bible talks about watching your words, and I think it’s fabulous how honest and in your face a lot of these verses are. 

Sean challenged us to take James 1:19 to heart and practice being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.  He also suggested that we try using our words to build others up, and to remember that our words reflect what’s in our hearts.

These things are so vital to being Christ-like!   Jesus heard not only what people were saying with their mouths, he also knew what they meant in their hearts.  He always spoke the truth, yet he also spoke in love. Jesus always used his words to teach people about God’s kingdom and God’s character. 

That’s how we’re called to use our words as well!  It’s definitely not an easy task, but because talking is something we all do on such a regular basis, we always have another chance to speak in love, listen to people’s hearts, and share with them about God.  It’s nice to know that we never have to look far for an opportunity to try again!  After all, God is all about second chances ;)

Rebekah

The Monster!

The Capitol :D

Farmers Market

School House...

School Teacher Bekah!

All the super strict rules/punishments... Yikes!