Oakland, Sacramento, and Fresno?

In case you're wondering, yes I am married, and not all my temple travels are with my friend Marshall.  My wife, Gini and I have been married 38 years, we have 4 children, and 19 grandchildren.  My work schedule allows me more time off than her's does, so sometimes I get a vacation when she doesn't.  I try to go on Temple trips with her when I can, like the one we took last spring to central California.  This one I really enjoyed.  We took the Amtrak from San Diego, up the coast to Santa Barbara.  What a beautiful, relaxing way to travel.  From Santa Barbara, we rented a car and drove to Fresno.  We had been by the Fresno Temple years before with the children, but we did not have time to do any temple work.  This time, when we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed right away, something was wrong.  There were construction trucks in the parking lot, and the front door of the Temple was wide open.  I walked up to the front door, and spoke to a construction worker.  The Temple was scheduled to be closed the following week, but was supposed to be open when we were there.  But, since the carpets were being replaced with marble, the Temple had closed earlier to allow for the construction.  Grrrrr.  We traveled all the way to Fresno, only to find it closed. The Temple President was there, and allowed us to walk through the construction, but I didn't feel I could check it off my list unless we did some type of Temple work there.  But there was nothing we could do, so we had to leave. 

Next, we drove to Sacramento, California.  The Temple there was open for business and it is beautiful.  It's on a hill outside of town, and there are animals roaming around the Temple grounds.  Really a nice setting.

 

Here we are at the Sacramento Temple

From there, we hopped into the car and headed for the coast.  Next stop, Oakland.  The hotel in Oakland was scary!  Lots of loud, ugly talk coming from right outside our door until the early hours of the morning.  The Temple in Oakland is beautiful.  It's way up on the side of the hill overlooking Oakland and across the bay to San Francisco.  One thing different about the Oakland Temple is the mirrors in the Sealing rooms.  They are not on the side walls, but in the corners of the walls.  It gives you a different sense of reflecting into eternity. 
 

 

Jim and Gini in Oakland
 

We spent a day checking out San Francisco and going to the aquarium in Monterey Bay.

From there, we traveled down the coastline of California along the Pacific Ocean.  What a beautiful ride.  Back to Santa Barbara, and another Amtrak ride back to San Diego.  With the exception of the Fresno Temple being closed, and a scary night in Oakland, it was a great trip.