Monday - After our relaxing weekend, we decided to head into Sacramento today and see what it had to offer. We didn't have a lot of information about things to see and do, so we decided to go to Capitol Park, where the state capitol building is located. We found street parking, so we set it up for 2 hours, then decided we might as well tour the capitol since we were right there.
We encountered their state animal, the bear, right away. We found out there was a tour in 5 minutes, which we joined, starting right at the Ronald Reagan statue.
The Senate office was closed for renovation, as of last Friday, but we did get to see the Assembly, although they are also done until next year.
The color scheme in the Assembly was green, we were told the Senate was red.
We didn't really get to see very much of this building, and our tour guide was more about California history than the building itself, although he was very interesting. We did see the rotunda, and the hallway with the county displays which was unique. Each county had a "window" representing the county, either the crops grown there, or the redwoods, or the ocean -- whatever it had to offer.
We intended to walk the grounds, which is 40 acres of lawns, flower gardens and memorials, but by the time we finished the tour, our parking meter was about to run out. We came out a different door than we went in, so we did walk 1/4 of the grounds. A lot of the trees were identified, which included Coast Redwoods, Magnolia, and Tulip trees.
From there, we drove over to Historic Old Sacramento, which dates back to 1848 when gold was discovered. Old Sacramento was the last stop on the Pony Express route, and they have a statue there representing that. The Pony Express route started in St. Joseph, Missouri.
"By utilizing a short route and using mounted riders rather than traditional coaches,... [the pony express was] to establish a fast mail service between St. Joseph,
Missouri, and Sacramento, California, with letters delivered in 10 days,
a duration many said was impossible. The initial price was set at $5
per
1⁄2 ounce, then $2.50, and by July 1861 to $1. The founders of the Pony
Express hoped to win an exclusive government mail contract, but that did
not come about. ... The approximately 1,900-mile-long route
roughly followed the
Oregon and
California Trails to
Fort Bridger in
Wyoming, and then the Mormon Trail (known as the Hastings Cutoff) to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there it followed the
Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada before passing over the Sierra into
Sacramento, California."
Old Sacramento had board sidewalks, lots of eateries and gift shops, a few museums, horse and carriage rides. It's right on the Sacramento River, and there was a paddle wheeler docked there that is a restaurant.
We had lunch on the balcony at La Terraza Mexican Restaurant,
walked in and out of some of the gift shops, walked down to the river, saw street musicians,
and stepped in the Wells Fargo museum. This was not a bustling area, although there were a few tourists around, and the horse-drawn carriages seemed to stay busy. We finished up here, and headed back to our campground, which is about 30 miles away. We had a pretty low-key day, will try to get ourselves ready tomorrow to get an early start on Wednesday. We only have 32 miles to go to Grass Valley, but although we have reservations, we are in dry camping, on a first come-first serve basis so we want to get there pretty early to try to get a shady spot. But the weather is supposed to cooperate, a cool spell is forecast for the rest of the week so we should be fine. And we are really looking forward to the Draft Horse Classic.
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