Sacramento, CA

[Bob Dylan]

Absolutely brilliant!

Pleased you are keeping an eye on him, or are you taking lessons?

Couldn't keep up with him Jamie, hes got ALL the Ladies!!lol

 

[tp49]

There's Nothing going on right now Right??

Not unless you count physical distancing as nothing.

 

[tp49]

Meet people in everyday situations, not very drawn to tourist attractions.

For an example. Not being from the US we are interested in your country as a different culture.

We have visited different US state capitols as they have ancient, modern and current history tied to them, and all have been magnificent buildings too.
Bob Dylan showed us an authentic honky-tonk, fantastic. Jeb introduced us to the juicy lucy, great evening and surprising. We were given a masterclass on the operation of a space shuttle by our now good friend Milton, who we met on the Southwest Chief.

We are interested in museums, sometimes. I have the barbed wire museum on my wish list as it's so improbable.

Train travel anywhere fits the bill as you never know who you will meet while the real world goes past the window. What 'local' people do and see, where they are is often interesting to us if ordinary to them.

Sorry for a non answer and I do thank you very much for asking, but there isn't a simple reply other than often the unexpected and the normal.

I do ask a lot of questions about the US on this forum, and every time a subject is discussed we take something away from it. Not always the intended but something we could never know without local knowledge.

Much appreciated

With a "non-answer" as you put it, you'd fit right in over in "The Building aka the Capitol" Maybe this helps, maybe it doesn't, but I tried

I'll leave Old Sac out of this. Outside of the railroad museum which is well worth it, I'm not the biggest fan of it, I'd even go so far as to say you could skip it (Old Sac, not the railroad museum see that for sure), though the local tourist board will be after my hide for saying that. As the capital city of the state, the capitol building itself is a great thing to see. If you're here at the right time you could even sit in on an Assembly or Senate session or a hearing of one of the many sub-committees. Since a lot of people in town are in some way involved in government seeing the process at work is fairly interesting. The bear statue in front of the governor's office is also a popular photo spot. You might also recognize the portraits of a couple of our former governors.

A block south of the Capitol is The California Museum where they have some exhibits on the history of California and the state's Hall of Fame. East of the Capitol about a mile or so is Sutter's Fort which was part of the original settlement of the city. They do reenactments at times during the month which are fun to see when it's not closed down due to the public health crisis.

The Midtown neighborhood between the Capitol and Sutter's Fort is where a good number of the locals go as it's where the bar and restaurant scene is. If you're looking to mix with the locals and have a day to do it, that's the part of town to be in. It'd been doing pretty well until recent events and it's hopeful that it can rebound once things go more towards normal. One particular bar that's pretty popular, and near the Capitol, is a British pub called The Fox and Goose which also is a popular breakfast spot.

Otherwise, the city is really known for its outdoor spaces, trees, parks, and bike trails. While the downtown area doesn't roll up the sidewalks at 5PM anymore, it's still not the most vibrant area. However, if you want to get a feel for Sacramento, a weekday when the legislature is in session is best.

 

[user 6862]

I loved Sacramento!

My California cousin met me there after the Portland gathering. I loved the railroad museum. Also, we had lunch on the Delta Queen, which was nice.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on the river (it was her 60th birthday treat, so I wanted a nice hotel, but there are decent cheaper options, and one of my nicest memories was sitting on the patio in the morning and watching the sun glowing on the gorgeous Tower Bridge.

You can walk from the bridge to the statehouse (early, because it gets darn hot after about 11:00 a.m., even in October). It is a long stretch of green that was supposed to copy the Washington idea of the mall—capitol to Wash. Monument.

I gather that if you go out of these tourist areas, it gets a bit iffy. We went just one block over, and it did feel more gritty.

Because it is the state capital, it feels a bit more formal than the California casual vibe—there were lots of businesspeople in the hotel dressed in nice outfits and working.

After the extreme casualness of Portland, I found that extremely refreshing, but I know not everyone would.

Thank you, enjoyed your description. It's obviously not quite like most other places and can read that from what you have written.

After writing all this, I remember that you and Rosie are much more adventurous than I am, so I have probably made Sacramento sound awfully stodgy and turned you off of the place completely!

Maybe not, and no you haven't

I'll leave Old Sac out of this. Outside of the railroad museum which is well worth it, I'm not the biggest fan of it, I'd even go so far as to say you could skip it (Old Sac, not the railroad museum see that for sure), though the local tourist board will be after my hide for saying that. As the capital city of the state, the capitol building itself is a great thing to see. If you're here at the right time you could even sit in on an Assembly or Senate session or a hearing of one of the many sub-committees. Since a lot of people in town are in some way involved in government seeing the process at work is fairly interesting. The bear statue in front of the governor's office is also a popular photo spot. You might also recognize the portraits of a couple of our former governors.

A block south of the Capitol is The California Museum where they have some exhibits on the history of California and the state's Hall of Fame. East of the Capitol about a mile or so is Sutter's Fort which was part of the original settlement of the city. They do reenactments at times during the month which are fun to see when it's not closed down due to the public health crisis.

The Midtown neighborhood between the Capitol and Sutter's Fort is where a good number of the locals go as it's where the bar and restaurant scene is. If you're looking to mix with the locals and have a day to do it, that's the part of town to be in. It'd been doing pretty well until recent events and it's hopeful that it can rebound once things go more towards normal. One particular bar that's pretty popular, and near the Capitol, is a British pub called The Fox and Goose which also is a popular breakfast spot.

You've dotted the i's and crossed the t's of MRD's description above, we really do have a flavour of the place now, this is a great description, thank's. And thank you both for taking the time.

With a "non-answer" as you put it, you'd fit right in over in "The Building aka the Capitol" Maybe this helps, maybe it doesn't, but I tried

It's helped a lot, you both have.

Have learned the art of non-answers by following Brexit closely for 4 years, but I didn't mean to deviate from your question, just didn't know how to answer it.

Otherwise, the city is really known for its outdoor spaces, trees, parks, and bike trails. While the downtown area doesn't roll up the sidewalks at 5PM anymore, it's still not the most vibrant area. However, if you want to get a feel for Sacramento, a weekday when the legislature is in session is best.

Can't ask for more help than this, thanks to everybody who chipped in.

 

[caravanman]

I like the idea of the barbed wire museum... I wonder if you need wire cutters or have to climb over a wall to get in...

SAC is usually on my radar when I visit the states, the HI hostel is great, the city is a good stop over on the way to Las Vegas, and the tram system can take you out to Folsom, an interesting place to spend an hour or two.

 

[user 6862]

and the tram system can take you out to Folsom, an interesting place to spend an hour or two.

Can you say why?

Thanks for the info Ed, like many others we are watching and waiting before we make our next move. Would like to get to the Gathering only if it represented the usual type of meetings held before, and from here it looks like that is probably not possible this year if only the fact that not everyone is comfortable travelling at the moment.

We may leave travelling outside Europe until next year, but who can predict anything at the moment.

We still have 3 sets of airline tickets that have unresolved refund requests in. TAP Portugal are the most amenable and easiest to modify so if at all possible we would both like to meet up with a few US friends and be in the US at election time, so a week in the US in November is at the moment a slightly better bet for us getting to the US this year.

Do you have any plans for the US at all?

 

[caravanman]

Hi,
I can't quite remember exactly when I visited Folsom, maybe not long after the last recession. The main street had a lot of smaller shops, such as antique and bookshops. It felt "real" rather than some tourist trap. I guess a lot of the shops were struggling at that time with the economic down turn, and a few places were closing down. I certainly would not say it was any incentive to visit Sacramento, but an interesting place to visit if you wanted to kill an hour or two.

I was thinking strongly about a trip to America a couple of months back, glad I didn't get caught up with the Corona virus travel meltdowns in the end. No plans at all at the moment, the novelty of seeing the same 4 walls every day is starting to wear a bit thin now... I guess we can only wait and see, fingers crossed we don't have to stay indoors for ever!

 

[Asher]

Hi,
I can't quite remember exactly when I visited Folsom, maybe not long after the last recession. The main street had a lot of smaller shops, such as antique and bookshops. It felt "real" rather than some tourist trap. I guess a lot of the shops were struggling at that time with the economic down turn, and a few places were closing down. I certainly would not say it was any incentive to visit Sacramento, but an interesting place to visit if you wanted to kill an hour or two.

I was thinking strongly about a trip to America a couple of months back, glad I didn't get caught up with the Corona virus travel meltdowns in the end. No plans at all at the moment, the novelty of seeing the same 4 walls every day is starting to wear a bit thin now... I guess we can only wait and see, fingers crossed we don't have to stay indoors for ever!

The huge granite walls at Folsom prison were a scary sight for me as we drove past it when I was a kid. My brother and I used to listen to a radio program, Gang Busters. It started every episode with Tommy Guns rattling and Police sirens blaring, and then seeing Folsom Prison brought the whole scene together.
Sutters Fort was interesting to me growing up, probably not much of a destination, but it has some exhibits that show what it was all about during the gold rush. They used to have a lot of Native American artifacts. I think they had to return most of them to the tribes they stole them from. Or however they obtained them. Another point of interest back in the day was driving past the train station to see all the hobos sitting in front of the place. Sacrament was sort of a sleepy town back then. Still is!
I've been trying to get to your side of the drink the last couple of years and have ran into stumbling blocks both times after being booked. Maybe the third time will be the charm, so they say.