San Joaquins train

The impressively smooth, Siemens-built, Amtrak-operated San Joaquins train. A piece of modern Europe in California's hot, dusty Central Valley.

Central Valley train stations

 Stockton, Modesto and Fresno.

Sacramento Valley Station

I've passed through Sacramento quite a few times on the train, but this was my first time inside the big, beautiful Sacramento Valley Station. One highlight is the mural below, commemorating the breaking ground for the Transcontinental Railroad on January 8, 1863.

Mother revisited

I had been to the previous location of this healthy vegetarian restaurant, also on K Street, in May of 2015. I think I like this space more because it's so bright and colorful (although I have a good memory of sitting outdoors at the old one). The food is healthy and innovative the way we like. That this place is called Mother, and on K Street no less, is fraught with coincidental symbolism. But that mother liked Taste of Tuscany, which in some ways is very different. Life is interesting.

Tower Theater

It was amusing to see the movie "Sacramento" in Sacramento at the iconic Tower Theater. What I didn't realize, as someone who spent a lot of time at Tower Records in New York, was that the roots of that store are right here. The founder's father worked in this building (which is actually a block-long shopping complex), and when he opened his first record store in the Arden Arcade area, named it after the theater complex. So what's going on with Sacramento and towers? It probably began with the Tower Bridge, which was built in 1935.

Alara Craft Brewery

We applied the theory that craft breweries can have good food, and in the case of this Midtown Sacramento venue, it worked. In addition to some nice red gazpacho, we learned that gazpacho can come in other colors - among them yellow, green and white.

Taste of Tuscany

We never met her, but we did check out one of her favorite restaurants. The address says Sacramento, but the location was a strip mall in the outer suburb of Antelope. The pizza was delicious, but did its oiliness make me sick?

McKinley Park Rose Garden

 

Also known as the Frederick N. Evans Memorial Rose Garden but located within Sacramento's 32-acre McKinley Park. This is one of the city's primary parks, dating back to 1871.

Tree House Café

For a place we just stumbled upon in West Sacramento, this was really good - the food, the coffee and the atmosphere. Then again any place called the Tree House Café will most likely be good, in my experience.

one small step

Sometimes a marker commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad has a tiny child's shoe at its base. One small step for the child; one giant leap for American railroads.

western terminus

What we have here is a very historically significant building: the western terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. Although since this encounter I have read that this building is a replica of the original; also that the eventual western terminus was Oakland, from where passengers could take a ferry to San Francisco. But when the U.S. government chartered the Central Pacific Railroad to build the western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1862, Sacramento was the starting point.

Old Sacramento

Great to stroll around here sans crowds.

Sacramento Tower Bridge

Sacramento's famous Tower Bridge. It's a beauty, and more golden than the Golden Gate Bridge. Actually the 1935-built bridge wasn't painted gold until 1976. This was the first time we walked over it. The bridge connects the City of Sacramento and Sacramento County on the east side with West Sacramento and Yolo County on the west.

Sacramento River Walk

Who knew that Sacramento had a River Walk? Who knew that Sacramento had a pyramid? Who knew that the Sacramento River had sea lions? And who knew that the first Pacific Coast Salmon Cannery was right here in West Sacramento? There is a lot to know.