Sacramento

I spent the day of October 8 in Sacramento.  It was a Saturday, so it was pretty empty and maybe not representative of what it's normally like.  But I thought it was very pretty and had a couple of interesting things going on.

Some bridge

My first sightseeing of the day was at Old Sacramento, which was the original spot of the city along the river and which is now a tourist trap.  It looks really quaint (well, except for the cars) but is full of cheap shops and mediocre restaurants.

Old Sacramento

Old Sacramento was also the end of the line of the Pony Express route, so I felt like an earlier piece of my trip was wrapped up there.

Sacramento also harkened back to a different earlier stop:  The Golden Spike in Promontory Point, Utah.  I don't think I mentioned this little fact in my post, but the presidents (?) of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads each took a turn swinging at the last spike to drive it into the ground, and both missed.*  One of those men was Leland Stanford, former governor of California and eventual founder of Stanford University.  Well, he owned a house in Sacramento.  A nice house, which is open for tours.

The Leland Stanford Mansion

So once again, another piece of history that I learned somewhere else got wrapped up in California!

After my formal touring, I went to stroll around town, just to see it.  It was my first time in the part of California that looks like California -- you know, sunny and palm trees and stuff.  And I stumbled upon at least two protests:  the Occupy Sacramento crowd, which had a couple hundred people, and some rally for CEU, whatever that is, which drew a couple dozen people.  Everything was very orderly and I somehow got a parking spot right in the middle of both protests.  I forgot to pay the parking meter, but I guess the cops had other things to keep their eyes on, because I avoided a ticket.

Occupy Sacramento

The State Capital

I spent the second part of the afternoon driving to Prundale, CA, to meet some friends.  I'll write about that stop next time.  At the rate I'm writing, I'll be all caught up in about 6 days!  /pats self on back, sarcastically.

*  I imagine the event went something like this:

First dude:  <mutters to self>  That jerk, why does he get to drive the final spike in?  <pause>  HA!  He missed!  <girlish titter>

Second dude:  <mutters to self>  Oh great, now that jerk's gonna drive the spike in and totally show me up.  <pause>  HA!  He missed!  <girlish titter>

Railroad foreman:  <rolls eyes, takes hammer, drives in final spike>