bobnjulie
Lead Service Attendant
Hi folks,
This may be more appropriate for what to do in Sacramento but I thought I'd share our day out.
I knew that I wanted to go the the railroad museum since I love the locomotives all decorated and mister was agreeable so we decided on a day trip up to Sacramento. I had wanted to take the train but almost $140- was not a true option so it became a road trip.
I always support California parks and had purchased a year pass - good for free admission, parking, etc so I hopped on the internet to see what else we could do about 20 minutes before we left. I thought a visit to the State Capitol and Governor's Mansion would be incredible but since we had our car and could go a bit further afield, looked at museums in the area. I jotted down so ideas and then hopped in the car and away we went.
I asked mister what he wanted to do and we narrowed our choices to the planes, trains and automobile kind of day.
We kept changing plans but ended up deciding on going to farthest museum, then the railroad and last the automobile museum.
It's close to a 3 hour drive so we arrived at the Aerospace Museum around 11 a.m. It's located on/by the former McClellan Air Force base. Easy to find. I was not too surprised that there were not a lot of people there since it was the day after Christmas but I hope it gets a lot of visitors. They have one of the largest engine collections outside of the Smithsonian (which makes sense since they are affiliated with the Smithsonian!) and have a lot of planes outside the building. They had 3 planes and a helicopter open to actually go in which was fun and lots of knowledgeable volunteers who are great.
Since we were on a time crunch, we left after about an hour but could have stayed for a few more hours easily.
We hit a drive through and cruised down to Old Town Sacramento, parked our car and went in to the Railroad Museum.... which everyone knows is a gem. We joined and actually got our admission credited back to us - win - win!
I just wanted to breeze through but always have to walk through the Pullman Car. While my husband was walking through the post office car, I starting talking to a docent and learned about the railroad shop and the very exciting plans for the Railroad Technology Museum. Since my husband is a machinist, he can even volunteer in the shops - which sounds just amazing!
I hit the gift shop - which was the whole point of the trip - grabbed the last 3 boxes of Christmas cards for next year and found a gem of a book, "Rails, Tale and Trails" by Bill George. When we were on the Zephyr, we (okay - I
) talked about how much fun it would be to take a jeep trip and find all the cool locations that the train goes past on its way up to Reno.... and this little gem is a "step-by step guide to secret locations, fascinating people and historic towns of the old Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento to Reno - SCORE!
Our last stop was about a mile away. It was a bit tough to find but we did, parked and spent some time inside the California Automobile Museum. It had lots of older Fords and again, very knowledgeable volunteers who are friendly and willing to share their knowledge and passion. It was well worth the time for a visit.
Yet another link to pictures... https://www.flickr.com/photos/97163322@N02/sets/72157647623691494/.
This may be more appropriate for what to do in Sacramento but I thought I'd share our day out.
I knew that I wanted to go the the railroad museum since I love the locomotives all decorated and mister was agreeable so we decided on a day trip up to Sacramento. I had wanted to take the train but almost $140- was not a true option so it became a road trip.
I always support California parks and had purchased a year pass - good for free admission, parking, etc so I hopped on the internet to see what else we could do about 20 minutes before we left. I thought a visit to the State Capitol and Governor's Mansion would be incredible but since we had our car and could go a bit further afield, looked at museums in the area. I jotted down so ideas and then hopped in the car and away we went.
I asked mister what he wanted to do and we narrowed our choices to the planes, trains and automobile kind of day.
We kept changing plans but ended up deciding on going to farthest museum, then the railroad and last the automobile museum.
It's close to a 3 hour drive so we arrived at the Aerospace Museum around 11 a.m. It's located on/by the former McClellan Air Force base. Easy to find. I was not too surprised that there were not a lot of people there since it was the day after Christmas but I hope it gets a lot of visitors. They have one of the largest engine collections outside of the Smithsonian (which makes sense since they are affiliated with the Smithsonian!) and have a lot of planes outside the building. They had 3 planes and a helicopter open to actually go in which was fun and lots of knowledgeable volunteers who are great.
Since we were on a time crunch, we left after about an hour but could have stayed for a few more hours easily.
We hit a drive through and cruised down to Old Town Sacramento, parked our car and went in to the Railroad Museum.... which everyone knows is a gem. We joined and actually got our admission credited back to us - win - win!
I just wanted to breeze through but always have to walk through the Pullman Car. While my husband was walking through the post office car, I starting talking to a docent and learned about the railroad shop and the very exciting plans for the Railroad Technology Museum. Since my husband is a machinist, he can even volunteer in the shops - which sounds just amazing!
I hit the gift shop - which was the whole point of the trip - grabbed the last 3 boxes of Christmas cards for next year and found a gem of a book, "Rails, Tale and Trails" by Bill George. When we were on the Zephyr, we (okay - I
) talked about how much fun it would be to take a jeep trip and find all the cool locations that the train goes past on its way up to Reno.... and this little gem is a "step-by step guide to secret locations, fascinating people and historic towns of the old Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento to Reno - SCORE!Our last stop was about a mile away. It was a bit tough to find but we did, parked and spent some time inside the California Automobile Museum. It had lots of older Fords and again, very knowledgeable volunteers who are friendly and willing to share their knowledge and passion. It was well worth the time for a visit.
Yet another link to pictures... https://www.flickr.com/photos/97163322@N02/sets/72157647623691494/.
