4/6/09 - Sacramento (Scott)

It's official: I love this area of the Central Valley. From what I've seen, Davis is a place that Ashlee and I could definitely call home. I was telling Garrett's parents that we keep waiting to get a peak behind the curtain or to find some skeletons in the Davis closet, but to no avail. Actually, that's not totally true. Ashlee was a bit sad to hear that there isn't a Trader Joes here -- although there is a thriving farmer's market that operates regularly. Also, Garrett said the weather gets uncomfortably hot in the summer. Things to consider, I suppose.

Anyways, we spent pretty much the entire day in Sacramento. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Back home, it seems that the unanimous opinion of Sacramento is generally negative. I have heard gripes like "Oh, there's nothing to see" or "It's in the middle of nowhere." To be honest, complaints such as these led me to have pretty low expectation of the Golden State's capital city. I was therefore surprised at how much I enjoyed my time in the city and how beautiful I found it. Did you know that Sacramento is the City of Trees?

We got into the city about 11:30am (it was only a 20 minute or so drive from Garrett's house) and our first stop was Old Town Sacramento. Naturally, the three of us were a little hungry, and Garrett knew just the place to take us. We had lunch at Fanny Ann's Saloon -- a great little bar right in Old Town Sac. You could definitely say the place doesn't lack character. I tackled a pastrami cheeseburger, Ashlee had their signature chicken sandwich, and Garrett opted for a regular cheeseburger. Just so we wouldn't completely overwhelm our arteries, Ashlee and I did get side salads -- which were drenched in ranch dressing and covered in cheese. Garrett went with fries. Delicious.

After lunch, we headed to the Capitol building. Did I mention that it was another gorgeous day? So far, the stars must be aligned perfectly for us. After a brief pass through security, we walked right into the Capitol and signed up for a tour that runs on the hour. The Legislature is currently on Spring Break -- maybe they're all down in Cancun? -- so the building was quite empty. We got to walk all over the place -- we even got to sit in the public galleries of the Senate and Assembly chambers. We stood right outside Arnie's office and snapped a picture with the California Highway Patrolman standing guard -- I wonder why the CHP gets to guard the governor? I think Jerry Brown's governor's portrait was my favorite part of the tour. We have a picture if you're interested.

After the Capitol, Garrett had to scoot off to work. The 3pm-11pm shift sounds a bit rough to me. After leaving Garrett, we meandered through the Capitol gardens where I got to see my first Nor Cal Sequoia and made our way to the old governor's mansion.

The governor's mansion is this old Victorian building that looks like something out an old Alfred Hitchcock movie. Originally built in 1877, the mansion housed the families of 13 governors from George Pardee to Ronald Reagan -- who was the last governor to live there. Apparently Nancy wasn't too keen on the noisy traffic and the dodgy neighborhood, so they moved out. Ever since it has been operated as a State Historical Park. Although gaudily decorated, I found the house fascinating. It also helped that our tour guide was fantastic. He had a terrific sense of humor and was full of amusing anecdotes. He told us how the teenage daughter of one governor (Pat Brown?) got in serious trouble after dropping water balloons on trick-or-treaters from the attic window which sits 100ft above the front porch. Personally, I also found it fascinating that Earl Warren once called the place home -- I think he actually lived there for 10 years and raised 4 kids there.

After touring the mansion, we made a quick stop at Starbucks for a caffeine jolt and then booked it back across the city to Old Town Sac. We wanted to make it to the Railroad Museum before it closed at 5pm. We made it in the door at 4:35 and the lady at the desk was kind enough to let us in free. We got to run around the place for the next twenty minutes before they kicked us out. From the little we saw, the place was really neat and we'd love to go back one day.

After the choo-choos we picked up Hamish and headed to dinner. We decide to visit Garrett at his little restaurant for some good pub grub. The Guiness was perfect, Ashlee was thrilled that they had Strongbow cider on tap, and the food was tasty. Two thumbs up for the Streets of London. Garrett said that he even made our food. Our compliments to the chef...

We left the pub and successfully navigated ourselves back to Davis. Ashlee proved to be an expert driver and we found the grid set-up of the city to be quite efficient. We got back to Davis in about 20 minutes -- which gave us plenty of time for dessert. We made our way back to Crepeville and treated ourselves to a banana-chocolate crepe. We treat ourselves to a lot, huh?

By then, we were quite exhausted so we decided to round out our day with a nice shower and a relaxing evening reading, checking emails, and blogging. Ah, the sojourning life...