Great day visiting downtown Sacramento.
No school today. Woke up early as usual, so I can get work done and enjoy the quiet morning 🙂
Plan is to drive downtown today, get to know Sacramento a bit, and leave things kind of prepped for tomorrow.
I was able to get some work done, and little by little the girls woke up, and we had to turn the TV on and start making noise to get Carol to wake up :). It was past 9 when she finally came out of the bedroom hehehe… We got ready to go and were out around 10:30.
Downtown is very close, it was about 10 minutes without any traffic. We drove to Old Downtown. It’s a very nice area, with most of the buildings still kept as they were in the Gold Rush days. I think this area is where the gold came to be processed.
The rail road is still there, some pretty cool looking engines. We walked around the railroad part, took some pics, girls explored the train. Bella had read about this invention in her science book where a boy that used to grease the train invented this oil can that would just drip and grass the train, so they would not need to constantly stop. She wanted to find such oil can on that big train hahahah… I tried to help her look for it, but we were not sure what we were looking for, so we moved on.
As we were walking around, we saw a sewing shop, and I mentioned to Bella they’d likely let her sew in there. She has been asking for a while, and I said one of these days we’d find a place that would let her. And now that I said this place might, she wanted it! We walked around and away from the place, but she continued asking to go see if they’d let her, so I went back with her. We walked in and were greeted by a very nice lady. I asked what they did there, and she explained they are a co-op, and they make things to sell, they teach people, all kinds of things… so I asked her, if someone came in and just wanted to use their equipment, if that was possible… and she said YES! Bella immediately lit up in excitement. We chit chatted a bit about what she’d sew and the other gentlemen that was there recommended a Christmas stocking, so that’s what she chose. Bia walked in with Carol around that time, and said she wanted to do it as well.
The lady was really nice, accommodated both girls, helped and guided them to making the stockings. She really worked with them so they did as much as possible.
The girls had a great time and were super happy. Bella was loving it all. They made very nice stockings and will hang it up right away when we get back.
When they were done, we took some pictures and Carol exchange contact with the lady. I asked what we owed her and she said “just make a donation, whatever you want”… I’m not really sure how much would have been appropriate, but I had $40 handy, so I donated that. It was definitely worth it all.
We kept walking downtown, now looking for a place to eat. I had to move the truck as the 2 hour limit had expired, so I moved it to a parking place and paid for a few hours. Not many places are open anymore due to the new pandemic wave.
Most restaurants that were dine in only are closed, a few are open for take out, and fewer are open with outdoor seating. Our lunch options were not many, so we just picked one that we saw was open, and had a decent seating outside. Food was decent, burgers, tacos, can’t go wrong. After we ate I had one more beer while Carol went to a candy store with the girls.
Then we continued walking around the old downtown area. The area is not that big, maybe 12 blocks in total, so we were done and moved on to our next place.
From there, we walked towards the Capital building. It’s a very nice walk from old downtown, just under 2 miles.
First you go under the freeways on this walking path which looks very nice. There were some homeless people down there, and it was a bit dirty, but it is a very nice walkway.
That walkway ends up at a mall, which then leads to the area where the Sacramento Kings play. Very nice area overall. Again, lots of places closed due to covid. The hole area is very nice.
The capital building block us super pretty, lots of palm trees, flowers, even fruit trees.
The Capital building is nice, and the entire surrounding was amazing. We walked around the whole thing and really enjoyed all the different things we saw.
The girls were having a great time finding different trees, trying to catch leaves falling before they hit the ground, etc.
After we finished going around the block we walked back a slightly different way. I liked Sacramento, downtown at least.. I’m not a big fan of big cities, but this one felt easy, welcoming, not too busy.
It was weird, maybe due to being so close to thanksgiving, and with covid restrictions… that it was so empty.
We got the car and decided to drive by the Fort, but it was closed, so we just drove around the block and went back to the campground. Before we arrived I stopped at a gas station to top off, and this place was the cheapest diesel in California so far… it was $3!
When we got back, we started getting things ready for tomorrow. Packing what could be packed. Carol started making some of the food. Girls were playing.
Later on, I was going to grill some Picanha, and the girls wanted to help and salt the meat. They are getting a hang of this and actually enjoy helping, so they did. Bia kind of helped with grilling again, and the steaks turned out great. I made the whole thing, and we almost ate it all. We have two left that we will eat tomorrow for lunch.
Bella also wanted to take Maggie to the dog training area, so she put Maggie on the cart, and off we went. As you can see, Maggie is only trained to do one thing. hahahahahahah
After we had dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen, and all showered and were ready to watch some TV. We watched some TV together, and Carol and I were talking to some friends. We miss them all. I’m going to have to make a T-Shirt that says “tio Itama”u”, eu te amo com todo meu coco” hahahahahah…
Very nice day, loved Sacramento!