P and J adventures: The train ride at "Old Sacramento

Friday, April 9, 2010

The train ride at "Old Sacramento

Last Friday morning Jeni and I scooped

up our grandson DJ and headed off to
"old Sacramento". Its the restored waterfront with shops,restaurants,museums, and a train that takes you on a scenic ride along the Sacramento river.
The train was our destination for this morning. We bought our tickets and were booked on the "silver Star" at 11am.
We strolled the streets awaiting our boarding call, checking out the various shops and boutiques.
Finally, we started boarding. You can ride inside in a restored Pullman car

or you can ride outside in a covered
flat car that has bench seats. We chose riding outside to get the full experience.
The train takes you along the Sacramento river south to the free port marina. Then,the engine of the train unhooks and goes to the back of the train and hooks on and pulls us back to the station. In all, it is a 40 minute train ride on a real restored Santa Fe train. The price was very reasonable at $8 bucks a head and DJ was free. For $15 bucks you can ride in the luxury coach "the sierra car" where they serve snacks

and drinks.
As you ride along the river you see the Tower Bridge which spans the Sacramento river, The rice silos at the port of Sacramento and spectacular views of the river.
DJ loves trains so he loved the ride. He was ready to go again but I bribed him with hot dogs and candy. After our fantastic train ride we toured the California state railway museum which is right by the train station. If you are a train buff, this is the place for you. It has all sorts of restored locomotives and displays of all kinds of train cars. It also has one of the

best railroad libraries in the west.
Back when we first moved to Sacramento,My mother came in for a visit. I took her the train museum as her dad,my grandfather,was an engineer on the train back in Nebraska. He was killed in a train wreck back in the 30's. She wanted to research the accident in the museum archives.I was amazed how much stuff she found on it. it is an impressive place to see.
Upstairs in the museum is displays of all kinds of model trains. And there is a section that is interactive so the little ones,like DJ can play with them.

All in all we had a great time in old Sac.I snapped a photo of DJ on the caboose. He really didn't want to leave the train.He was holding on to the rails hoping grandpa wouldn't come get him off the train.
Five minutes in the car,and DJ was sound asleep in his car seat.
Back at the park,after a day with our grandson,"We Got Nothin!" he wore us out and we were in bed early.
We were on duty Easter Sunday but since the state has hired park aides to work the weekends, our duties have declined.We don't work in the kiosk anymore.Just camp checks and

cleanup.Poor Jeni, she enjoyed working the kiosk so there's little for her to do now.
Well we only have 2 weeks left here so were getting the rig" travel ready" for the trip south to park sierra for a month.We rented a truck and trailer to haul our stuff to our storage site on our site.The next two weeks will be hectic.
Last Wednesday morning the Rangers from our park had a pancake breakfast for their employees,and volunteers...us! There was about 150 people there. We had sausage,eggs,pancakes,bacon,and

fresh fruit(if you like that stuff).
I have pictures but I will put them on the next blog. The people we volunteered for here are a great bunch of people and have treated Jeni and I very well.
You know that restless feeling you get sometimes.The dreaming of far away places,the open road,the rumble of 22000lbs under your control.....its "hitch itch!"When you get it the only thing you can to do to cure it is "hit the road!"Even though we are headed right back to where we came from in Dec.it is the feel of the open road...I