Sacramento, California

After a great 4 days in the outdoors in Northern California it was back to the city life in the capitol, Sacramento. The vibe that I got right away was like being back home in Ottawa, it was a seemingly sleepy and quiet government town. This city was not without a certain nostalgic charm, grand beauty, and lots of great new friends. 

9,090 km

One of the first things I noticed when I rolled into town was that it had a lot of bike lanes. It was a great city to have a bike as my form of transport as the entire downtown has an extensive bike network which helped me see a lot of the city. My new friend Mike and I spent a few days biking around, grabbing some eats, and checking out the gems that Sac has to offer. A few of our stops included interesting neighborhoods, Old Sacramento, a great coffee shop, the State Capitol Plaza, and the birth place of Capitol Bike Polo "The Ruff House". 

       

The "Ruff House"
     

 
The State Capitol plaza was really cool and planned out with a large avenue lined with government buildings that lines up perfectly with the triumphant golden "Tower Bridge". The plaza grounds themselves contain approximately 1140 trees in the park (not including shrubs) representing over 200 types of trees. Mike and I stopped to try and knock down some fresh oranges out of one of the trees, but they were all a little past ripe. The plaza is also the home Apollo 14 Moon Tree, planted as a sapling in 1976 that was grown from a seed (among hundreds) carried by command module pilot Stuart Roosa during the 1971 mission.

 

Old Sacramento was really cool, and wonderfully preserved waterfront town and the architecture is primarily of Spanish style buildings similar to that of Havana, or San Juan. On the river in Old Sac is where the Delta King Steam Boat is docked. It was cool seeing a steam boat for the first time in person, although now it operates as a hotel. Old Sac is also a great place to walk down the river to the Tower bridge to get a close up of this awesome feat of engineering.

The rest of my time in Sac was filled with cappuccinos, beers at Track 7, and even a day trip to San Francisco. My friend Joe and his family were kind enough to put me up during the time I was in town and it was priceless as always to have the local knowledge to hook me up with all the best spots in town. It was also so great to have friends in Mike, Christine, and Capitol bike polo to show me around and a great time at the polo courts! It was a great and relaxing time in Sacramento, and can't wait to visit again in the future!

Be sure to check out my FYI: Sacramento & Northern California blog post coming up soon!