A brief trip to stormy Sacramento

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After spending 2 days in San Francisco (refer to my post on SF), I decided to visit Sacramento on the 3rd day. Since I had a Greyhound Discovery Pass, I could take an unlimited number of Greyhound rides within 21 days and I could travel between SF and Sacramento without paying additional fares.

When I arrived at Sacramento, the weather was lousy. The sky was excessively overcast with a generous serving of rain and lightning... Nevertheless, I made my way to the State Capitol building. (I was fortunate enough not to encounter any flood. After I left Sacramento and returned to San Francisco, I found out from the news that some other parts of California were having severe floods...) When I arrived at the State Capitol, I was relieved. At least for the next one or two hours, I could stay indoors and avoid the horrible weather outside. I joined the guided tour of the State Capitol and visited the various parts of the State Capitol building. Like many other tourists, I hoped to meet the Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but of course I didn't have the luck to meet him. (With so many political stuffs to settle, when does he have the time to entertain naive tourists like me?) But nevertheless I managed to stand in front of the door of his office and take a photo. Haha.

After touring the capitol building, the weather was still horrible, so I decided not to tour the Capitol Park, despite the nice review of the park by my travel guidebook. I walked west towards Old Sacramento, walking through Downtown and past Chinatown. (The Chinatown in Sacramento was tiny compared to the ones in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver.) Old Sacramento is an area adjacent to Downtown Sacramento and retains the original buildings when Sacramento first started. Most of the buildings in Old Sacramento are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Despite the horrible weather, Old Sacramento was still a pleasant and charming place to visit. It also boasts a fine riverfront setting, and there is an historic paddle wheeler at the riverside. However, when I reached the riverside, the water level was very high and the river almost spilled over the river banks...

After visiting Old Sacramento, I took a stroll inside Downtown Plaza Mall, a huge mall occupying several blocks of Downtown Sacramento. At noon, I had enough of the lousy weather. Hence I went to the Greyhound depot and took the next bus back to San Francisco. On the way back, I overheard a conversion bewteen 2 fellow passengers. They were talking about the horrible weather and one of them said that several towns near Sacramento was severely flooded. After hearing what they said, I felt very fortunate to stay safe and dry...

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Photos

California State Capitol building 2
A giant cake modelled after the capitol building

California State Capitol building 5
The door of Governor Schwarzenegger's office

Downtown
A cathedral

Downtown 2
A nice building (but I dunno what it is)

Downtown 3
Sacramento Public Library

Old Sacramento 4
Sacramento River, with the historic paddle wheeler "Spirit of Sacramento"

Old Sacramento 5
Exterior of the California State Railroad Museum

Old Sacramento 8
Central Pacific Passenger Depot, the former train terminus which has been restored.

Old Sacramento 9
A restored train carriage beside Central Pacific Passenger Depot