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Published: August 27th 2012
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We left the Sacramento Yacht Club and headed up the river to Old Sacramento. We were told that the city had some nice new docks just past the historic Tower Bridge in downtown. Since it was a weekend, we figured we better get up there pretty early to beat the day-trippers to the docks. The SYC port captain told us that we shouldn't dock under the bridge as it is a favorite nesting place for pigeons that tend to leave small mementos on boats parked below. You can't beat local knowledge! We tied up behind the Delta King Riverboat which is now permanently docked and serves as a floating hotel, restaurant and theater. This sternwheeler was built in Scotland in 1924 and shipped in pieces to California where it operated regular overnight passenger service between San Francisco and Sacramento.
After checking in with the harbormaster and paying the $51 overnight docking fee, we went exploring. Old Sac provides a peek into the California Gold Rush era. The trading posts, saloons and bordellos served the '49er miners heading out to find their fortunes in the Sierra foothills. It was the "wild west" at its wildest attracting drifters, dreamers, scammers and people
of questionable moral turpitude. The politicians came later. After several disastrous floods the town merchants embarked on an ambitious plan to raise the level of the port by 20-30 feet. They accomplished this by hauling in tons and tons of dirt and rebuilding the boardwalk-lined streets and buildings. You have to look past the t-shirt and souvenir shops to delve into the historical treasures of this spot. The Railroad Museum is one of the nicest assets here and a must see.
We walked to the beautiful State Capitol Building. When Kevin was working here in the 1980s, the building underwent a major renovation and it is a gem--so stately and regal in its park-like setting.
We went to Kip and Jean's designer home for Kip's "big" birthday party. It was a beautiful night for a lawn party. We have known Kip and Jean since we first moved to Monterey over thirty years ago. We've traveled together to Hawaii, boated on the Chesapeake Bay and celebrated New Years in Yosemite Valley and have shared many memorable times. They recently built a gorgeous pizza oven in their backyard which was put to good use for the party. We enjoyed reconnecting
with many old friends that night as well as savoring eight different types of pizza pies.
We got back to our boat in time to watch a fantastic fireworks show put on by the River Cats--the local baseball team. The next day we went to Raley Stadium, just across the Tower Bridge, for one of their games. The River Cats are the minor league team for the Oakland A's. They have a terrific ballpark and we watched them crush the Las Vegas 51s.
On the weekend the river comes alive with all sorts of water craft. One of the latest “innovations” is ski and wake board boats equipped with mega-noise speakers. It is especially loud when four or five of these movable rock concerts are hanging around at the same time. One came by our boat at 3am and the heavy base beat startled us out of a deep slumber.
The next morning we started our cruise down the river. Overnight there was a big change in the weather and it was so windy there were white caps on the water. After a day of cruising, we tied up at the city dock in Walnut Grove, the
DELTA KING
Photo by Justin Smith / Wikimedia Commons, CC-By-SA-3.0 oldest town on the river. Unfortunately it is virtually closed on Monday. Walnut Grove and neighboring Locke still have vestiges of the large Chinese population that resided here. Al the Wop’s is a favorite restaurant for Delta boaters. It opened as a Chinese diner in 1915 and was later taken over by a real Italian character. Al used to cut the ties off visiting patrons and glue money to the ceiling.
We found a local market which sold prime beef at bargain prices. So we picked up a nice rib eye steak and fired up our barbeque. As we were having sundowners in our pilot house we saw a huge tree floating down the river heading straight for us. We were rather concerned as it could have done quite a bit of damage to our boat. But at the last minute the current pushed it to the other side of the dock where it got lodged. Whew—we dodged a bullet on that one.
It was unseasonably cool, so that evening we needed our heaters to warm up Mana. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of the rushing water lapping against our hull.
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