The Sacramento River and Then Some

We had a great day today, our first full day in California. This was to be a trip to see a few sights and catch up on visiting with a few relatives. We had stayed the night in Castro Valley and managed to get into the morning traffic inbound to San Francisco.  Driving an unfamiliar rental car doesn't make the drive from Castro Valley to Sacramento any easier, but nobody rents old Acuras or Toyotas. 

Once we reached the capital city we visited the California Automobile Museum.  They have an interesting  display of automobiles tracing it's development from Henry's first car to modern electrics. The bulk of the vehicles are on loan to the museum from private collectors.  Displays are good with some hands-on demonstrations, and some cars are without their bodies to better show the inner workings.  Mock-ups of old garages and repair shops add to the illusion. Many of the automobiles I had seen before, and I was not particularly excited to see Jerry Brown's Plymouth Satellite sedan,  but then I'm not a native Californian. The 1913 Rauch & Lang electric car was a unique design. The coupe was steered by tiller and the passengers sat in the front. Other alternative fuel cars were also shown: Nissan electric and BMW fuel cell cars.  A half dozen in total were exhibited with some technical data.  Claudette enjoyed looking at the Packard  which she remembered her family drove when her family relocated from Indiana.  It was good to see the display of racing cars which included everything from Indy cars to dirt track racers. The '32 Ford of the legendary A. J. Foyt looked as though it would have been fast, powered by flathead Ford with an Ardun conversion and fuel injection. I had a great time talking with Jim Lee, who worked there.  He was interested in my having seen Shelby's original Cobras racing back in the "60's. Claudette and I had fun at the museum and had our photos taken behind the wheel of a vintage truck.

Lunch at the 4th Street Grill was good.  I had fish tacos with a spinach salad,  and Claudette had a house salad with black bean soup. We then ventured in to Old Sacramento near the river with its renovated old buildings and plank sidewalks. There were many tourists in the many shops that cater to tourists. We didn't patronize any of these shops, but we did visit the California Military Museum.  It is a great little museum with great displays of weapons and uniforms. I was surprised to see so many large automatic weapons. We also gained free admission due to my veteran status.   If I have any criticism, it would be that some of the displays weren't very well lit. 

We had our evening meal on the Delta King on the Sacramento River. The crab cakes and burger were great. The Irish music left a bit to be desired, not quite professional. We decided the Delta King's food was very superior to the Delta Queen's. 

Back to our room and an episode of Downton Abbey.