Sacramento

 

Tim at the California Automobile Museum

 

I have a book manuscript due in January, so I've been running around the state doing research: San Diego a month ago, the Central Coast a week later, and Sacramento this past week. I often go alone, but it's always much more fun when Tim comes along. Between bouts of research, we did some fun sightseeing in Sacramento.

California State Library

Built in the late 1920s, the State Library is located across the street from the State Capitol and is considered one the state's most beautiful government buildings. Architecturally modified over the years, the library was recently renovated to its original glory. Here are just a few images of its magnificence:

Front facade

 

Lobby ceiling

 

Former circulation room. Note card catalogs still in the walls.

 

Statue detail

 

Chandelier and ceiling detail

 

Gillis Hall (i.e., reference room) plaque

 

Gillis Hall mural by Maynard Dixon

 

Other side of mural

California Automobile Museum

We have lots of car museums here in L.A., but a friend recommended the California Auto Museum, so we went. He was right. Housed in a large warehouse, the museum does a nice job chronicling the history of automobiles from the late 19th century to now. 

My personal favorite era has always been the 1930s-50s, when cars were built to last. They may not have been as fuel-efficient as today, but all that chrome and those fabulous colors—wow! I obviously went berserk taking photos:

Funky homemade RV

 

Gunther's Ice Cream

We first heard of Gunther's, last year, when Charles Phoenix posted a video of his favorite ice cream parlor in Sacramento. We made a mental note and went looking for it after visiting the auto museum. On a corner surrounded by houses, Gunther's has been making and serving ice cream since 1940. 

School had just let out and so the place was packed. We soon found out why. I got a raspberry sherbet cone and Tim a root beer float. Can't wait to go back! 

 

Gunther's ice cream parlor

 

Neon sign detail (not lit-up during day)

 

Waiting inside . . .

 

Tim's RBF and me and my cone

California State Railroad Museum

As noted elsewhere on this blog, we love trains. So no surprise that we made time to visit the California State Railroad Museum in Old Town Sacramento. Deceiving at first—the museum looks rather small from the outside—we ended up spending several hours there, watching a film, taking the tour, and then climbing through actual train cars exhibited inside the museum. What a fun way to spend half-a-day! Highly, highly recommended.

 

Looking down on some of the exhibits

 

Old passenger cars

 

Central Pacific engine, circa 1863

 

Replica of the Golden Spike that celebrated

 completion of the Transcontinental Railway

 

Virginia & Truckee Railroad engine

 

Wheels detail and reflection

 

More modern engine

 

Dining car kitchen

 

China from the glory days of rail travel

 

More china

 

And, yes, women worked on the railroad, too

Disneyland Train, Adieu

 

Disneyland Railroad

 

We spent the morning at Disneyland because, now that we're retired, we can do just about whatever we want! Actually, this was the first big test of Tim's Disneyland retirement privileges. Luckily, all is well and we're still able to get into the parks for free. Phew!!

I also wanted to ride the Disneyland Railroad one last time before it stops running, this Sunday, for two years while the new Star Wars land is being built. The train looms large in my family's history, as the Main Street station is the site of one of my favorite childhood photos:

Uncle Louie, me (age 4), my sister Vicki (age 3), 

and Mom (June 1958)

Perhaps even more importantly, the railroad is the first ride that Walt envisioned, telling his imagineers to design an amusement park that "will be surrounded by a train." Indeed, the rail runs along Disneyland's famous 20-foot "berm" that surrounds the park and shields visitors from the outside world. In addition to stopping in New Orleans Square, Toontown/Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland, the last leg of the train ride features a still-spectacular Grand Canyon diorama, plus the animatronic dinosaurs Disney designed for the 1964 World's Fair. You truly travel back in time when you ride the Disneyland Railroad around the entire perimeter of the park.

 

Tim on the train

  

We were so early (9AM), the train was empty—not so later

in the day

  

Grand Canyon diorama 

 

Animatronic dinosaurs

  

Long before Jurassic Park there was Disney's

Primeval World

On our way out of the resort, we stopped at the Disneyland Hotel to use the restroom and ran into these two characters!  

 

Me with Chip (Dale?) and Goofy 

Lomita Railroad Museum

Westchester Antiquers Club

As I have no doubt mentioned before on this blog, Tim and I belong to an antiques/collectibles club that's chaired by our best friend Karen. The club meets 10 months a year, then takes a summer field trip. This year's field trip was to the Lomita Railroad Museum, about 30 minutes south of Culver City.

Located, oddly enough, in the middle of an old residential area, the museum was started by Irene Lewis, who owned the Little Engines of Lomita, which manufactured miniature live-steam locomotives in the mid-20th-century. (Walt Disney reportedly owned several Little Engines and was a friend of the Lewises.) When her husband died, Mrs. Lewis had the museum built as a memorial in his name and then gave it to the city of Lomita in 1966. The museum is small but nonetheless fascinating, with its depot (modeled after a Victorian-style station in Wakefield, Mass.), water tower and steam engine. The museum also has not one, but two cabooses! It's a great place to spend a pleasant Saturday afternoon. 

Steam engine and water tower

 

Victorian-style depot: "We're Open"

 

Engine detail

 

Old railroad china, when "first-class" passengers used to ride in style

 

Conductor memorabilia 

 

Railroad lamps and such

 

Inside the caboose

 

Wood-burning stove inside the wooden caboose (yikes!)

 

Wearing my Mary Blair "trains" dress outside the yellow caboose