Visiting "Uncle Arnold" in Sacramento, California, Part I

One week before the Summer break ended, my children and I decided to take our first trip to visit "uncle Arnold" in Sacramento. Joining us were Wendy and her two sons - Benjamin and Alan. It was their first ride on the train and also to Sacramento. We bought tickets in Oakland Amtrak station a few days before the trip (it's a little cheaper than buying on the train). The ten-ride-adult-tickets and a round trip child ticket totaled up to 172 dollars. Wendy and I each paid 86 dollars for our shared tickets.

Berkeley train station on Third Street and University Avenue is a pick-up stop with no ticket agents. They recently added two self-help ticket machines here, which is helpful, but you can also buy your ticket on the train if you are in a hurry.



Here comes our Sacramento train at 8:00 o'clock in the morning. Right on time!



We like the Amtrak train. It's air-conditioned, clean and the seats are comfy and you can choose ones with a table.



Wendy and Nga.










The toilet is also clean - looks and feels like toilet on the airplane- with all the rumbling and shaking of going through turbulence kind of feeling, but roomier.



Scenery outside our windows, the fog just lingered and stopped right on top of the hills.



Davis station stop where Anh-Vu spent two years getting on and off the train twice a day, everyday going school.



We arrived in Sacramento at 9:35 - one hour and thirty five minutes, but the ride was so pleasant with lots of things to see and shoot (with the cameras) so it did not feel that long.



Inside the Sacramento train station.



Here we are walking toward the Old Sacramento town. Everything is conveniently planned to be closed-walking-distance to the train station.



The train museum was the first thing we saw. An adult ticket costs 9 dollars so we skipped it.



Candy Land looked fun, colorful and very attractive so we went in and bought some taffy candies. These come in a variety of colors and flavors, and they taste sweet and chewy.



A bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents, what year was that?





This building looks like one of those in a Western movie, I'd imagined some cowboys would fly out through the windows with their guns noisily blasting, falling off the balcony and down into the street with blood and guts spilling out...



... and being hauled away by a horse-drawn-cart.



A very old-fashion looking Menu outside a restaurant.



We bought some chocolate candies here. It was one of those sweet-indulgent-kind of sinful-playing tourist-days, I supposed. Beside, we can only afford candies.






We did lots of window shopping too with so many nick-knack souvenirs to see and buy. Those signs above really give the little creatures a bad name. I'd stick to the "Beware of Attack Boss" and buy one for my boss. Just kidding! I have a very nice boss fortunately.



An obvious case of a failed "Homeland Security." The Natives lost their homeland to the Europeans.



This Taxi is so cute!





Is this fire-hydrant really "out of order"?



Here comes one of the Old Sacramento's "tourists' attractions." Nice costume, but it was way too hot for the extra skin and fur. In the Summer, it could go up to triple digits in Fahrenheit in the afternoon.



When this picture was taken there were not too many tourists around yet, but in the afternoon, it was pretty crowded. We ate lunch here before going back to Berkeley. The Delta House's seafood was pretty good, but they ran out of clam chowder in a bread bowl. The eating area looked a bit like Fisherman Wharf in San Francisco without the sea breeze and fishy smell of the ocean.



Anh-Vu stared the great and fierce buffalo to death and turned it into a sleepy wooden statue. I would love to have one of these statues in my front yard.







A tunnel that led to downtown Sacramento and the capitol.





Artwork on both sides of the tunnel.





A very modern and cool shopping center, an opposite look to the Old Sacramento that we just passed through. Stay tuned for part II of more of our little adventure in "Uncle Arnold"'s country...