May 24 Sacramento

 It seems the days that we’re visiting people, I’m not as apt to get the daily blog written.  Visiting with people is more important than recording what we did that day.  So, it’s about a week later, I have internet and a comfortable place to reflect.  

From Lake Tahoe, we headed back to Sacramento to visit with Ellen and Bob.  We come down from the patches of snow to their place with an inviting swimming pool.  On the way down, we stop at the little town of Auburn for lunch.  It was once a gold mining town.  They have capitalized on that history and have a cute historic center.  We find a parking spot right in front of a local brewery.  Seems rather providential and we go straight in for lunch.  

It’s good to see Ellen and Bob again.  It’s like coming home after being there just a few days earlier.  We decide to spend the afternoon in Old Sacramento.  It is cool that in the middle of modern Sacramento, they still have this old section.  We end up spending all of our time in the train museum.  There is a section dedicated to the Chinese workers who did so much of the really hard and dangerous labor and have gotten little credit for.  Ellen tells me that this is a rather new addition to the museum.  There is also an exhibit on the role that women played in developing the railroad.  There was an old sleeper car and dining car that we were able to go into.  If one was on the top bunk, they had to ring for someone to come and bring a ladder so they could get down.  Better not wait until you REALLY have to go!  

This is posted out of chronological order…..

The dining car was quite elegant.  The cooking part of it was small and very efficient.  They had a system so the waiter who was far from the kitchen, would have the other waiters pass the plates down so they didn’t have to pass in the narrow aisles.  There were displays of the china that was used on different lines.  During the heyday, it was common to see famous people on the trains.  

Upstairs was all model trains.  Dan’s father often had a train set up in their basement.  I remember visiting and his proudly showing it to me.  The car he was the most proud of was the dining car.  You. Could see the lights inside and the people eating at the fancy tables.  I kept looking for a car like this in their display but didn’t find one.  Arthur had the big Lionel trains. Unfortunately, he sold them when Dan was in law school and we were living in an apartment and didn’t have room to store them.  

back at Ellen and Bob’s, we ate desert first.  Ellen made a wonderful cheesecake using her grandmother’s recipe and spring form pan.  Bob fired up the grill and we ate steak and fresh bean salad.  We ate and ran as we needed to get to Valerie and Richard’s for the night.