Sacramento and Vicinity
Sacramento, being such an older and large city, has grown by spreading out. Thus you can find areas that provide a different feel throughout the city. Its central location in California make for many different freeways, which can be a bonus for those anxious to explore different locations without being too far from home. I have tried to combine activities that are nearby, to make full day or half day adventures of the vast resources this city has to offer.
Places to stay: For something unsual, why not stay on the Delta King in Old Sacramento. This is a moored paddle-wheel large boat that offers a hotel, restaurant, and murder mystery dinner theatre. Most rooms offer one queen, though there are two rooms that contain an queen and twin beds.
Full Day Trips
William Land Park, Sacramento
An unexpectedly large park surrounded by residential and retail areas, William Land Park is kid central in a way that doesn’t seem overly crowded. It is located on either side of Land Park. A map of the entire park can be downloaded here: Parking is free and right off of Land Park Drive. It is a large parking lot so depending on the age of your kids you may need a stroller / wagon. These activities...
Half Day Trips
Midtown
Here’s a suggestion for some places that are relatively close together in midtown. I would start with Sutters Fort in the morning, when kids’ attention spans are the most focused. After a little bit of history, you can burn off some creative energy at Artbeast, a great Victorian house that has been converted into an art and play studio. Finally, McKinley Park is also quite close where there is...
Old Sacramento
Old Sacramento centrally located, has a great view of the Sacramento River, and easily accessible. You can even take an Amtrack train; the station is at 401 I Street, which is adjacent to Old Sacramento. The schedule information can be found here. What better way to come in and take a visit to the train museum!
* For kids, the Sacramento State Railroad Museum is the first place you’ll want to stop. If...
North Highlands
North Highlands is a town about 10 – 15 miles northeast of Sacramento. It grew with the development of McClellan Air Force Base (now McClellan Business Park since the Air Force Base was decommissioned). It is an appropriate place to go for a good day of space, science, and discoveries!
First check out the Discovery Science Museum. It not only has lots of great hands on activities for kids, a few small...
Roseville Golfland Sunsplash
Right off of Interstate 80 is Roseville Golfland – Sunsplash. Here there are two 18-hole miniature golf courses, tons of water slides (Open beginning on Memorial Day) and a large arcade all in the confines of a huge castle. Even if this isn’t your kids’ first experience with mini-golf, the courses offered on this one are well kept and offer interesting obstacles. My kids are admitedly...
Rancho Cordova
Located at 2197 Chase Drive in Rancho Cordova, Hagen Park is home to the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers Railroad Museum. There are mini steam engines that you can ride on which take you through trustles, wooded areas, and past miniature town features. The trains are open to the public (donation requested) on two Saturdays a month from noon – 4pm. The ride takes about 20 minutes, if your kids will let...
Mini Trips
Folsom Zoo / Sanctuary
This is a small zoo which houses animals who have been rescued and cannot survive alone in the wild. There are quite a few animals to check out, as the enclosures do not have to fit things like elephants or giraffes. There are tigers, bears, wolves, bobcats, foxes and plenty of others, most of whom are native to this area. The paths are windy, so there seem to be new things to discover around each bend. ...
Aerospace Museum, North Highlands
The Aerospace Museum is a nice museum containing a few cockpits that kids can climb in and some engines on display inside the museum. Outside there are quite a few large military craft, old and new. Most of the year they only have two or three planes open to explore, but three times of the year are “open cockpit” days where they open up virtually all of their aircraft. You can check the days here:...
Capitol Aquarium, Sacramento
Capitol Aquarium, located at the corner of 29th and T streets, this store has been around in Sacramento for more than 40 years. Its hard to find a kid who isn’t interested in fish tanks. Here there are over 500 aquariums, which makes it a wonderland for little ones. Bring quarters to use in the fish food dispenser near the front of the store. There is a built in koi pond (with child-safe gate around...
Sutters Fort, Sacramento
Sutters Fort is located in midtown Sacramento between K and L Streets and 26th and 28th Streets. On Monday – Saturday, bring quarters for the parking meters. Parking is free on Sundays. Adults $4, Youth $2 (ages 6 to 17) and Children under 5 are free. This is a pretty interesting place for the older kid group. You can walk through the fort and see what things may have looked like in the gold miner days.
Special...
Sacramento Train Museum
The California State Train Museum is located on 2nd and I streets in central Sacramento. Parking on the street is only 2 hours max and also pretty hard to find. I recommend the parking structure found on I street (near the dead-end at Front St). The museum is across the street from the parking structure entrance. Becoming a member of caboose club pays for itself after only two trips, so if you live in the vicinity...
Funderland, Sacramento
Funderland is as close to an amusement park for the under twelve age as you can get. The rides, ten in all, are quite mellow but some do have a height requirement. It is across the street from both the zoo and Fairytale town (picture a triangle intersection), but is a bit back from the street so may be initially hidden from view. Its not a far walk from the main parking lot near Fairytale town, but there is...
Fairytale Town, Sacramento
Across the street from the zoo is Fairytale Town. There are a ton of things to climb on, over, and through. Scattered throughout the park are farm animals (ie three little pigs, billy goats gruff, Peter Rabbit and Cottentail, etc.) You can easily spend two hours or more here. Many of the slides are narrow and have steep stairs. Some request that small children not go on parents’ laps, so if you have a...
Sacramento Zoo
This is a great sized zoo for kids, not too large and not too small. Specifically, there are 400 animals on 14 acres. I would suggest visiting right as they open at 9am. Animals tend to get tired and retreat to their resting areas in the afternoon, so a trip later in the day often does not produce as much to see. There is a train near the entrance that takes a short tour of the area. You can rent strollers there...
Travel Blog
Touring Vernal Pools
For some reason, the words “vernal pool” sound about as thrilling as a discussion of the ferry shrimp that often live there. Seriously, it’s hard to get excited about these creatures that are hard to see and are neither cute nor fuzzy.
Or, so I thought. Then I learned about sacsplash.org. This organization offers interactive experiences for kids centered around appreciating the outdoors....
So Where Are the Nuts?
I’ve been on a farm kick lately. The sun has finally broken through the rainclouds and things are blooming. I can’t wait to go out and harvest something, so I jumped at the chance to head to the Capay Valley Almond Festival. The towns of Esparto, Capay, Brooks, Guinda, Madison and Rumsey, who’s residents mostly live on or work on a farm, each had their own blend of music, food and kid activities...
Photo Friday: Guess How Big This Art Is
Last Wednesday we visited the Crocker Art Gallery. Though I was quite skeptical about visiting an art museum with young boys, we had a pretty good time. You can read more about that trip here. The thing we most enjoyed was a piece of art that you can walk through. It plays with light and mirrors. See if you can guess from these pictures how big this artwork is:
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Now scroll down to see the wide shot….
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Keep...
Where to Wednesday: Crocker Art Gallery
As I drove out of Old Sacramento last week, I noticed a huge addition being built at the Crocker Art Museum. Attached to this old Victorian building that has been standing there since I was a young kid, is an addition as sleek as New York’s Guggenheim Museum. I shy away from art museums. I can only take so much of standing and admiring before things all start to blur together. The thought of bringing...
Photo Friday: Following an Old Trail
Recently I learned about an outdoor store in Sacramento, Trailmix, that created a scavenger hunt in Old Sacramento. We took the adventure which made for a fun afternoon. You can read more about that trip in Wednesday’s post.
One of the stops was an old schoolhouse. I have often seen this school from the outside, but it happened to be open as we went around on our scavenger’s hunt. This was a...
Where to Wednesday: A Scavenger Hunt in Old Sacramento
Do you know the feeling where you’ve been somewhere half a bugillion times and then one day you discover things that had been there all along and you never even saw them before? That was my day today, thanks to a cool new outdoor store in Sacramento called Trailmix. Alright, maybe they are not so new, I just hadn’t seen them until now. Sharlene at Double the Adventure pointed me to the store....
Photo Friday: Atop a Lion Fish
I recently took a trip to the best-rated playground in Sacramento of 2009. In that post was mention of the great climbable art at the entrance of the playground; two animals with the heads of lions and the bodies of fish. I couldn’t resist for photo Friday to include a picture of my youngest atop the lion-fish, doing his best to make a ferocious roar. Yes, my little one is as about as ferocious...
Where to Wednesday: Best Playground of 2009
Its a cold dreary day and I’m searching for ideas of the best local place to go with the kids today. Fortunately, this is probably the best time to look, as “Best of 2009″ lists are all over the place. So I hopped onto the internet to find out what the folks on the world wide web thought the best playground is in Sacramento. Sure enough, this question has been asked and answered to readers...
Where to Wednesday: Nimbus Fish Hatchery
Did you know…. that for over a month after they hatch, salmon are still attached to their yolk sacs and don’t leave their gravel nest? It is not until their nutrient-filled sacs are completely absorbed that they start their journey from river to ocean. There is a lot to learn at the Rancho Cordova Nimbus Fish Hatchery. Here, actually two hatcheries next to each other, you can view both...
Renaissance Mamma
This post is part of Photo Friday. To see more travel photos, visit Delicious Baby.com
Over the weekend my family and some friends visited a Renaissance Faire in Folsom, California. There were plenty of people in character and costume, which made it fairly interesting even for our young boys. I couldn’t resist snapping a pic of this twosome. Baby in carrier being fed in one hand, turkey leg in the other. ...
Where to Wednesdays: Artbeast
Have you ever wished you had a whole (separate) house full of things for the kids to run around and play with? If you could build a kids’ house, it might look just like the one in Sacramento at Artbeast. Here a downtown victorian home has been renovated into paradise of play.
The ground floor is dedicated to dramatic play. There is a small rocket equipped with car seats (buckles included), two steering...
Photo Friday: Putting Out the Flames
While we were playing at Natoma Lake on a recent trip, we noticed smoke rising from a bluff above us. The puffs quickly became a stream of smoke. I thought that from our vantage we probably won’t be able to see much of the firemen putting it out, aside from perhaps a stream of water coming from a hose. Soon enough we heard sirens heading toward us, then the thwonking of an approaching helicopter....
Auburn has heritage
Continuing on our Heritage Days tour (see previous post), on Sunday we went toward Auburn to do some mining. The first stop was the Gold Country Museum. At the entrance is a dimly lit shaft, resembling a mine. Following it through you come to a room with some great mining relics, including a working stamping machine. Here is where large rocks were brought and crushed under heavy cylinders. Though the...
Maidu Heritage in Auburn
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to create experiences in history and culture. How do you instill in kids a sense of connectedness to our past and the world around us? Starting locally, any lesson in our history here in California must include Native American culture and The Goldrush. I have googled Native American dancing periodically, hoping to find a public event that will really capture the kids’...
Chicken Greetings
There is something delightful about being greeted by animals. I have noticed that kids who come to visit are often excited to see our large dog at the door. It was the same way when we went to visit the Folsom Zoo / Sanctuary. The kids were fascinated with the flock of chickens who ran up to greet us. These chickens, quite beautiful in plumage, roam freely outside of the zoo’s entrance. Likewise within...
Effie Yeaw Nature Center
We are already at the end of June and sadly have not done any camping or much hiking yet. Despite the projected heat this last weekend, our family and the kids’ cousins went out for a morning walk at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. There are several loops you can take, each being quite short. We planned for a 1 mile hike but I’m not certain now if that was indeed the route we actually took. ...
The Olden and the Golden
Trying to teach a sense of history to a four-year old is, in some ways, like talking in a foreign language to him. I think he gets the words, but when you put them together I’m not sure if the meaning is really understood. Still, I took my four and two year old to Old Sacramento recently in part because it was a short trip from our home, and in part to show them that there is more to Old Sac than...
