Sacramento Museum Day

I had mentioned Sacramento Free Museum Day to the guys, but they were not interested.

That changed for Benjamin and I Saturday when we learned that Ruth and Tom were taking the kids and Debi was going with them.  We drove, light railed, and walked to the California State Park Rail Road Museum to join them.  Surprisingly, parking was not that hard to find downtown, but none of it free, so we did not regret taking light rail.  As it happened, we didn’t have to walk much further from and to light rail than they did their car and we already had monthly passes, so that worked fine. 

Some of the group had never been been to the  RR Museum .  We were impressed by the size of the locomotives and the work that went into building the railroads.  We thoroughly enjoyed going through the various cars and imaging riding on them. The Hinds took the train to San Francisco for their week-long vacation there and quite enjoyed it.    I have never traveled by train, although I have often thought it would be a pleasant adventure.  It wouldn’t be the same as on those old beauties, however.  The dining car displayed the china used by the various lines and people were choosing which train they wished they could ride based on their favorite china.   Debi has posted some delightful pictures on her blog and I am sure that Ruth will, too, as she was using a nice little camera.

Tom had a meeting to get to, so the Hinds and Debi went home and got some lunch.  Benjamin and I light-railed to back to our car and then drove to the next museum the kids wanted to see - The Discovery Museum.  Their little parking lot was full.  The overflow parking in a park about half a block away nearly so.  The traffic directing volunteers told us that there was an hour and a half - two hour wait to get inside.  Benjamin and I got in line.  Ruth had mentioned that Esther really wanted to go to the planetarium show, but signs along the waiting line said that there would be no shows that day.  It was sprinkling.  Still, we held our place in line and slowly crept forward.  Really, it was not at all unpleasant. Kind of fun.  The people were pleasant and polite. The volunteers started announcing that for that day only people could buy a 6 month membership for 5 for $25 and go right in.  We called Ruth and Debi every few minutes with updates.  We were getting pretty close to the door when they arrived.   Ruth got the membership - she wanted to bring the kids back when they were doing planetarium shows anyway.  (They were letting whole groups in even if there were more than 5 people.  One group in front of us for a while comprised 2 or 3 families and 8 people, but the membership purchase got them all in.) Despite the crowded conditions, the kids really liked the museum.  (The grown-ups did, too)  They had large pettable baby dinosaurs that reminded me of Little Foot and Sara from “Land Before Time” but Debi didn’t want me to bring that up.   There were dinosaur eggs, and wooly mammoth hair! 

From the Discovery Museum, we went to The Aerospace Museum on the old McClellan Air Force Base.  Proud airmen told us about their craft.  Lots of planes - and a helicopter - to get in.  Lots of cockpits to try on for size.  People even got to sit in a Blue Angel.  Jared seems like a natural in the cockpit, eagerly grabbing the controls.

Museum Day over, Debi volunteered Benjamin to make pizza at Ruth’s house, but by the time I went home to pick up Joseph and called to see if I should bring anything, it had changed to Debi cooking Chinese.  Very yummy.  After dinner, she and the kids made Snickerdoodle Cupcakes.  Debi is becoming quite the chef.   She was a good cook  before she watched ‘Julie and Julia,’  but I think it had some effect on her.

It was a great day.  Of course I stayed up too late.  Which I just did again writing about it.   Good night.