It’s not the weekend, but I am spending two days in Sacramento – what is there to do? It’s been nine years since I’ve last been to Sacramento and the last time I was there, I was only there for a few hours. Here’s how I spent my time.
Tuesday
8:55am
Hello Southwest! With no assigned seating, I was pretty sad when I checked in for my flight late – I was in Group B! Luckily, I was still able to get a seat with nobody next to me, but it was an aisle seat.
10:30am
It was my first time flying into SMF! I was not expecting to have to take an Automated People Mover to get out of the terminal. Once I got to the ground transportation level, I started looking around for the Uber pick-up lot. It was so far from everything else! Good thing there were signs pointing to the most random place.
11:00am
Time to drop off my luggage at the hotel! I was planning to leave my luggage at the front desk since check-in wasn’t until later in the day, but when I arrived, they had a room open early!
11:30am
As I headed to lunch, I walked through Downtown Sacramento. It was much emptier than I expected, with barely anyone walking on the streets, only a few cars driving by, and all the restaurants were pretty empty.
12:00pm
It wasn’t too long of a walk, but it was hot. Good thing I put on sunscreen ahead of time. I made it to Maydoon Restaurant for lunch and got the Shish Kabob. The portions were big and the food tasted good, but I had to wait pretty long for my bill.
Shish Kabob – a skewer of grilled Persian spiced steak, with bell peppers and onions, grilled over an open flame.
12:45pm
I took a peaceful stroll through Capitol Park. It’s pretty big…and sunny!
1:00pm
The State Capitol Annex is under construction, but you can still visit the State Capitol Building! First, you have to go through security – your bags go through the x-ray and you have to pass through the metal detector. There was no line when I went there, but when I left the building, the line was extremely long!
Once inside, there are exhibitions, different rooms you can visit, and a small gift shop!
1:45pm
I’m back at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The doors were locked so I wasn’t able to go inside.
On the way back to the hotel, I stopped by T-Mobile to pick up their free swag!
2:15pm
It’s time to explore Old Sacramento. Under the bridge I go to get to the other side. It was a pretty short walk to get to Old Sacramento from the hotel.
The allergies arrived. I could even see some white stuff from trees flying everywhere in the air. I wish someone had told me how bad the allergies would be here.
Old Sacramento was also pretty empty. Some shops sold interesting things.
3:20pm
I still have so much time before dinner, but I’ve already gone to all the places I wanted to check out. I decided to walk back in the other direction for a Yuzu Lime Sparkler at Temple Coffee. This was supposed to be a short walk, but in an attempt to not walk down the same street for the third time, I took a detour.
Yuzu Lime Sparkler – Fever Tree Sparkling Yuzu Lime paired with Matcha
4:00pm
I’ve never spent so much time in the hotel. I checked out the complimentary happy hour, the pool area (it felt so humid), and walked around the hotel.
6:00pm
Dinner at Chef Frank to wrap up the day! This was so amazingly delicious.
8:00pm
Study in the hotel.
Wednesday
6:30am
Check-out from the hotel.
6:40am
Back at Temple Coffee for a cappuccino!
7:00am
Five hours of meeting people and learning inside Elks Tower.
11:00am
Lunch time! I built my own sandwich. I liked all the options there were to choose from for protein and veggies.
12:00pm
A stop at the State Capitol Building before heading to the Swing Space to talk to legislators!
5:00pm
A quick stop at Mayahuel for some appetizers!
5:30pm
I went back to the hotel to pick up my luggage, changed, then headed to the airport! It was very difficult trying to re-organize my suitcase to fit the items I was carrying for the day in the lobby area. On the way to the airport, there was a lot of traffic. The TSA line at SMF was also extremely slow – so slow that I switched to a different lane.
As I waited for my flight, I got hungrier and hungrier and finally gave in. I bought a Mushroom & Onion Cheeseburger from Burger & Brew.
Mushroom & Onion Cheeseburger – niman ranch beef, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed red onions, jack cheese
8:25pm
I got the window seat! Apparently there were 50 empty seats on this flight, so there was nobody sitting next to me again. The flight attendant took a really long time to prepare the drinks, then handed the drinks to the wrong people. I’ve rarely seen that happen!
Upon arrival, I was stuck at the airport waiting for my ride for a very long time because so many drivers did not know how to follow the passenger pickup rules. It was pretty crazy. Some cars were waiting in the no waiting area for over 10 minutes.
Sacramento was an interesting adventure. Next time, I’ll know to bring some allergy medicine with me!