On our last official day of fun on our road trip we stopped in Sacramento to investigate the railway museum (recommended by all the train enthusiasts we had met) and to see an old friend.
Before going to the railway museum we decided to burn some energy at Fairytale Land. It was a bit...underwhelming. Remy liked all of the silly buildings, but they only managed to hold his attention for a few minutes. We strolled through, made sure Humpty Dumpty was alright, and headed to see some trains.
The railway museum was massive and housed several real trains. We walked through exhibits on women's contribution to the rail effort, the impact of foreign laborers on completing the railway, and got to see an enormous model railway setup.
Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Dad's train exposure, and Remy's, was quite limited. Seeing how big some of the engines were, and being able to walk through the restored cars, was a completely new experience. Each of the engines and cars had a story, and several had actors or docents who were present to highlight some of the finer points of running and engine.
All of the exhibits were incredibly well done. Dad enjoyed the story of a cross country train that was buried in the snow. The rescue mission took almost a week and required bringing in several additional trains with snow plows or snow blowers. Remy was find of the Thomas the Tank engine exhibit, and also thoroughly enjoyed the gift shop. He is a man of distinguished tastes.
The train museum probably warranted hours, but attention spans were running short after several hours of driving. We absconded (mostly to avoid buying too many things in the gift shop) and headed to the auto museum.
Our docent at the auto museum was a very knowledgeable gentleman with an infectious love of cars. Unfortunately, no one in our party has much automobile related knowledge, so the exchanges were mostly one sided. The museum was well appointed, featuring some of the oldest American automobiles, and a generous number of models from automotive history throughout the world. Much like the train museum, there was an enormous amount of content to consume and we probably could have spent twice as much time as we allocated.
We met Dad's childhood friend Nenad for dinner at an outdoor beer garden. We hadn't seen him since our first driving trip to Baja when Remy was six months old, so there was plenty to catch up on. We chatted about Nenad's children, their enormous property with an equally enormous collection of farm animals, his dad's honey business (we snagged several jars, it's buzzworthy), and all other manner of things. Our choice of an outdoor spot was maybe a poor one as it was both very cold and very dark. We made the best of it though. Remy worked on his Lego set by cellphone light, and we huddled up In blankets and jackets. Mom couldn't decide what kind of pizza to order so she got five different options. For those keeping track that is 1.6 pizzas per adult. There were leftovers.
We had to say goodbye eventually and headed back to our trailer to sleep before beginning our two long drive days. Home was almost in sight!
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