Last Saturday we, my husband and I, made a trip to downtown Sacramento.
We have been living in Norcal for about 17 years, but have not explored the area apart from our little town.
The idea started out as a ‘check out the murals’ walk. Sacramento hosts Wide Open Walls once a year, when local artists cover the sides of buildings and alleyways with beautiful colorful art.
There are approximately 75 murals in the Sacramento Downtown area. I tried to map them but I had no idea if these areas were walkable, or we would need a car to see all of them, where would we park the car, etc, etc.
We went early on a Saturday morning. We both love to walk, but we hate crowds and parking issues. So we went early thinking we could beat the crowds. Well, Saturday morning there was not a soul we saw where we parked on 3rd street. Parking was easy to find, and easy to pay for, yes, I know I sound old but I am not comfortable with those parking meters.
We walked onto the Capitol Mall and standing there could see the Capitol building in one direction and the Tower bridge in the opposite.
We went upto the Golden center one arena. It looks so big on the inside when shown on tv, but from outside it barely covered a city block.
We saw a few murals here.
The sheer size of these murals, the bright colors, the definition in the work is mind-boggling.
As we walked along to the other side we were so surprised to see that the path led under a freeway bridge onto Old Sacramento. We were not expecting this. I always thought Old Sac was very much far away and difficult to get to. Well, there it was.
We walked across the Tower Bridge and along the River Walk. By now we could see a few runners around, and some of the stores started opening up.
We walked back and had brunch at the Solomon’s. Its a nice, breakfast place, I had a Okonomiyaki-a Japanese omelet, topped with mushrooms. Very good flavors. I would definitely like to go there again.
I enjoyed this excursion. I didn’t see as many of the murals as I had planned but I got a good estimate of the Sacramento downtown area. Prior to this I had been to downtown area maybe a couple of times, once to see the Capitol Building for my daughter’s elementary school project, another time to participate in a march.
The fact that it wasn’t crowded, with barely any traffic helped. I felt like a tourist. It was early morning, sunny blue skies and a light breeze. Everything looked bright and clean.
Next time I would like to visit Midtown Sacramento. I hear a chocolate store there calling out my name.
Have you ever been a tourist in your own town? How was that experience for you, do share?
If you want to do just a mural walk, check out the blog-yrofthemonkey.com by Paroma. She has a wonderful blogpost on the murals, with the artist names and the streets where they can be found.