Old (and new) Sacramento

Teaching a class in Sacramento sounded like fun, at least when my co-worker called ans asked if I would take it. After all, Siemens is one of the companies I seriously considered persuing a career with (filed under:incomplete applications). I snagged a direct flight that arrived in the early afternoon. Not sure what to do with the rest of my day, I contemplated road tripping to Tahoe or San Francisco. Between traffic and wildfires both options seemed like a stretch, so I settled for wandering into downtown Sac.

The signs directed me around a 1 block "Chinatown" and back under a roaring freeway underpass. Coming back into daylight was like stepping out of a time machine. I found myself in a roughly 3 x 5 block bend in the Sacramento River that looked 170 years out of place. Covered wooden sidewalks, wood-sided building holding signs announcing their goods and services in a 19th century typeface. And everywhere - stores crammed with California logo's shirts, magnets, hats, and enough junk drawer material to stock a carnival. Tourists speaking a dozen languages scurried from shade to shade. The 95* day was oppressive to those of us who fly wearing jeans and long compression socks!

Buckley the Wandering Bison. On a wooden bison. 

I went on a search for gold panning equipment, this seeming to be the place to find it. After all, Sacramento was built to support the '49ers! A helpful lady in a calico dress directed me from the visitor's center to the history museum a few blocks away. Sure enough, they had a starter's kit with a 12" plastic pan and some "practice ore," a gritty mix with guaranteed bits of gold. The guy at the museum pointed out that the recipient should not practice panning in the bathtub. When I got home, M was happy to splash his practice ore in a tub outside the garage.

The Pony Express ended here for 18 months.
A train took the mail the rest of the way to San Fran

I would have liked to explore the history or California Railroad museum, but curiosity drew me downtown. I was late to go in the State Capitol, but enjoyed strolling the shady grounds. A variety of trees, each precisely pruned and manicured, shaded the paths. There isn't a lot of grass around the capitol - there is, after all, a drought on!

A few blocks away, the cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

Downtown Sac itself was a bit of a conundrum. The beauty and stillness of the white buildings centered in their pristine plazas, and the mix of people who surrounded it. The polished white steel of a new Kings stadium. Down on their luck junkies waiting in shelter doorways, boarded up and broken buildings splashed with graffiti.  The intersection of Highways 80 and 5, opportunity and barrenness.

Later in the afternoon I arrived in the wealthy suburb Elk Grove, home away fro the next few days. I spent the following days learning about light rail and diesel electric trains at Siemens. The site was "old west coast industry" meets "modern German campus," fro the layout to the blend of veteran industry guys sitting next to polished young German professionals in the cafeteria. Aside from how straight up cool it all was, I was really impressed by Siemens' whole assembly approach. They build their own wire harnesses on site from giant spools, weld together the car bodies from fresh-cut plate, paint the pieces on site. The best part about teaching is how much I learn! Here's one of the models I saw under construction: