We’re going way back to our roots in Northern California to bring you the best fun things to do in Sacramento if you’re here for a conference or a visit! 

We spent years doing stuff around our state capitol, so we’re giving all the highlights of Sacramento including things to do in Downtown and Midtown Sacramento, visiting Old Sac, having sun on the Sacramento river and some of the amazing events that will make you want to visit Sacramento.

There are tons of things to do in Sacramento! The city has become a really fun place for sports with the new Kings arena built in 2015. The downtown has really seen a revival with fun bars, good restaurants, and art events like Midtown’s 2nd Saturday Art Walk.

The Sacramento River and American River run through the town so there are plenty of boating, tubing, and sunbathing activities to be done here. If you’re going to visit Sacramento, make time to explore the different neighborhoods. Sacramento is big! And there are a few cool places to visit in Sacramento that are worth your time.

Fun Things to Do in Sacramento – Episode Transcript

4 (55s):
Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today, we are taking you to a city close to our hometown, the beautiful capital of California Sacramento.

3 (1m 6s):
Ooh, SAC town. I have so many good memories of living in SAC. I lived in Midtown. I went to college in Sacramento. I have many memories living it up on the American river and the Sacramento river. And I’m so excited for this episode today.

6 (1m 23s):
I’m so excited for this episode too in SAC will always have a special place in my heart. And I loved that. SAC is so central. You can be Chan Francisco or up in the mountains within an hour and a half from Sacramento.

2 (1m 36s):
Yes. As Jamal said, Sacramento is our state capital here in California. Most people do not realize that a lot of times it’s overshadowed with people thinking that Los Angeles or San Francisco, one of the bigger cities like that is our state Capitol. But no, it is Sacramento up in nor Cal. And not only is it close to our hometown, it is very close to our hearts.

4 (1m 59s):
Sacramento does have a lot to offer. So we want to give you guys the low down on our second hometown. Pretty much our first one being Woodland. Second one sack. Now, third San Diego, but this one is all about SAC. But one thing I want to say before we get into it, Kim, you mentioned you graduated from school up there, California state, university Sacramento. Do you know who is also part of your alumni up there? Tom Hanks, Mr. Hollywood SAC state alumni. Check it out.

3 (2m 29s):
Yeah, definitely have some Hanks vibes up there. The other thing about SAC is that Tom Hanks loves it and it also is really hot in the summer. Like very hot. It could be 114 degrees some days in the summer with no breeze. So I would recommend if you’re planning to visit maybe doing so in the spring or the fall or early summer, like, I don’t know, may or June before it gets super, super hot in the fall. It’s actually really pretty. It’s one of my favorite times in Sacramento because there are so many trees. The city’s deemed the city of trees. So there’s just big, beautiful trees lining all of the streets and these really pretty neighborhoods and they all turn colors. You really get the fall vibe there.

4 (3m 9s):
Definitely really nice in the fall. So let’s get right into the episode. Let’s talk about the different parts of Sacramento and let’s go over Midtown first. Kim Midtown was your old stomping grounds. So why don’t we get into Midtown? First

3 (3m 23s):
Midtown is probably my favorite neighborhood in Sacramento because it’s the funnest and it’s the coolest, obviously

6 (3m 30s):
It’s a party neighborhood I

3 (3m 31s):
Lived there. So of course it’s going to be cool.

4 (3m 34s):
They have like a Kim Deece plaque somewhere up there. If I’m not mistaken,

3 (3m 38s):
Right. They just roll out the red carpet or

4 (3m 40s):
Like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton of the day out there just, it was like, oh, Kim’s out. Let’s go.

3 (3m 46s):
Yeah, this is exactly how it was totally. Sacramento’s kind of set up where it’s old town downtown and the Midtown. Then you kind of get into east SAC and the different suburbs. So Midtown is this quaint area of Sacramento. I love that the streets are really easy to navigate because they’re all numbers one way and letters the other way. So you’re on fifth and J or 14th and K and it’s really easy to get around. And then all of the houses, there are super historic homes from like the twenties or the thirties. So they’re really, really pretty. They have a lot of character. It’s not like this cookie cutter suburb kind of neighborhood. It’s, it’s got a lot of personality and Midtown, I would describe it as being kind of a hipster neighborhood.

3 (4m 27s):
Very artsy has a lot of cool bars, a lot of dive bars. And then again, these like historic homes have been turned into really cool bars and I have plenty to recommend.

6 (4m 36s):
What’s your favorite cool bar that you’ve been to in Midtown

3 (4m 39s):
Easy it’s Flamingo club. And it,

4 (4m 43s):
Is that just because you love flamingos cameras? Well, I

3 (4m 45s):
Do a lot. I love flamingos, but it’s not just because of that. It is one of those that was a house. What of these historic homes? They turned into a bar right on the main drag of K street. And this it’s really cool decorated. Like one of the bathrooms has bananas all over it, banana wallpaper, and then they have this backyard area or like back patio area where they have like just weird colors and like backdrops of like tinsel kind of things like it’s decorated really cool. There’s couches. It’s loungy.

6 (5m 14s):
Do they have any Flamingo decorate?

3 (5m 15s):
Tons of Flamingo stuff. They usually have like a house DJ there. It’s it’s got a cool black.

6 (5m 20s):
I’ve never been to the next place, but I wanted to know, do they have the thing with animals? Cause I’ve heard of a place called zebra club in

3 (5m 28s):
Midtown. They have one called golden bear to interesting. So I guess yeah, they liked their animals there. That’s a good one. Coop bros is another one that I would totally recommend. It’s a great place for brunch. And it’s also in one of these historic homes. It’s a two-story place, but they have it set up super loungy. So I would always go there for football Sunday with a big group of people and do bottomless mimosas and they have good food and highly recommend that spot.

6 (5m 52s):
So if you were visiting sack, would you say Midtown is like a really good place to stay and visit

3 (5m 56s):
If you’re cool, like want to go out and like have fun and, and have that kind of vibe then I would definitely recommend Midtown.

4 (6m 3s):
Yeah. Midtown is more the nightlife of Sacramento. I mean, it is close to downtown. Obviously. It’s pretty much the same area. Just a little bit segregated off there in different section. But this is pretty much like Kim said, we’re all the nightclubs are really going to be or bars. So everything pretty much nightlife wise is going to be in that area. But you are right. That’s one of my favorite things about Sacramento. As you are in the downtown area, you have the Capitol building, you have the skyscrapers and then you go a few blocks and then it’s the old homes like you were saying, and the treeline streets. And you just really get this sense that, wow, like I’m in a downtown, but it doesn’t have the, all those big tall buildings, like somehow you’re right by it, but not anywhere near it.

4 (6m 43s):
It’s just that weird type of feeling.

3 (6m 45s):
It has really kept. It’s like historic and old kind of like town vibes. I have a lot of other places I can recommend. I think I would be doing a disservice to our listeners if I didn’t just give them all the good spots. Okay. So round corner is another place I used to live right around the corner from it actually it’s a, it’s a very much divey kind of like biker bar, but really good taco Tuesday highly recommend that, Like Brittany said, zebra club, that’s a fun place. It has a really big outdoor patio. It’s also one of the few places that opens really early in the morning. So you can get early morning drinks if you’re an early riser like that, Inc is another place that’s really good for brunch.

3 (7m 29s):
They have an amazing pie, the best chicken fried steak I’ve ever had in my life, cute decorations and bottomless mimosas that are very dangerous there. So watch out the last two places I’ll recommend are a little bit on the edge of Midtown and that is Chicago fire, amazing pizza wood-fired pizza place. And then right next to that is bar west. Now in sag, when we lived there, we called it bro west because there were quite a few bros that went

4 (7m 54s):
There. It’s pretty

3 (7m 57s):
Broey especially on a Sunday Funday, but the big draw of it is they have these really delicious Punchbowl’s well, I mean, I guess with COVID it could be a little different, but they used to have these Punchbowl’s that were huge, like 20 straws and everyone at the table would share one and they were really fun, but that’s a solid list of nightlife and brunch places.

4 (8m 16s):
So if you are in SAC and in the Midtown area, you heard it here. First squad tips from Kim specifically, these are the must do bar dining locations in Midtown SAC.

3 (8m 28s):
Another really cool thing about Midtown is every second Saturday of the month, they do a second Saturday art walk. So Midtown has a lot of art galleries and the bars will put up art as well. And then people mosey around, look at the art, have drinks, have food it’s and there’s live music. They shut the streets down. It’s a really lively night out. And once COVID settles down and they pick this back up, you should definitely try to time your trip. So you can see it.

4 (8m 54s):
One of my other favorite places in Sacramento is old Sacramento or simply old sack. And, you know, I guess it’s a Rite of passage living in the area. It’s something that we’ve always done, always have field trips that go to old SAC. Did you ladies have field trips that went to old SAC just as well? Right. So old Sacramento is right along the Sacramento river. It is pretty much the old downtown of Sacramento of the 18 hundreds. And what I really, really like about this is now, I mean, it is a historical area. They’ve turned it into a walk-in prominent area with lots of shops, but it is set up in a historical fashion that buildings are all the old buildings from the 18 hundreds.

4 (9m 36s):
You’re walking on sidewalks that are made out of wood and plank platforms like you’re really in the old west. So it really gives you that vibe truly of what old Sacramento looked like.

6 (9m 47s):
I have a specific memory where I went to go out with some girlfriends and we went to a comedy club out in old SAC and like Jamal said, it is Western theme and we all wore high heels and walking on those wooden planks, our heels kept getting stuck between the planks and we’d have to like pull our foot out. And I I’m pretty sure I probably fell in eight shit too.

4 (10m 6s):
So if you’re wearing heels and dressed up, nice do watch out. Your heel will fall between the wood planks if you’re not careful. But again, it does really have that old vibe to it and makes it really fun just to see the old buildings that way.

3 (10m 18s):
In fact, once a year, they do a gold rush kind of themed event where they have people dressed like the old timers. They put a bunch of like wood chips in the road and shut the streets down. So cars can’t drive in it. And they do like old Western shootouts and like have the ladies in the pretty dresses. And it’s, it’s a sight to see.

6 (10m 36s):
And I think there’s also an area for kids to like pan for gold as well, which is something I did as a kid.

4 (10m 42s):
Yeah. You have all that stuff because a lot of people don’t really realize the history that Sacramento has. You know, one of the big California cities obviously was San Francisco Sacramento is east of San Francisco. And then you have this year in Nevada mountains and the foothills, which is where they found gold and had the gold rush. So Sacramento was really that one spot somewhere in between the big city, getting the supplies in San Francisco, making your way to the mountains to try to find gold. So when we see the panning for gold, those old time or guns slinging shows that Kim’s talking about, it really pays homage to Sacramento’s history in terms of California gold rush and the whole history of California as a whole pretty much but beyond just the old buildings to see there are other things to actually do down there.

4 (11m 27s):
One of the most famous things to do in old Sacramento is visit the railroad museum. I love that you’re getting in the spirit of things and because the railroad museum is actually there for a purpose in old Sacramento, not a lot of people know that Sacramento was one of the Terminus of the transcontinental railroad, the first railroad to actually go all the way the east coast of the United States to the west coast. So this is an old locomotive railroad museum. And again, that really shows cases. California’s history, let alone Sacramento’s specifically in the development of the Western United States.

2 (12m 8s):
I know it because you and I went to the same elementary school. So when you hit fourth grade, you got to go on a field trip to the California state railroad museum and you got to go

4 (12m 18s):
All the board, the two to train,

2 (12m 20s):
You know it,

4 (12m 21s):
But beyond Zena’s playful banter. I mean, it really is actually fun to go in. They’re really informative. So do check it out when you’re an old SAC.

3 (12m 29s):
The other thing you have to check out when you’re an old stack is the saltwater taffy. There’s a store in one on the corner of one of the streets. They’re always passing out a piece of paper that gets you a free sample. When you go in, you get to pick it out yourself and yes they’re wrapped, but you can’t go to old SAC without going into this taffy shop. Yes,

6 (12m 46s):
They can not. They have barrels and barrels of salt, water taffy, and they have so many different flavors and

3 (12m 51s):
Different candies too. Yeah.

6 (12m 53s):
And so many different candies and you have to go and check it out. It’s so nostalgic for me. Yeah.

3 (12m 57s):
And that’s pretty much old SAC. You go there, you kind of experienced the

4 (13m 1s):
Old west,

3 (13m 2s):
The wild wild west. And then you get out and you move on to downtown, which is right outside of old SAC,

2 (13m 8s):
The walk right outside of those saloon doors and head into downtown

4 (13m 12s):
That’s right. And so old sack and downtown is divided by interstate five, but don’t worry. You don’t have to cross the freeway. There is a tunnel that goes from old SAC to downtown under the freeway.

3 (13m 25s):
And then right, once you exit old town and you get into downtown, you’re basically in the area where the Kings arena is golden one arena, it’s

4 (13m 33s):
Called golden one arena. The new arena. Since

3 (13m 35s):
They built this arena, I moved out of sack in 2014. I think it was finally opened in 2016 or 2015. Maybe what this arena has done for the downtown of SAC is amazing because when I lived there, there were a lot of abandoned buildings. A lot of the like nightlife didn’t really exist there. I think there was one club. It just, it was kind of losing its possess. And then the outdoor shopping mall that they took down to build this arena was just completely deserted, too. Like sad mall place to be now, downtown is alive and popping

4 (14m 8s):
The whole area where it used to be you’re right. They demolished pretty much most of the outdoor mall that they had that are put in the arena. They kept some of the mall. And that whole area now is called Downtown comments or Doko whatever you want to call it. But it really is that whole nightlife area of downtown walking prominent area, just as well. So there are shops, there are bars, you have the arena there. So if you’re going to catch a King’s game, it’s great to do something there before or after, or if you’re going to go see a concert. So do check out the downtown commons area. It is really lively part of the downtown. And from there you can move on to the beautiful state Capitol.

4 (14m 50s):
I actually love the capital building in California. Did you ladies know it was designed to look like the us Capitol in Washington, DC. It’s

3 (14m 59s):
A beautiful capital

2 (14m 60s):
I found out after you told me that. And my first initial reaction was no wonder. It looks like Washington DC.

4 (15m 6s):
Yeah. It was designed to look like the one in Washington, DC. They did a great job. So it makes it a little bit more extra special.

3 (15m 12s):
It was really pretty. They have really nice manicured grass and rose bushes and tons of flowers and just looks pretty.

6 (15m 19s):
And they do offer free guided tours and it’s a free museum as well. So if you guys do you want to check it out? It is available.

2 (15m 25s):
And fun fact Sacramento used to flood so much that the Capitol building is actually built up and the bottom floors are made to flood. So we can tolerate that.

4 (15m 33s):
Well, now it doesn’t really flood so much, but before they really built the levees, I mean, see, downtown Sacramento is really at the confluence of two rivers, the Sacramento and the American. So when we got those heavy rains and when it snowed and when that’s no would melt, definitely the area in Sacramento would flood. So it’s designed to flood. Luckily it doesn’t flood too much anymore.

3 (15m 53s):
You know, they say if our levies ever give away that it would be as bad as it was in new Orleans.

4 (16m 1s):
Oh, I believe it. I believe it’s scary

3 (16m 3s):
Stuff.

6 (16m 3s):
Well, and Kim, you mentioned earlier that the best times to visit are spring and fall because the summers are so hot. And I feel like the winters are very, very wet. I remember after getting my license when I was 16, you and I drove to SAC and we were driving down like old country road on the outskirts of SAC. And I came across like a whole bunch of water. And I was like, what do I do? Do I go slow? Do I go fast? And we were like driving through these like flood Plains. So one thing to note is if you are visiting in the winter, it can get very wet. It does rain a lot.

3 (16m 36s):
It can actually be pretty cold, too. Gloves, beanie jacket necessary.

2 (16m 41s):
I used to sleep with a big red winter jacket on because it was so cold in my parents’ house. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

3 (16m 47s):
Screen.

2 (16m 49s):
Well, I get cold very easily, but you know what? I remember when my friend from Denmark Martin was visiting a Woodland where we’re from, and it was so cold and we were outside on the front patio having a cigarette. He was, I don’t smell, but we were on the front porch having a cigarette and it was raining really hard and it was freezing. And I was wearing my puffy red jacket and I was wrapping my arms around myself. And I was thinking to myself, my God, it’s cold. And I look over at my friend, Martin, who’s in a t-shirt and shorts and I’m like, aren’t you cold? And he’s like, oh, this weather is so beautiful. It reminds me of Denmark in the summer. I don’t like,

4 (17m 23s):
And the summer that’s his, let it all hang out type season right there.

2 (17m 29s):
What does winter look like? And let me tell you, I’ve been there in winter and it’s cold.

4 (17m 33s):
And that’s one of the things about Sacramento too. I mean, you really do have the four seasons minus the fact that it doesn’t snow in Sacramento. I mean, very occasionally I would say once every eight to 10 years, it will snow. If it snows, it really melts by afternoon. So it doesn’t stay on the ground. But truly you do have the four seasons from winter, spring, summer fall. And so I really do like that about it. So depending on when you go do expect like dramatic season changes from one time to the next

2 (18m 2s):
And Downtown, what I do want to throw out about it is it does have the club ACE of spades. It’s a mic music venue, and a lot of famous artists go and play there. So I’ve even flown home before to see someone in concert. And I remember the opening act was the band mainland and you know, it’s small little venue. So my two friends with me partied with them and it was funny. Cause one of the guys is from San Diego. I had no idea. Anyways, I made the comment that I flew out from San Diego to see them, even though I didn’t, but I was really fucked up at that point. So anyways, I was like, yeah, I flew out to San Diego to see you guys. And he’s like, dude, I’m from San Diego. I had no idea. So I was like, I know.

2 (18m 44s):
And he’s like, yeah, from point Loma. And I was like, I know I used to live on west point Loma Boulevard. That’s why I’m so excited. I love you guys. And he’s like, no way. And then he like mentioned other places they’re in point Loma and I’m like, I know. And the entire time I’m just like, I don’t fucking

3 (18m 60s):
Know.

2 (19m 3s):
I haven’t to drinks with them to,

3 (19m 5s):
They actually have also partied with famous people that have played at ACE of spades. So I wasn’t here for this one, but some of my friends did after party with the Expendables, Went to another bar after the show. I wasn’t there unfortunately, but I did party with revolution there, someone, a friend from Woodland actually works with them in some way. And so he got us backstage got to hang out with them. One of my friends got burritos and like slept in there, the tour van Tour bus. Yeah. So yeah, it’s really cool. And I mean, it is a pretty small studio. So if John Mayer ever goes there, you know where I’m going to be.

4 (19m 44s):
Okay. That’s cool because you really do get a lot of big name acts in a small intimate venue. So if you happen to be in SAC at the right time and find the right artists do check out a performance there, it’s definitely not to be missed. But before we move off of downtown SAC, can we really move on before we mentioned tower bridge

3 (20m 3s):
Of the famous tower bridge

2 (20m 5s):
Tower bridge.

4 (20m 6s):
So tower bridge is an iconic staple of Downtown Sacramento. It really straddles the Sacramento river going over into west Sacramento and then it leads into the Capitol mall. So the prominent that leads to the state Capitol, I hate to compare it to the golden gate bridge because it’s nothing in terms of size of the golden gate bridge or height, but it really looks like a miniature version of it to an extent that traverses the Sacramento river, it’s a historical icon focal point of the city. And it is a Drawbridge in a sense because you know, the Sacramento river flows all the way out to the ocean through San Francisco. So it is still a active bridge for a lot of the transportation because before, you know, modern California highways and everything, that was really the way to get stuff to the city, the fastest.

4 (20m 56s):
So there still is a lot of shipping on the Sacramento river. And if you’re lucky, you can catch that bridge drawing up. It’s really cool to see

3 (21m 2s):
Before we move out of downtown, I have to offer some recommended places. So downtown, I would recommend staying at the Kimpton hotel. It’s really nice hotel, kind of new near the golden one arena. They also have a rooftop bar.

4 (21m 16s):
That’s your go-to oh

3 (21m 18s):
Yeah. It’s a, it’s a nice place. It’s a little bit on the higher end of pricing, but it’s totally worth it.

4 (21m 22s):
Rooftop bar.

3 (21m 23s):
Yeah. You gotta go punch bowl social. They have one of those there with like VR rooms and a whole bunch of different games. Bowling. It’s really fun. There’s also a place that opened after I moved out called the champagne bar. It has three different levels and tons of champagne and it’s downtown too. Do

6 (21m 40s):
They have champagne sabering?

3 (21m 42s):
I can not confirm, but I mean, they need to, but there’s three different floors. And so they all have a different theme and they all have different music. So it’s a really cool place. And then last but not least, I would recommend eating at cafeteria 15 L really, really good food.

6 (21m 55s):
What kind of food?

3 (21m 56s):
I would say it’s like gourmet, like upscale American, maybe some pasta steaks kind of thing. Very

6 (22m 1s):
Nice.

3 (22m 3s):
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4 (22m 19s):
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6 (22m 32s):
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2 (22m 45s):
We created itineraries for a week and Yellowstone and grand Tetons, big island, Hawaii, and an itinerary for an American Southwest road trip. And so many more itineraries to come. We are so excited to announce that they are now available to purchase on our website. So go over to Travel Squad, Podcast dot com to get yours today and moving on to east SAC. I am specifically excited about this one, not because I used to hang out in east SAC, but because our bachelor for a minute, Claire Crawley is from Sacramento. And in fact she has her hair salon, defacto salon in east SAC.

2 (23m 28s):
So thank you Ms. Bachelor, representing Sacramento. That’s what I said. Thank you for representing Sacramento.

4 (23m 37s):
Well, I heard she’s no longer the, of the rep, but that’s a story for another time.

3 (23m 40s):
We’ll find out soon enough,

2 (23m 42s):
Get it

4 (23m 42s):
Done. But another unique feature east SAC, other than the salon that Zaina just mentioned. And our fellow bachelorette being from Sacramento is Sutter Fort. Now this goes back to what we were saying earlier about Sacramento’s history and prominence regarding the gold rush. And so this is a historical landmark in California and basically a Swiss immigrant named John Sutter. Hence the name Sutter Fort had a land grant from the Mexican government when Mexico was in control of California. And he used that land to build an agricultural establishment. And like I was saying earlier, this Fort was used pretty much as a settlement spot for people as they were on their way to go mine and pan for gold in this year in Nevada’s.

4 (24m 31s):
So it has a lot of historical significance to Sacramento as pretty much the Fort that everyone went to before they made their way to strike it. Rich, if you will, I can tell you this though. I have never found gold in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I think they got it all back in 18 48, 9.

2 (24m 48s):
I’m sure there’s a nugget out there waiting to be discovered,

4 (24m 51s):
But I haven’t found it yet.

3 (24m 52s):
Did you guys ever go to the historic days kind of events that they have at Soter sport?

4 (24m 56s):
I did not go to the one at Sutter Fort, but I went to the ones that they had in Coloma, which is where they found gold originally, which isn’t too far from Sutter’s Fort, but I have not done the one at Sutter Fort.

3 (25m 8s):
Oh, it’s fun. People wear these old time outfits. You can churn your own butter. You can learn about life in those days that

6 (25m 15s):
Doesn’t want to make their own.

2 (25m 16s):
When you churn butter, do you get to wear like the old time outfits?

3 (25m 22s):
I feel I have memories from my childhood of wearing an outfit.

2 (25m 25s):
All right. Well, if we can find that we’ll put it on Instagram, Kim churning butter and the old timer.

4 (25m 30s):
Can we bring our own truffle too and turn it truffle butter? Yeah, it would be delicious. I like truffles.

2 (25m 39s):
I don’t know. I’m trying to think of what truffle butter would taste like

4 (25m 42s):
Deliciousness

3 (25m 45s):
Zaina don’t you have a friend that does trivia somewhere in east sock. Yeah.

2 (25m 49s):
Yes, I do. My best friend. Josh does trivia every Tuesday night at seven 30 at limelight’s of course, with COVID it has been temporarily suspended. So he does it now online on zoom, but past COVID limelight, east Sacramento, seven 30 trivia with Josh.

4 (26m 9s):
And we’re not just repping this because Josh is our friend. Limelight is really a very famous spot in Sacramento, just as well. So you should check it out if you’re exploring nightlife out in east SAC

3 (26m 21s):
And then east SAC is kind of like the edge of the main areas of Sacramento. It is developing much more as the downtown and the Midtown kind of spread that way. But then once you get out of east SAC, there’s a lot of beautiful neighborhoods with beautiful trees. There’s a neighborhood called the fab forties, where they have these beautiful, gigantic homes that are just gorgeous with beautiful lawns. And it’s just house after house. And you basically have to be rolling in the dough to live there, but everyone loves those houses. They do the Christmas lights really good that time of year. And then as you keep driving, you get into more of the suburban parts of Sacramento access to the American river SAC state, where I went to school,

4 (26m 58s):
Tom Hanks,

3 (27m 0s):
And then, yeah, but the main attractions of Sacramento that you’re going to want to see for sure are in the old town, downtown Midtown, east SAC kind of areas. There’s also some cool events that come to Sacramento. It’s not a big giant city, but it is the Capitol. And so it does attract different kinds of annual events from the California

2 (27m 18s):
State fair

3 (27m 19s):
California state fair.

2 (27m 21s):
I have met so many people at the California state fair. They

3 (27m 23s):
Actually have famous music artists that will perform at the California state fair to

2 (27m 28s):
Yes, and my best friend, Josh, the one who does trivia limelight. He got to go backstage at Hanson because he had been drinking a little bit and he told the security that he’s pressed, pushed his way through and then started to take selfies with the Hanson brothers until they finally realized this guy is not security. That’s awesome. And they kicked him out.

3 (27m 50s):
He got the pics though.

2 (27m 52s):
He did. And they looked so confused. You look at the aunts and brothers. They’re like, who is this pool?

3 (27m 58s):
And that’s hilarious.

4 (27m 59s):
And the fair usually takes place in August to September. They were planning this year on moving it to July and August, but due to COVID, they didn’t actually have it. So I don’t know going forward if they are going to keep that trend of July and August, but it is not to be missed. I mean, it is California state fair. You have the midway area with the rides. You have the amazing exhibits to see. I definitely do love it out there. And they do have the nightly concerts as we discussed throughout this pear season.

2 (28m 27s):
And in those exhibits, they also have photography competitions where you can often, if not every single year, see Jamal and my older sister place.

4 (28m 37s):
Yes,

2 (28m 38s):
There you go. Shout out Nashua.

3 (28m 40s):
Another big draw of Sacramento. We mentioned earlier that there’s two rivers, American and Sacramento. People are always on the river, like boating, wakeboarding, fishing, fishing, tubing,

2 (28m 51s):
Swimming across.

4 (28m 53s):
Well, let me tell you this. I probably should have died tubing one time down the river. That’s not to discourage anybody from doing it. Definitely do it. I was young and stupid, but do it. It’s funny.

3 (29m 1s):
There’s definitely some rapids areas. I remember they, when they first made this law in Sacramento, that you can’t drink on the river on a holiday, people were pissed. And so she was spite them. They organize this massive river float. I think it was the weekend after labor day. This thing was like, girls gone wild. Just

4 (29m 21s):
Where you, the one of the ones I call them wild.

3 (29m 23s):
I was the camera man. Now there are droves of people launching into the river, floating down, getting wasted. And then there was these like mud islands at the end where people were like girls and guys, mud wrestling, drinking. There was a helicopter that was above. That was saying like, you guys need to leave. You need to go. It was really funny, but usually it’s not that crazy.

6 (29m 43s):
Sounds like a great time,

3 (29m 45s):
But floating down the river is a really fun thing to do, especially if you are there in the summer when it’s really hot. So,

6 (29m 50s):
Oh, hi. I can just imagine it’s a great place to cool down. Have some beers when it’s not a holiday weekend. Apparently.

4 (29m 57s):
Yeah. And so, I mean, there’s different things to really do on the river. Like we’ve said, there’s both rivers American Sacramento. The Sacramento comes from the north flows through the central valley through Sacramento. And then obviously at exits into the Pacific ocean, through San Francisco, the American shorter river comes from the Sierra. Nevada is where they have that gold. So it comes from the east going west. And that is really the river that you want to be on if you want to do some whitewater rafting. So there’s more rapids on that. And whereas if you really wanted to fish the Sacramento, one is it, the Sacramento has more beachy areas along the river itself. So that’s really more where the barbecue action or beach action’s going to be along the river.

4 (30m 38s):
So depending on what you want to do, that’s what river you want to go to, but do check it out. I mean, the Sacramento summers are pretty much spent on the river. That’s for sure

2 (30m 46s):
Not to be a danger ninja, but go out, have fun, but also know that these are not swimming pools. These are rivers and there are people who drown every single year. Don’t be a statistic.

3 (30m 56s):
Yeah. And the places where they usually have parking lots that attract a lot of people. They have free life jackets that you can borrow

4 (31m 3s):
Real quick. Speaking of the river, do any of you ladies, remember I forgot what year it was, but I know it was when we were all still living up there where one of the whales really came far up into downtown SAC in the river and they had to help figure out a way to turn it around using like echolocation or the cliques or whatever the wheels use to orient themselves. And so I think it had a calf with it too. It is not

3 (31m 29s):
Very exciting time.

4 (31m 30s):
It was. So, I mean, if you get lucky, you know, you can catch some serious sea life all the way up in Sacramento area on the

2 (31m 37s):
River. I don’t remember that, but I wish I did.

4 (31m 39s):
Oh yeah. It was big news.

3 (31m 41s):
Oh, I have another place I can recommend Swami’s on the river. Is this really cool outdoor venue? They have bands that will play no one majorly famous, but good vibes. Lot of reggae bands come there and there’s tons of outdoor benches and really good tacos, highly recommend.

4 (31m 57s):
Another really good thing to do in Sacramento is actually go to a Sacramento river cats game. And the river cats is Sacramento’s triple a team. They play in west Sacramento. And what I really like about it is, I mean, it’s a very small, intimate stadium. It has views looking at Downtown Sacramento. So it’s really nice. And what’s really cool about it is if you don’t want to sit yourself in a chair, the whole outfield is a grassy, Knoll and lawn. So you can actually bring a blanket, lay it out and just watch the game sitting on the grass. And it’s really, really nice. And even if baseball is not your thing, it’s just a fun thing to do in Sacramento, just for the views, the atmosphere of the nightlife.

3 (32m 40s):
It’s pretty affordable and very family friendly too.

4 (32m 43s):
If you’re lucky you might catch a hot dog from the hot dog Canon. Do you ever remember them shooting those hot dogs in the hotline

3 (32m 48s):
Shirts and hotdogs? Oh

4 (32m 49s):
Yeah.

6 (32m 51s):
Another thing to do in SAC is to check out the Memorial trail. It a paved multi-use pathway. And it runs from the confluence of the Sacramento river with the American river all the way to Folsom lake. And it’s 32 miles long. It’s one of the longest built bike trails in the country.

4 (33m 8s):
That’s super long 32 miles and fulsome lake is a very large recreational lake. It is not natural. It is damned from the American river. So again, this path does follow the American river all the way to Folsom lake. So it’s really cool. Even if you want to go for a bike ride, walk, bring your skateboard, whatever you want to do. Really cool outdoor activity.

2 (33m 29s):
I know if I should say this, but I’ve never heard the word confluence. And now I’ve heard it twice. In this episode, one from Jamal and one from Brittany,

4 (33m 35s):
Even never heard the words, confluence,

3 (33m 37s):
Please explain the meaning.

2 (33m 39s):
Mr. Sat words. I don’t know.

4 (33m 42s):
Confluence is really just the junction of two rivers. That’s all. It really is straightforward. Yeah. Pretty simple.

2 (33m 48s):
Well, I mean,

4 (33m 49s):
You learn something new every day. You

2 (33m 50s):
Really, I don’t talk about the confluence of rivers too often.

4 (33m 53s):
So that’s what happens when you hang out with me from the Travel Squad zany, there are new lingo.

3 (33m 58s):
You learn something new every day.

6 (34m 1s):
Yeah. Another thing at the Memorial trail, there is a bridge called the guy WestBridge and it’s a scaled down reproduction of the golden gate bridge. And it’s made as a suspension bridge so that pedestrians and bikes can go across.

4 (34m 14s):
That is pretty cool. Have you done that Kim? Cause it’s it stretches across to go to SAC state? No,

3 (34m 19s):
I

4 (34m 19s):
Haven’t. Oh really? You should check it out.

3 (34m 22s):
I will. I’m actually going to sack soon. So maybe I’ll just pop on over

4 (34m 26s):
One thing that you might do when you pop on over there. Kevin is, I know you’re a walking tour. Phene because the love of your life, if I’m not to be mistaken was met on a walking tour. Why don’t you tell us about Sacramento’s downtown

3 (34m 43s):
We can go back to our Cusco Peru episode to hear about that walking tour. But for Sacramento you can find a free walking tour and paid walking tours in every city you go to. I swear, even the smallest towns will have one. This one is through the app, GPS, my city. And like I just said, it’s in several different cities around the country, but they do have one in Sacramento comes with a tour map. You have photos, it gives you background information attractions. You should see other than the ones we already mentioned in this episode, and Brittany will love this. You can use it while you’re offline. So if you don’t have data, oh

6 (35m 18s):
My goodness.

3 (35m 19s):
There you go. Especially, you know, for all of the Australians who are listening to us right now, maybe coming to Sacramento

6 (35m 26s):
And traveling abroad.

3 (35m 27s):
Yeah. You may not have data.

6 (35m 29s):
That is a great tip. Kim squat tip

3 (35m 31s):
Squads. It, my last tip about Sacramento is something that I used to love to do when I lived there in downtown SAC, in Cesar Chavez park around late spring, early July for several Fridays in a row, I think maybe it lasts two months or so. They do concerts in the park. And again, they’re not super famous artists, but great music, great vibes. They have food trucks that come out, they have beer gardens and it’s just a big really family-friendly can bring your own chairs and blankets and stuff. And it’s a great Friday evening event, totally free for anybody of any age. And I highly recommend it. And it’s at the perfect time before it gets too, too hot because right towards the end of the season, it’s almost unbearable to go.

3 (36m 11s):
It

4 (36m 12s):
Gets hot and SAC

2 (36m 13s):
That’s Jamal. And I used to do summer camp and if it got too hot, we weren’t allowed to go outside and they would have indoor activities for us,

4 (36m 19s):
But don’t let that discourage you from going and the other seasons and you know, the anomalies that Kim was saying, the high hundreds, I mean, that happens. I don’t want to say rarely, but it’s not like it’s every day,

3 (36m 30s):
Usually around a hundred give or take, but the a hundred fourteens are just sprinkled in there.

4 (36m 35s):
They’re sprinkled in there, little outliers.

2 (36m 37s):
So if you’re from Arizona, come on over because it’s going to be,

4 (36m 40s):
Oh yeah, it’s not. Or Australia

2 (36m 44s):
The Gulf.

4 (36m 45s):
All right. I think that sums it up for Sacramento. Unless any of you ladies had any other final thoughts that you wanted to mention or say?

2 (36m 54s):
The only thing I can think of is Oscar award-winning a actress. Brie Larson is from Sacramento. Same

4 (36m 59s):
With Tom Hanks

2 (37m 2s):
That Tom Hanks,

3 (37m 3s):
I would just say Sacramento isn’t necessarily a high on the list. Tourist destination for many people, but it does have a lot of cool things to check out. So if you’re planning a trip to Tahoe or well, Tahoe, you may even want to fly into Sacramento and that’d be a good reason to check it out. Or if you’re in San Francisco and kind of going anywhere else, it’s a good place to stop into. Even if you only have a day, it’s very close to Yosemite national park. So you can add this into it. So you may not go just for Sacramento, but it’s close enough to so many other cool things that it’s definitely worth adding on.

2 (37m 34s):
And it’s 15 miles south of our hometown Woodland. So swing on up and check it out

3 (37m 41s):
Episode on that coming soon.

4 (37m 42s):
Checkout Woodlawn. Yeah. I just want to say, you know, Sacramento is a really underrated city sometimes. I mean, it is the butt of the joke cause everyone thinks San Francisco, Los Angeles and like, oh, Sacramento, it’s the capital, but Sacramento is a really cool city. It does have its own charm atmosphere and vibe to it. That’s really, really cool. It has a very historical relevance to California state as a whole. So it’s really a city not to be missed and you definitely will enjoy it. And one thing that we forgot to mention that I just want to go ahead and say, too, is, do check out the crocker art museum to write a passage when you go and live in the area, just as well for school, you take field trips there, but it really is a cool museum.

4 (38m 24s):
As a matter of fact, it was founded in 1855 and it’s the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi. And there’s a lot of modern art, but more particularly California art that was painted during the time of the gold rush in the area and the mountain. So it’s really, really cool. And we forgot to mention that earlier. So I just wanted to throw that out there. But with that being said, Kim, I think it might be your favorite time. Is it

3 (38m 49s):
It’s time for questions of the week?

4 (38m 51s):
Yay.

6 (38m 59s):
Give me a beat

2 (39m 2s):
Coming in hot with questions of the week. Ask us now or forever. Hold your peace. Send an email at the monogram questions of the week. Come on at your life.

4 (39m 13s):
Very good one today, ladies. Nice little wrap. All right. What do we got?

3 (39m 18s):
Okay. Our first question, we actually got this one submitted through our website, so we don’t have a name, but thank you to whoever you are. And the question is what’s the best way to get around SAC or do I need to rent a car?

4 (39m 30s):
I would definitively say yes, there is mass transportation in Sacramento. It’s not very good. Like any other American city, really? I hate to say it. So it’s not like good mass transportation like in New York. So you will want the car. A lot of things are spread out. I mean maybe when you’re downtown, you can rely on the little light rail that goes through there from one place to the next. But in general, if you’re going to get around sack, you do need a car. And I think that the best thing to do is rent one

3 (39m 58s):
Sacramento does have a bus system within its city. In my years of living there never used it. If you needed to use it, you absolutely could. And you could figure out and get by. It kind of depends what you’re doing. If you’re staying in that downtown Midtown kind of east SAC area, you can get by with walking. It’s very walkable and they do have Uber and Lyft and cabs actually. So if you’re kind of staying in that area, maybe it’s just a day or two that you’re there. You probably don’t need to rent a car, but if you’re trying to go farther distances, be there for longer, go to the river or

4 (40m 30s):
Take a day trip to Yosemite.

3 (40m 31s):
Yeah. Then obviously you would want a car for that kind of thing.

6 (40m 34s):
So our next question is from Collin H and he asks, can you use the Sacramento as a hub break question, Colin?

3 (40m 42s):
And we kind of already touched on this.

6 (40m 43s):
Yeah. I feel like we kind of touched on this already. Like we said earlier, Sacramento’s only about an hour and a half from San Francisco and lake Tahoe. You can also do a day trip to Yosemite and it’s also nearby Lassen national park in Northern California that you can do a day trip from there as well.

4 (40m 60s):
And that’s one of my favorite things actually about growing up in Sacramento area quite honestly, is because it was so close to so many different things. And that’s what I really, really liked about it. I mean, truly you are never more than an hour and a half to two and a half hours, depending on where you’re going from something major, something really, really cool to do so you can absolutely use it as a hub Sacramento. Like Kim said earlier, probably a better airport for you to fly into than the lake Tahoe, Reno airport, you know, probably maybe equivalent, but I guarantee you it’s going to be cheaper to fly into Sacramento than it would be into the Reno Tahoe airport, same distance. So do check it out that way and absolutely you can use it as a hub.

3 (41m 39s):
And by the way, my last shout out about Sacramento is they have a very nice airport,

4 (41m 44s):
Sacramento airports. Very, very nice.

3 (41m 46s):
Like San Diego has nothing on the Sacramento airport.

6 (41m 50s):
I would agree with

3 (41m 51s):
That great restaurants it’s recently remodeled. It has the trolley system just go over the airport. Honestly,

4 (41m 57s):
The red bunny coming down the escalators.

3 (41m 59s):
Yeah. Beautiful art installation.

4 (42m 1s):
You guys might not know what we’re talking about, but when you go to SAC, you’ll for sure know what we’re talking about at the red bunny. All right. I think that about wraps it up everybody.

3 (42m 10s):
Well, thank you guys so much for tuning into this week’s episode. You know how to keep the adventures going with us. Follow us on Instagram, on YouTube at Travel Squad Podcast, tag us in your adventures and send me and all of us, those questions of the week.

2 (42m 24s):
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4 (42m 31s):
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6 (42m 36s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, we have more amazing adventures and tips in store for you guys.