History in River town.

The Prospector surprised me with a proposition on Wednesday. Now, you have to understand that we have been married for many years and I don't, as a rule, get propositioned much. So this was kind of exciting.
He offered to take me to Old Town in Sacramento, take the Historic River Tour and buy me an early dinner... all in time to get back home to feed the dogs.
"Yes!" I said, "That sounds like fun."...  feeling that this was a most magnanimous moment on the Prospector's part and that it really sounded like the kind of clean fun two people could have and not have any regrets in the morning.
So, I said "Yes!". He called and made reservations. We left the dogs outside, which Carl wasn't too happy about but, Oh well... when excitement calls... you just have to ignore the offended little Corgis and leave quickly.
We drove down to Sacramento to OLD TOWN. This is where Sacramento began. It was the port on the  river where everything was happening during the Gold Rush.
Now it's a fun, tourist attraction with all kind of stores, restaurants and museums.

While we waited for our boat to depart,

We walked along the boardwalk for a few blocks and split a corn dog to tie us over until we came back from the tour. I'm sure we could have made a better choice but... it was a fried delight with mustard and catchup in a paper boat. It was cheap and fast. I did buy water to go with it, so that kind of redeemed the bad choice. (Not really.). I like to think that the water wash away some of the grease.

We also walked through a huge candy store. I emphasize "walked through" because I wanted all of you to know that we didn't lose control completely with the "junk" food.We bought nothing.
I think this store was appropriately named "Candy Heaven".

We met this bear, on the sidewalk. He was make entirely of  Lego's. Cute and amazing.

And we made a mental note to check out Joe's Crab Shack when we returned for dinner.

We picked up our tickets for the river tour and walked down to the dock.

This was our tour boat. The Capitol Hornblower was its name. It looked sturdy and reliable. We boarded the frigate with a few other tourist and a whole classroom of what looked to be "private" school 6th graders. 

It took me back a few years to my visits here and to the Capital building with a bunch of 6th graders from Pine Grove Elementary School. I was "in charge" of five or six of the children in our classroom. I don't think that I have ever fully recovered from the experience.

So... we oldsters were allowed on first. Then the children came aboard. Some ran around like wild Indians but on the whole, they were pretty well behaved. 

We went up to the second level and watched the "first mate" untie the ropes and close the doors.

There was no escape now.

 We were moving out, around the other tour boat and into the Sacramento River.

We pulled out and passed the Delta King Hotel, a floating hotel that. without Corgis waiting at home for us, we could have stayed on overnight. I was beginning to understand that without 10 chickens, two Corgis and forty two acres to take care of, there are a lot of exciting and different things to do outside of our little town in the foothills. Maybe I will surprise "the old guy" with a night on the Delta King for his birthday. What fun that might be.

When we passed this old paddle wheel showboat, it made me want to burst out singing  Ol Man River or Make Believe, as folks waved to us from its decks. It made me think about high school and my" life upon the wicked stage" when I sang "Bill" from Showboat, sitting on a piano in fishnet stockings and a beautiful dance hall costume. Those were the good ol' days when I could sing and loved the smell of grease paint and the magic phrase was "Break a leg." for "Good luck."
Do you remember the lyrics?

I used to dream that I would discover
The perfect lover someday.
I knew I'd recognize him if ever
He came 'round my way.
I always used to fancy then
He'd be one of the God-like kind of men
With a giant brain and a noble head
Like the heroes bold
In the books I've read.

But along came Bill
Who's not the type at all,
You'd meet him on the street
And never notice him.
His form and face,
His manly grace
Are not the kind that you
Would find in a statue,
And I can't explain,
It's surely not his brain
That makes me thrill -
I love him because he's wonderful,
Because he's just my Bill.

Well, the year after high school I found "my Bill" but he had a different name. 

Yep, I still have "my Bill" after 47 years... and, unlike the "Bill" in the song, he has a giant brain... and a good heart too. .. and he's still good looking... and he's always ready for a great adventure.

We navigated out into the river and passed this interesting looking building. The "first mate" was telling us the history of the river front and said that this was a new water intake plant for the city. Eighty-five percent  of Sacramento’s drinking water comes from these neighboring rivers. To collect water, the City has two water intake structures, one located on the American River and one located on the Sacramento River.
This is the old intake that was replaced by the new one above.
This little guy just couldn't keep up with the population explosion.

And around the bend in the river, next to highways 5 is the Jab boom Street Bridge. It's a swing bridge and it's actually on the American River.

There is a great city park and beach area here.
This is the confluence of the American and the Sacramento River. You can clearly see the beautiful water of the American River mixing with the cloudy and muddy Sacramento River in the photos above and below.

 Our tour speaker said that the American comes down from the mountains to the east bringing its clear mountain water. The Sacramento, comes down from the north and picks up a lot of sediment in the central valley from the small creeks and ditches that run into it. The difference is striking.

This is what it use to look like before anyone was here. Beautiful. with many different kinds of trees and bushes... but very prone to flooding.
We moved on down the river as she told us a lot about the history and how the river had to be tamed and land had to be filled in before people could live in this area.
A levee system was developed early on to keep the river under control and there is an ongoing concern about the age and condition of these levees to this day. I wonder at the common sense of the early pioneers that came here and decided to start a city. I know it had to do with a river,  the transport of goods to and from San Francisco and of course, the Gold Rush but, the whole area is land between rivers. It's still a series of flood planes that are only protected by an antiquated levee system.
We moved slowly down the river as we listened to its history, lulled by the sound of water against the ship and the sounds of Seagulls, Cormorants, Egrets and Geese... and some other birds I didn't recognize.

 The kids moved like the ripples of the ships wake, from the bow to the stern ... hanging over the edges of the ship railings and coming in and out of the wheelhouse, where the Captain talked to them and answered questions.
They all seemed to be lulled by the river's magic.

I wished that my grandson's could have been with us. They would have loved this ride.

We came to a group of apartments that moored some beautiful boats waiting for their owners. The Prospector said that this houseboat was just about right for us to vacation on.

I had to agree. It was NICE. It even had a slide off the back end for the grandkids.
Truth be told... this is more what we could afford.

 And then, reality hit.

This was probably more in our price range.
Still, it would be nice to have a place to come and stay on this river. It's very relaxing here. It's a certain kind of lifestyle... laid back... slower paced.
So we continued for another half mile or so until I saw a place that I recognized.

A restaurant called the Virgin Sturgeon. My friend, "C" brought me here one time for lunch when she lived in her apartment. It is a very popular place to eat. I love the name.
We turned around here and started back toward Sacramento proper. The weather was warm and beautiful. There were lots of folks out fishing and enjoying the beautiful day.

The area  on the west side of the river was wild in some areas,

giving you a good idea  what Sacramento was like before there was a city.

Our tour boat went back toward Old Town and continued south, under the Tower Bridge.

 This is looking south with the sun on it's far side.

 This is a view of the downtown area of Sacramento from the river. The white buildings on the lower right are the new additions to the Crocker Art Museum. We didn't have time to visit the museum but we will take another day and come down to see it.

As for the Tower Bridge... it looks so pretty with the sun on it. It was painted gold because we are after all, the golden state and this is its capital.

 The Tower Bridge is a vertical lift bridge. A very beautiful one. I loved taking pictures of it.

This was taken almost directly into the sun. from the north side , just as we came under it.

As we headed back into port, we passed the river side of Joe's Crab Shack

 and decided that we couldn't get off of the boat fast enough.
We said thank you to the captain of the ship, almost got run over by a couple of hungry children as we walked up the ramp walkway , walked into Joe's and sat out on that balcony you see in the photo above.
Then they brought us THE MENUS.

The Prospector had a Crabcake Cesar Salad and I had a mixed plate of shrimp, fish, dirty rice and some kind of crab cakes in a shell. OMG! Was it all good. We had iced tea and shared the food. I can't begin to tell you how good it was.
 That's when I saw something underneath one of the tables. Something moving quickly and with purpose.

I'm going to stop now. I will tell you about the birds tomorrow. It's almost 11:00 p.m. and I can't see the computer screen anymore.
Sweet dreams...

One more river... and home.

This is the Rio Vista bridge that spans the mighty Sacramento river.

This is highway 12 and a very busy section of this road. It's kind of the hub for the roads in and out of the Delta. If you are coming from the east and you stop at the light before the bridge, you can go south to Antioch, north to Isleton and many of the  islands, sloughs and tributaries of the Sacramento River ,or over the bridge and into Rio Vista.
 Highway 12 runs from San Andreas in the foothills ( in my neck of the woods), through Fairfield, the lower part of Napa Valley, Sonoma and Santa Rosa, and joins highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, somewhere near the town of Bodega.  If you travel along this road you will see some of the most beautiful areas of Northern California and its many different kinds of terrain.

This is where the Sacramento river widens, blending with the San Joaquin River and heads down into Suisun Bay... Then into San Pablo Bay and finally, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

Rio Vista is where a lost whale named Humphrey, swam to in 1985. It's a heart warming story that you might like to read about HERE.

Humphrey spawned a book, tourists and songs for a while. We were living down river in Antioch at the time and this was a big exciting adventure for everyone. We were all invested in this whale's welfare and hoping he would find his way back out into the ocean. He did.

This is the side of a building in the downtown area. Interesting painting... but I was too close as we drove by.

 I think this is the end of Main St.  That's the river on the other side of the wall. You are looking east.

 Same place... only looking northeast toward the bridge.

This was the initial reason for our road trip. This is a house that was for sale and "C" wanted to take a look at it.

It's a small house, downtown, within walking distance of just about everything. But... it was in a state of disrepair and would need a lot of work before anyone could move in. Besides, this was a few hours after she had seen her dream home in Isleton. We checked it out , decided that this was probably more work than she wanted  and we moved on.
This time we stayed on the west side of the river and drove up to the end of the road and the Ryer Island Ferry.

This is what the Delta is all about. Before there were bridges... there were ferries. This was the only way you could get from one island to another... and still, the ferry is the only way to get to some of the islands.
We were the first car to arrive at the terminal and we had to wait for about 15 minutes. It was very hot.

 I took some pictures (What else would I do?). We gave Max some food and more water. He was happy in his back seat digs.

The Real McCoy II arrived.

 We all squeezed in.Then this school bus pulled in next to us. This was too close for comfort and the bus driver almost took each car's rear view mirrors with her as she drove on to the ferry... We had a moment of panic but there really was nothing we could do. We couldn't just back out. We were kind of committed to the trip.

 When we reached the other side of the river, "C" wisely let the bus go first. This was a smart move because it veered toward us and drove off on our side of the road. We were guessing that this might be a "driver in training" but we didn't want to cause trouble, so we gave her some distance and turned the opposite way at the top of the road.

This was an small inlet with a very old fishing boat that didn't look sea worthy anymore but was still afloat, a dredge in the distance and what looked like maybe a house behind the trees. I saw an Italian Cypress tree which wasn't native to this area. A beautiful place that seemed to be deserted. I think there was a "for sale" sign near the water.
 These islands would be a very isolated place to live. Not many people out here and kids have to take a bus to school everyday with a crazy bus driver. But... it would be quiet and peaceful... and I'll bet the fishing is fantastic.
We went around the island and found another ferry. The school bus was nowhere to be seen. And now we know that FED EX goes everywhere.

 This ferry took us to Grand Island.

 It was so beautiful out there.This ride across the water made me want a boat. Think of the access to good fishing holes. The Prospector would be in fish heaven.
It was cooler on the water. I don't think that I would ever be too hot living out here. All one has to do is jump in.

This ferry was different than the first one. It was pulled by a cable from one side of Steamboat Slough to the other side. It was a smaller ferry, but we could see the river better and it felt more like being on a boat.

We stopped at the Grand Island Mansion where our son and daughter-in-law got married... July 28, 2001. Was it really 11 years ago? Oh my, how time goes by. 

 This is the most beautiful place for a wedding there every was.

This gazebo is where they got married... in this garden, with our family and friends all sharing the day with them. Where a butterfly, as if on cue, flew over everyone and stayed through the ceremony.

 It was a beautiful day that we will never forget.

A perfect wedding day.

 It was good to see this lovely place again. It brought back wonderful memories.

"C" and I crossed the river one more time. We saw the school bus ahead of us on Grand Island Rd. We followed her for a while stopping at each farm while she let children off. We kept our distance. Didn't want to get too close to the bus driving diva on those levy roads. Then we took a sharp turn, drove over the river and  headed back to Sacramento on the River road.
We saw a sign and knew we were headed in the right direction.

It was a fine day. A little too warm, but when we got home we collapsed into "C"s lovely, air conditioned apartment and as for Max?...

He went from this...

To this.

And he took a nice long nap before dinner.

I may be driving down to the Delta more often if my friend decides to live "on the river". We'll see what happens. When I got up the next morning she had a big smile on her face and I could hear her humming "Delta Dawn" in the kitchen.
Sometimes you just need to find a special place. A place that speaks your language and makes you happy.
Sometimes you have to listen to that inner voice. The one that says, "Go for it".


"To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying "Amen" to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive."  ~Robert Louis Stevenson~