Because there's more to see than Old Sac and Sutter's Fort and the Railroad Museum. And the Capitol Building and the Governor's Mansion. And Tower corner. And the IMAX theater. And the river. Okay, rivers.
For example, there's Land Park, home of... well, a park, with The Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town inside.
As weird as it sounds, the motion picture was invented, more or less, at the racetrack that is now Boulevard Park, by Eadweard Muybridge in 1872
The most dangerous intersection in all of California is here, at the corner of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Howe Avenue
For train freaks, there's Elvas Tower, which will soon be moved to a museum
For people arriving into town from outer space, there's that damn blue light above Esquire Grill
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The Capitol Kitty is here, in the bushes by the Capitol--now the star of a book, "The Adventures of Capitol Kitty," by former first lady Sharon Davis.
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The Sunday Farmer's Market under the W-X freeway is here
the giant sewing needle by the El Camino exit of Business 80 is here
RUOFS the sign cow on 16th St. is here
In addition to RUOFS, the Hereford House "Holy Cow" at 2633 Riverside Blvd. is supposed to have returned! (unverified--let me know if you've seen it)
the closed but fascinating bookstore is here, near 12th & J
the paint poles are here, in Midtown
the free book warehouse on Richards Blvd. is here
the Sikh Temple is here, on Evergreen Avenue in West Sacramento, the tops of its domes just visible from the freeway
broken hotel row by Auburn Blvd. is here
And there's McKinley Park, whose Rose Garden has its own Web site. McKinley Park itself has its own category on About.com! Here is a lovely map of McKinley Park. This site has a link to a 360-degree panorama view of McKinley Park. Digitalcity.com loves McKinley Park's pool, which was built in the thirties.
Guess who was instrumental in making McKinley Park a success? Nellie Sims Beckman, that's who!
McKinley Park is also where the California Native Plant Society has its meetings, and they also organize field trips of the vernal pools.
Financial-title.com loves all of East Sac, and has a link to school reports
street signs of confusion are here: you can find Arden, Arden-Garden, Arden-Arcade, and Alta Arden; there's also Del Paso Boulevard, Del Paso Heights, and Del Paso Road; officially there is a North Natomas and a South Natomas, but there is also Natomas, West Natomas, and an area near Folsom called Natoma, plus an East Natomas Street in Folsom and an East Natomas Road in Sutter County; 55th Street and 65th Street are only one block apart down by Florin Road; the normally parallel 39th Street and 36th Streets intersect in East Sacramento; Fair Oaks Blvd. intersects with itself near the Sunfower Natural Food Restaurant
There's also The True Love, the Old Ironsides, and the Capitol Garage
Apparently the Tower Mart grocery chain has a reputation for oddball store themes. Sacramento's store may not have a UFO sticking out of the roof, or boast a plastic cow that was stolen, beheaded and thrown in the river, but it is raining cats and dogs at the 3519 Watt Avenue location.
For other guides, avoid Craigslist Sacto; it just about sucks. Even Inside The City is better
Planetsoma.com's guide to sleazy Sacramento reminds us that "Eight is Enough" was set here (and American Beauty was filmed here)
What the Bee thought was "offbeat" in 1990 (including Safeway massif)
The Bee's 1990 list of important travel sites includes Pancake Circus
Things that are gone
Davis is losing things right and left. The frozen bodies of 1,063 radioactive beagles that used to be stored at UC Davis were moved in 1990, when they were "taken from storage refrigerators, packaged in drums" and sent to Hanford, Washington
Davis also had the Palms Playhouse barn, now scheduled for demolition (the Palms relocated to Winters)
Davis ALSO had Murder Burger; now re-named a kinder, gentler Redrum Burger
Down I-80 a bit more is the shell of the now-closed Nut Tree: "1983: Queen Elizabeth II visits Sacramento and joins Gov. Deukmejian for lunch in the Capitol Rotunda. The lunch is catered by the Nut Tree restaurant in Vacaville." -Sac Bee
Many cemeteries in town are gone, and you might be walking on someone's grave without knowing it. The New Helvetia Cemetery, established by John Sutter himself in 1849, stood at the corner of what is now Alhambra Blvd. and J Street. In 1956 5,235 bodies were removed, and Sutter Middle School was built on top of it.
Sacramento's original potter's field was located where the California State Fair grounds are now. Maybe right below the churro stand.
St. Rose's cemetery, once at 38th and Franklin, is also now a school. Happy learning!
Between 1910 and 1960, there was a baseball field at Riverside and Broadway, commonly known as Edmonds Field. Now it's the parking lot of a Target store.
the Mandella Community Garden, at 15th and Q, is on the brink of going
Jenovino's Deli, once one of Midtown's busiest lunch spots, is now the Bon Air Market at 26th and J streets. It was run by Gordon "Mugs" Walthall, and they still serve his famous sandwiches.
The older buildings in downtown Sacramento have a ground floor underneath the street level, dating from before the street was raised to prevent flooding.
Before Pancake Circus opened up on Broadway, the site was host to the Platter Restaurant
All the places on that fine row of abandoned motels out by Auburn Blvd, are gone and their husks are going fast
Merlino's Orange Freeze, which went bankrupt but was everyone's favorite, was gone for a while, but is now back
Within the McKinley Park neighborhood, history revolves around the Alhambra Theater, designed by Leonard F. Starks
Why the Alhambra Theater was important, and why some people still don't shop at Safeway massif
Notice that though the above Bee article states that the Alhambra's "old organ is said to be in a Walnut Creek restaurant", it is actually here in Murphy's, CA.
The Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethons used to air from the Country Club Plaza mall
The Sacramento Symphony went bankrupt, twice, before it became extinct
The streetcars are long gone, the tracks torn up in 1947
The monkeys in the McKinley Park Zoo are gone, with the zoo
The first Pony Express stop ever is here, but the ponies are gone
The Chinese restaurant Ho-Sy-Guy in the Denny's building is gone
The Zombie Hut
The original Shakey's Pizza - the first pizza parlor ever -- and its sign
The sleazy part of downtown, now transmogrified into Old Sac
The Gold Rush is long gone
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The Cattle Club, ("a shit-hole" -Nirvana) is also gone, repackaged as a never-quite-open Bojangles
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