All Aboard!

We had talked all Summer (both this and last) that it would be fun to go for a "real" train ride. It was just never cost effective enough to do it.  So with the help of the Indians (I will explain that later) and an Amtrak special where kids 15 and under ride free on Saturdays in August, we finally did it!

We didn't tell the kids what we were doing, just that we were going to be gone all day and start out with some geocaches in downtown Sacramento.

We did one right across from the train station at the new Courthouse/Jail building.

 

We then walked across the street back in front of the train station and Doug walked in and everyone followed him. The kids got a big smile on their face as we walked to the train platform.  We waited for the train and got in!  They thought it was cool that it had an upstairs!

 

We found some seats and settled in for our ride to San Francisco.  It was about a two hour train ride and 15 min bus ride to Zeum, a children's science museum in San Fran that we hadn't been to in a couple years.

 

All the kids thought it was fun to walk around and walk between the different cars while the train was moving. They loved the snack car especially. Here Jacob and Hannah wanted to stand by the doors downstairs while the train was going:

 

We finally got to our station right near the Bay Bridge and had to transfer to an Amtrak bus because the train doesn't actually go into San Fran.  It was a little cooler here! We left 100 degree weather and arrived to 60 degrees! We got off the train and didn't realize how many people were on it until we saw them all get off! We heard that it was abnormally crowded this day-there was a baseball game in San Fran.

 

We then boarded a bus for the ride across the Bay Bridge and into San Fran. 

 

Our bus had a hole in the ceiling where the vent would normally be, but the entire vent was missing so we could totally see outside up towards the sky. We snapped these next pics as we went under the towers of the bridge.

 

 

And this one out of the dirty window of the bus:

 

We finally arrived and went to get something to eat for lunch as we were all hungry. We saw a Denny's and decided that they are usually inexpensive for the food you get, usually $6 or $7 for adult breakfast meals. Not in San Francisco they aren't!  The normal $5.99 breakfast was $12 here!  We didn't stay. We walked across the street to Jack In The Box and ate a lot of food for $20! And we even fed a homeless man who was sitting next to us.

We then walked to the  Zeum and walked around the grounds first, as Zeum is part of the Yerba Buena Gardens area. Of course, there were some geocaches to do. In this one, it was under a light pole cover, but it was in the middle of an amphitheater with people all around sitting on the lawn and with an event getting set up on the stage. Jacob and Marissa went to get it, trying not to be noticed, but I'm sure someone was wondering.

 

We went through a waterfall filled monument that was nearby and loved the different types of buildings that are in San Fran.

 

We then went into the Zeum museum which is free since we have a family pass to a museum near our house, and it's good for hundreds of museums across the country.  The kids always love this game:

It's a maze game that is projected on the floor onto a special mat. You then control the board by walking to one side or the other. As you do, the board "tilts" and the ball moves. You have to tilt the board to get the ball through the maze without the ball falling into the holes. It's harder than it looks!

Here the girls are revealing their true faces:

 

We decoded special messages:

 

Made stop action 3-D movies:

 

Made play dough figures to take home:

 

Jacob and Doug went exploring to find a geocache that was two blocks away.  It was in another museum that was dedicated to the Chinese immigrants who had settled in San Francisco long long ago.  The hint to the cache was that it's in plain view.  We were looking around and around, and once of the museum workers came up and asked if we needed any help or explaining of any of the exhibits.  Doug told her no.  As she walked away, Jacob said that the box should be around here somewhere. The lady overheard him and came back and said, "Are you looking for the special box?" Can you see it here?

 

It was sitting right on a table with other exhibits. She told us to take it down and look through it. Take as much time as you need, she said. It also dedicated to the Chinese settlers and had lots of stuff to read through and look at.

 

We headed back to the Zeum and found everyone else. It was time to go. We had seen and done the whole museum.  We said goodbye to the Merry Go Round.

We went back to the bus stop to retrace our steps back to the train station, and back to Sacramento.  As we were waiting for the bus, we noticed it was somewhat a little noisier in this city then in our city. Marissa wanted me to take a video of the fast moving clouds and to listen to the city noises..so here it is:  Ahhhh..the peaceful sounds of a big city!

 

We arrived back at the train station and waited for our train to come in. It was not nearly as full going back as it was coming. We practically had the entire car to ourselves all the way home.

 

On the way home we passed a lot of farm fields of lettuce, corn, tomatoes, but the most colorful one was this one of sunflowers.

 

And that was our Saturday! Lots of fun!  Two thumbs up!

So what about the Indians you say? How did they make this possible?  Well, you see, a few weeks ago Shelley and Doug went to Thunder Valley Casino near our house for a free dinner buffet coupon we had that was about to expire. Yummy buffet by the way and not very expensive on weekdays. Anyhow, the casino is owned by the Maidu Indian Tribe (as all casinos in California are owned by the Indians) and along with our free dinner, we each also had $10 of free slot play. So we headed over to the penny slots and played away our $10.  It took us about 30 minutes or so, and we decided we had played enough, and we decided to cash out.  You really don't know how much money you lost or won, as the machine just keeps track in the form of "credits" instead of actual dollar amounts.

We thought each of us had around $15, we knew we were up and decided to quit. Shelley cashed out and around $70 and Doug cashed out and he had around $50!  So we used that money for our trip to S.F. So thanks Indians!