(Apologies to those who saw the early publishing of this post in draft form … some trigger fingers were at play!)
The business of travel
Due to a mix-up regarding accessing laundry facilities at our apartment, we decided to use a laundromat two blocks away, and it turned out to be a very interesting experience. The laundromat employee on duty was beautifully folding washing done for their drop-off service. He seemed a little reserved, but once we got him talking we had a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation – about sport (such as cricket and why it is a good game), politics (including Brexit), and the future of print media (particularly newspapers). Turned out he’d been the archivist at The Sacramento Bee before they closed down their archives! He’s now working 65 hours a week in two jobs, one in a medical office, and the other in the laundromat. Originally from Surrey, he plans to retire back there (if not before). A quiet, interesting man – and I did enjoy watching him fold!
Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park
We had a bitsy-piecy sort of day, with no real plans other than to do our laundry and visit the Leland Stanford Mansion (because we do like a good historic house.) We ubered to the address, arriving about 20 minutes early, thereby managing to catch democracy in action, via the Black Women’s March and Rally which went from Crocker Park to the Capitol. They had a marching band at front and seemed to have a good turnout.
Anyhow, by then it was 10am and opening time for the house. For those who don’t know, Leland Stanford, the founder of Stanford University, was a railway magnate who became California’s eighth (and first Republican) Governor in 1861.We, with the other two punctual arrivals, a mum and her 7-year-old daughter from the neighbouring town of Davis, were immediately taken on a tour.
Unfortunately, we have no decent photographs. The outside was being renovated and, for some reason, photographs were not allowed inside. I say “for some reason” because the reasons couldn’t have been protecting heritage as the place is used for official receptions and the Governor has an office there (though it’s not the main one). Anyhow, yes, we have no photos!
The house was not initially built by the Stanfords but they expanded it significantly into a 44-room mansion. It has an interesting history, but you can read about that via the link on the heading. We’ll just mention one curious object – and they had two of them in the house – the Boston-made Chickering Piano. What makes it curious is that these pianos are rectangular (called “square pianos” I believe). Their piano strings run parallel to the keyboard. Apparently Jonas Chickering made a number of contributions to piano technology. The things you see and learn, eh? It would have been nice to have a photograph of the piano!
The other point I wanted to make relates to the philanthropic contributions made by Sacramento’s wealthy, such as the Crockers (of the Crocker Art Museum) and the Stanfords. Philanthropy is an impressive feature of American culture. These two families, with the women remaining active after their husbands died, supported humanitarian programs – such as for homeless people, orphans, women – as well as cultural and educational activities and institutions.
Binchoyaki
By the time we finished at the Mansion it was 11am, and hotting up, but we decided to walk to our chosen lunch venue, a well-recommended fairly new Japanese restaurant, Binchoyaki Izakaya, which is located in a new part of town for us. This made the walk interesting, as long as we could keep in the shade!
En route, while Len marched ahead doing the navigating, I spied a beautifully painted utility box. It is part of the Capitol Box Art Project. “My” box was painted by Susan Silvester, who said about her box:
I created a design referencing my personal fantasy world filled with the local animals and my costumed figures that contrasts with the urban terrain.
We found Binchoyaki pretty easily. I should explain here, what I haven’t before, that the main part of Sacramento is organised on a grid, with alphabetic streets running in one direction, and numbered in the other. The food here was delicious, and we took several photos to show you! There were a lot of choices, but in the end we chose a Sashimi plate to share, and then several grilled (yaki) items. I tried a light-alcohol Yuzu Fizz to drink, which was perfect for a hot day.
We we were introduced to a new wine concept, on their menu, a Meritage (combining “merit” and “heritage”) wine. If you’re interested, click on the link.
City Cemetery
Since Binchoyaki is just two blocks from the tourist-recommended Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, we decided to check it out. Established in 1849 – the beginning of the Gold Rush – it is a lovingly maintained cemetery, but as it was getting hotter and hotter we didn’t tarry long. Things we saw, included:
- the Crocker (of the Crocker Art Museum fame) family plot
- headstones which identify people’s roles, often on the top edge, like Mother, Father, Daughter, Brother (don’t recollect seeing anything quite like this before, but we’re not cemetery experts)
- special gardens, including the Historic Rose Garden and the Californian Native Plant Demonstration Garden
- a headstone identifying the inhabitant as “a California native” (meaning I think, born in California, not a Native American)
We could have pottered around more, but it really was getting hot, so we decided it was time for the movies. Where else to go on a hot day?
Tower Theatre
And, lucky us, it just so happened that four blocks away was the very lovely, historic, 1938-built, Tower Theatre. It is apparently a Sacramento landmark. In the 1980s, apparently, the single-screen auditorium was divided into three smaller ones (which now feel old-fashioned by today’s multi-plex standards, I must say!) but the gorgeous exterior was left as is. I did photograph it but the light was in the wrong place so I haven’t included it here.
There was one film just about to go in, and as it sounded well worth seeing we, funnily enough, chose it. It was Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins, whom I do love to watch, and Ethan Hawke. It’s a biopic about the Canadian (Nova Scotian) folk artist Maud Lewis (1903-1970). What an interesting person and life – do read the Wikipedia link. We both enjoyed it, but I’m not going to do a film review here.
Then it was back to our little loft apartment for a couple of hours before walking out to a simple dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats again. It might be a (small) chain, but its food – mostly salads – is fresh and tasty, and reasonably priced.
And somehow, we walked 9.5kms. It will be a lot less today as we start our road trip down to Orange County.
Today’s trivia
A docent at the Leland Mansion told us that the Davis, California, area is the second largest rice producer in the world. The USA is not the second largest rice-producing country in the world (not even in the Top Ten), and how you define “area” I don’t know, but we’ll leave this with you. It may or may not work in a Trivia competition!
Sounds like a lovely day from the interaction with the laundry folder to the Black Women’s March to mansions, theaters and cemeteries and tasty restaurants. Oh—–and I checked out the layout of the strings in my antique Chickering piano and the growing location of my bag of nishiki rice too. Those were interesting tidbits of information.
Thanks Carolyn – and where did your Nishiki rice come from?
Well, I said I looked, but the bag merely said California. However, I’ve heard that claim from Sacramento (but not specifically Davis) before and I’d like to research it.
We’ll have to research it together…. Wherever it is from it tastes good, thanks for dinner!