Day 18 - The Mall and All

Day 18 - Playing tourist in Sacramento.
Doug's favorite quote in the light rail station.

We are a few miles from the Capitol Mall and didn''t want to have to worry about the bikes today while we were there. The light rail station was only a mile from our motel so we walked.

Our first stop was the State Library.

We only meant to look at the lobby but the security guard suggested that we at least tour the 3rd floor.

The building was renovated and just re-opened to the public this past January. It is impressive!

This is the main reading room. It was like a museum for books.

This early state librarian, James Gillis (1899-1917), had a lot to do with the establishment of county libraries in the state.

There are cases of all sorts of different kinds of encyclopedias that we had never heard of before.

Inspiration - she was so notorious when first unveiled that they installed a special door so the public could have access when other parts of the library were closed.

This is an absolutely beautiful staircase but it was hard to get a picture that does it justice. This one is looking down from the 4th floor.

Part of a memorial for law enforcement officers on the Capitol Mall.

Now that is a door!

And on the other side of the door.

This melding of Caucasian and Native American faces is part of a large medallion on the floor of the lobby.

We arrived just in time to catch the noon tour which seemed like a good way to go.

Our tour guide, Curtis, was extremely knowledgeable about the building and legislative processes as well as state history.

A little slice of the dome.

Looking out from the second floor down the mall towards Tower Bridge.

Part of a memorial to firefighters.

Vietnam War Memorial

Doug is pointing to Bien Hoa, the Army base where he was stationed as a helicopter pilot in 1967-68.

This is one of the nicest Vietnam War Memorials that we've seen and we've seen a bunch of them.

Bikes are still a part of our day.

Our destination, Sutter's Fort.

Dr. Ted, how would you like to have these as your "tools"

We ended our walking tour passing by Stanford Mansion on our way to the train stop. It is closed on Mondays but our brains and feet were pretty tired by now. A very interesting day in our one big city for this trip. Originally, we had thought we would try to avoid Sacramento but we are so glad that we went right to the center.