October 12, 2010
Looking for a fun, kid friendly, Bay Area day trip? We got one! On Saturday we boarded a 9am Amtrak train at Emeryville with our bikes—Milo, Ben, and Julie, plus Caleb, Tim, and Eliza. Each car fits three bikes, but the front car has room for 4 that are easy to park in racks—but hustle, the train doesn’t stop for long! Head upstairs and a stake out a table.
The kids played with stickers and we all looked out the window as the train wound along the bay, past the elegant Carquinez bridge and the old C&H Sugar Factory. Shorebirds plied the mudflats, farm workers gathered melons—there was lots to see.
An hour and three-quarters later we were off-boarding in Sacramento. It’s just a couple hundred yards from the station to the American River Bikeway – a thirty mile bike path along the river that starts in downtown Sac. and ends up at Folsom Resevior. Just head west from the train station, towards “Old Sacramento”, pass the Train Museum (more on those later) and you’ll see the river and the path.
We ended up riding about 6 miles past beaches and picnic areas, over bridges, and under overpasses, most of which isn’t even in sight of city or buildings. Note: once you leave the grassy park in the first couple miles, picnic tables and especially grass become much more scarce—but we finally found a good picnic table in some shade to lunch at. Milo and Caleb were glad to get out of the bike seats and romp around a little.
On the way back the little guys fell asleep in their bike-seats, and we transferred them to blankets on the cool grass and joined them for a nap. Refreshed, we headed back to check out the Train Museum right before it closed (really cool! worth coming back), grabbed some Cajun food in the old west Old Sacramento, and rushed to catch a 5:30 train home (they run just about every hour). On the way back Milo discovered that you actually walk from one car to another, which led to lots of exploring.
It was a really fun day, and left us wondering if it could be made into a fun overnight?
