Companion Tours

There will be two day tours to Sacramento on October 8th, 2012 and to San Francisco on October 11th, 2012.

Sacramento

San Francisco

Monday, October 8, 2012: Sacramento City Tour

Sacramento is the state capital of California and is rich in the history of the development of California. Sacramento became the state capital city in 1854. The tour will take us to the state capitol building, the Railroad Museum, and lunch and shopping in Old Town Sacramento along the Sacramento River.

	This neoclassical structure was constructed between 1861 and 1874. It is based on the United States’ capitol building in Washington, D.C. The governor’s office, the state senate and assembly are housed in this building. The capitol was thoroughly renovated and restored to the original architecture and furnishings in the late 1970’s, and was rededicated on January 9, 1982. The building is surrounded by a lovely botanical garden. Our tour begins at 10 AM and last one hour.
	The California State Railway museum, located in Old Sacramento, is a complex of historic facilities and unique attractions. Widely regarded as North America's most popular railroad museum, there is something here for everyone! Throughout the year, experience lavishly restored trains, dining and sleeper cars, engaging exhibits, and unique special events. We will visit at 11:30 AM.
	We will be having lunch in Old Sacramento at 1 PM at Rio’s restaurant. Rio’s is right on the Sacramento River and is designed to resemble a steamship warehouse in the late 1880s. It is very close to the Train Museum. We will be seated on the deck overlooking the river and Old Town Sacramento.
	Shopping is important to find California souvenirs for folks back home. Old Town Sacramento resembles a cowboy town from the 1860s with dusty streets, wooden sidewalks and a restored steamboat. . It has many stores, restaurants, and saloons. After lunch we will spend time browsing and shopping. We are planning to be back in Davis by 4 PM.

Thursday, October 11, 2012: San Francisco Tour

We will depart from the Conference Center at 8 AM and travel 70 miles for a day in lovely San Francisco. Dress warmly because The City can be cold and windy. San Francisco was founded by the Spanish colonists on June 29, 1776 and takes her name from the mission founded by the Franciscans, San Francisco de Asis. San Francisco remained a colonial outpost with a large harbor until gold was discovered in January 1848. It took time for the news to spread across the world and so the gold seekers who came to San Francisco were called “49ers!” The City grew quickly and burned down several times. The last big fire followed the earthquake of April 18, 1906. Most of the City was destroyed. The symbol on the city flag is appropriately a phoenix. Today, San Francisco is one of the top tourist destinations in the world, ranking 35th out of the 100 most visited cities worldwide, and is renowned for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz Island, and Chinatown. We plan to return to Davis by 6 PM

	We will travel across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and will have the once in a life time chance of see the new eastern span of the bridge nearing completion, along the Embarcadero Boulevard and then on to Coit Tower, a humorous monument affording great views of San Francisco.
	From Coit Tower we will drive along California Street, which crosses the City from Chinatown over Nob Hill and into Golden Gate Park. On the way we will stop at Alamo Square to view the Victorian residences called "The Painted Ladies" due to their exterior colors. Then on to the center of Golden Gate Park called “The Concourse” to visit the Japanese Tea Garden and see the sites around the park.
	From the Concourse we will drive the length of Golden Gate Park to the famous and recently renovated Cliff House for lunch at 1 PM. Seafood is the specialty but the menu has many other choices. Hopefully it will be a clear day and we can enjoy the view of the Pacific Ocean and the entrance to San Francisco Bay.
	Not too far away from the Cliff House is “Lands End.” On a promontory on Land’s End is the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, a gift to San Francisco of the Francophile wife of a sugar baron, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. She befriended Auguste Rodin so the museum contains several copies of Rodin’s works, including The Thinker and The Burgers of Calais. The location affords a wonderful view of downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate and the Golden Gate Bridge.
	The Golden Gate Bridge is indeed not plated with gold but is named after The Golden Gate strait, the entrance to San Francisco Bay. It was named by an early US explorer after the Chrysopylae, or Golden Horn in Constantinople, modern Istanbul. The Bridge was completed in 1937 and was the longest suspension bridge at the time. We will drive across the Bridge and stop at an overlook on the north side. Weather permitting, it affords a tremendous view of the Bridge, the Golden Gate, and San Francisco. From here we will return to Davis over another bridge spanning the Bay, the Richmond - San Rafael Bridge