Roadtrip 2006: Thursday
Back on track once again, I drove up to see the govermental head of California today. After a moderately-lengthed drive, I found myself in the big town of Sacrmeneto, wine capital of America.
My first stop was back in Old Town Sacremento. While not haas 'period' as Columbia, is nevertheless a fun experiance. I foudn some excellent stores I missed last time, like the Hat shop(these had scottish bonnets too, butnot in my size :p ) and the always-excellent Toy Knights store (complete with meusem!). The nice thing about old town is that you can find almost anything there if you look hard enough.
Eventually 10 o'clock rolled around and I was able to visit the California Militiary muesem. Containing military artifacts all the way back to the 1700s, the museum covered everything form our Civil War contributations to world war II. It really amazes me just how much captured enemy material our GIs have managed to bring back to Califronia. In this week I've seen eveything from Japanese NCO katanas to Russisan heavy machine guns. There is even a collection of WWII 'hate belts' consisting of various NCO and officer insignia of the enemy woven into combat attire.
(Side note: for those who are'nt hsitory buffs, Califronia was 'offically' prevented from sending federal troops to the war due to russia and mexico, but was allowed to creat volunteer companies to be assigned to other state regiements to help them fufill recruitments qoutas. That means somwhere around 17,000 Californians fought under the flags of other union states. Three of the generals at gettysburg were also californian, altough they were mostly recent immigrants to the state)
I had a lot of fun at the museum, but I had still not found me goal for the day..to find the flag of the Massachutus 100, Califronia's most decorated civil war unit. I heard that the flag was at the captiol building, so I hopped up my feet and walked over to the capitol. Now California's capitol is the only one I've every visited, but it strikes as a little overdone. Almost every tree in the park surronding the building is dedicated to something.It gets really funny when you consider just how many duplicates of trees/monuments/parks/rocks/benches we have deicated to these things. No disrespect to our minority police officers, but it's kind of wierd to see a police officer memorial, a hispanic police officer memorial, a latin amercian police officer memorial and a mexican american police officer memorial. All that aside, the inside of the capitol building is very nice. After confiming that my compass was't a bomb, security waved me trough and I was able to view the entire first floor of the building. THe first floor contians the orginal offices from 1906, whcih can be viewed in their orignal setups. The governator's office is also on the first floor, which tempted me. All I needed was a sign stating 'WHERE"S THE PRO-FERRET LEGESLATION YOU PROMISED!?!' and I so would've camped out. All that aisde, it was a nice tour, but I could'nt find the flag for the life of me.
Since I could'nt achieve my main goal of the day, I moved on to me second one: To see Ft. Sutter. Fort Sutter is the location of what was once the biggest and busiest outpost in Claifornia prior to the GOld Rush. Founded by Sacrmento hero John Sutter, the fort has been rebuilt and is staffed by Renactors to teach about 1800s living and trade. I had an absolute blast checking out all the pople at work and showing students/tourists about thier Era. I was like a pernament renfaire for hte 1800s. My only disapointment was the fact that we were not allowed to walk along the walls. I really feel that you don't get a sense for a fortification at all until you've stood on the walls and looked out.
Having now ran late into the day, I then retired to my Uncle and Aunt's home in Citrus Hieghts. My little cousin Sophie was intrqiued, but shy to see me again and I had soem good times catching up with them. I also got a sense for just how much tea one houshold can contain :)
My first stop was back in Old Town Sacremento. While not haas 'period' as Columbia, is nevertheless a fun experiance. I foudn some excellent stores I missed last time, like the Hat shop(these had scottish bonnets too, butnot in my size :p ) and the always-excellent Toy Knights store (complete with meusem!). The nice thing about old town is that you can find almost anything there if you look hard enough.
Eventually 10 o'clock rolled around and I was able to visit the California Militiary muesem. Containing military artifacts all the way back to the 1700s, the museum covered everything form our Civil War contributations to world war II. It really amazes me just how much captured enemy material our GIs have managed to bring back to Califronia. In this week I've seen eveything from Japanese NCO katanas to Russisan heavy machine guns. There is even a collection of WWII 'hate belts' consisting of various NCO and officer insignia of the enemy woven into combat attire.
(Side note: for those who are'nt hsitory buffs, Califronia was 'offically' prevented from sending federal troops to the war due to russia and mexico, but was allowed to creat volunteer companies to be assigned to other state regiements to help them fufill recruitments qoutas. That means somwhere around 17,000 Californians fought under the flags of other union states. Three of the generals at gettysburg were also californian, altough they were mostly recent immigrants to the state)
I had a lot of fun at the museum, but I had still not found me goal for the day..to find the flag of the Massachutus 100, Califronia's most decorated civil war unit. I heard that the flag was at the captiol building, so I hopped up my feet and walked over to the capitol. Now California's capitol is the only one I've every visited, but it strikes as a little overdone. Almost every tree in the park surronding the building is dedicated to something.It gets really funny when you consider just how many duplicates of trees/monuments/parks/rocks/benches we have deicated to these things. No disrespect to our minority police officers, but it's kind of wierd to see a police officer memorial, a hispanic police officer memorial, a latin amercian police officer memorial and a mexican american police officer memorial. All that aside, the inside of the capitol building is very nice. After confiming that my compass was't a bomb, security waved me trough and I was able to view the entire first floor of the building. THe first floor contians the orginal offices from 1906, whcih can be viewed in their orignal setups. The governator's office is also on the first floor, which tempted me. All I needed was a sign stating 'WHERE"S THE PRO-FERRET LEGESLATION YOU PROMISED!?!' and I so would've camped out. All that aisde, it was a nice tour, but I could'nt find the flag for the life of me.
Since I could'nt achieve my main goal of the day, I moved on to me second one: To see Ft. Sutter. Fort Sutter is the location of what was once the biggest and busiest outpost in Claifornia prior to the GOld Rush. Founded by Sacrmento hero John Sutter, the fort has been rebuilt and is staffed by Renactors to teach about 1800s living and trade. I had an absolute blast checking out all the pople at work and showing students/tourists about thier Era. I was like a pernament renfaire for hte 1800s. My only disapointment was the fact that we were not allowed to walk along the walls. I really feel that you don't get a sense for a fortification at all until you've stood on the walls and looked out.
Having now ran late into the day, I then retired to my Uncle and Aunt's home in Citrus Hieghts. My little cousin Sophie was intrqiued, but shy to see me again and I had soem good times catching up with them. I also got a sense for just how much tea one houshold can contain :)
posted by WanderSoul | 7:36 AM
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