One Week Down.

When we left you last time, we were boarding a train from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sacramento California. This was leg number two out of eight total train trips that we'll take during our adventure, and this one our first overnight one as well. Our train was late by about an hour or so and by the time we got settled it was easily 2am mountain time. Dad and I couldn't sleep, so we watched a movie on my laptop called "the skeleton key." I have to say it was a pretty terrible thriller, but it was somewhat entertaining nonetheless. The only other downside of taking a train overnight and not getting sleeper cars, is that you have to find a way to get "comfortable" enough to actually catch some shut eye. This is a task in and of itself, and take synchronization and precise timing when you have two grown men as big as dad and I trying to find a spot to get cozy enough to actually fall asleep. Anyways, we slept a bit and woke up sometime in the early morning to the Nevada desert passing by and ate a bit of grub before moving around our car.

There wasn't much to see from the train compared to the Denver one we took the Rockies, so this train ride was pretty dull other than the people we met along the way. We kept busy by talking to some families, also heading to Sacramento, playing Phase 10 which is our family's favorite card game, and we even had a bit of commentary, as the conductor of the train explained a few of the rare historic landmarks we saw along the way. One of which was the first interstate road to reach from coast to coast. It was called the Lincoln highway and looks almost the size of a sidewalk by today's standards.

Anyways, we got to Sacramento by about 3:30pm pacific time and were exhausted. Without getting any great sleep, we decided that we needed to do a few essential things. 1) laundry: since all of our clothes were running out and we still have two weeks left of our trip. and 2) relax a bit! Therefore, Dad and I jumped in the pool and chilled under the Sacramento sun as it was 104 degrees outside. What a great time to have access to a pool. We later went to old downtown Sacramento to a restaurant called "Fat City," and picked up some dinner and recapped our day. Old Sacramento resembles an old western-style town with an old-timey train station running through it, so it was very "Fival goes West," which I enjoyed. Then we headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime for since tomorrow we were going toward some of the Golden Coast's main attractions in the morning.

Now I know we're behind a bit - but here's the updated playlist to accompany our list of Tate Family attractions and landmarks.


Yellowstone - "Up Around the Bend" ~Creedence Clearwater Revival
Salt Lake City - "ESPN Theme Music from the World Cup" ~Lisle Moore
(A well-known Salt Lake City Composer)
Miscellaneous - "Come on and Ride the Train" ~ Quad City DJ's