Choo choo!
Apr. 19th, 2022 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressToday mek and I ventured forth to...the railroad museum!
This was a suggestion from CanyonWalker, which landed absolutely perfectly because I am a minor train nerd who dates major train nerds. We, obviously, took the train out to the end of the line and walked a wee bit to get to the museum, where we spent a few very nice hours wandering around and looking at all the exhibits.
I do think it was worth the money, just based on the sheer volume of STUFF (including so many actual giant locomotives and train cars, including a cab forward locomotive, which defied processing due to how huge it was. (The cab is at the very front of the locomotive instead of the back, so that steam/soot/what-have-you is not pushed into the cab where the engineers and crew are). I wish I could've gone into more of the exhibits, but I enjoyed the few that were open, and the lovely volunteers who had good information to share. Also I have a new life goal which is to just own a private train car, dang, way cooler than a jet.
The museum suffered from a lack of context and information. There were so many nifty knick-knacks presented alongside the trains...and almost no information about them, sometimes not even identifying what exactly they were. So worth the money, but only because it was huge, and not because it was _thorough_ --sorta the opposite of the American Museum of Tort Law, which was tiny but delightfully information-dense.
...seriously, I need to go to more weird obscure museums though. Anyone have good suggestions?
Post railroad museum, mek and I wandered up and down the shops of Old Sacramento, eventually spending a goodly amount of time in Evangaline's Costume Mansion (basically what the costume parts of the Garment District wish they could be). I bought a mask for mek and several pairs of earrings for myself, because dang do I like weird fabulous giant earrings. I may have to adjust my work gender presentation to allow for them, because I miss getting to wear such delights.
We took a train home --modulo accidentally being on the wrong line for a chunk of time and having to double back-- where we went into quiet mode, quite exhausted from our adventures. Phone games and eating dinner and watching some Unraveled episodes (because Brian David Gilbert is _the cutest_) and once we were more awake, two more episodes of Our Flag Means Death. We've gotten from the subtexty "this show feels kinda gay" part into the straight up textual "oh yeah, we're gay" and I am definitely here for it.
Obviously I love Lucius more than anyone else (although Roach is the prettiest and _obviously_ I have The Strong Feels for Jim and nnnnnnnn who do I have to fight to get a book accurate 12-season series of the Bloody Jack books, with full gay intact? I mean, Jacky Faber has never exactly been ~a pirate~ but she's also not _not_ that and she has so many good adventures, and dang I'm due a reread-slash-finishing the series (because LA Meyer died a few years back and if I read the last book then it's The Last Book, but I think I can handle that for him? Maybe?)
Fuck, I just...have so many feels about pirates and about queers and about queer pirates, yanno? Always has done been my favourite fantasy trope.
Anyways, that's today. Tomorrow will be a rest day, and I might even remember to take a proper shower. I am having a good April vacation, and I hope you're having a good time of things too!
~Sor
MOOP!
This was a suggestion from CanyonWalker, which landed absolutely perfectly because I am a minor train nerd who dates major train nerds. We, obviously, took the train out to the end of the line and walked a wee bit to get to the museum, where we spent a few very nice hours wandering around and looking at all the exhibits.
I do think it was worth the money, just based on the sheer volume of STUFF (including so many actual giant locomotives and train cars, including a cab forward locomotive, which defied processing due to how huge it was. (The cab is at the very front of the locomotive instead of the back, so that steam/soot/what-have-you is not pushed into the cab where the engineers and crew are). I wish I could've gone into more of the exhibits, but I enjoyed the few that were open, and the lovely volunteers who had good information to share. Also I have a new life goal which is to just own a private train car, dang, way cooler than a jet.
The museum suffered from a lack of context and information. There were so many nifty knick-knacks presented alongside the trains...and almost no information about them, sometimes not even identifying what exactly they were. So worth the money, but only because it was huge, and not because it was _thorough_ --sorta the opposite of the American Museum of Tort Law, which was tiny but delightfully information-dense.
...seriously, I need to go to more weird obscure museums though. Anyone have good suggestions?
Post railroad museum, mek and I wandered up and down the shops of Old Sacramento, eventually spending a goodly amount of time in Evangaline's Costume Mansion (basically what the costume parts of the Garment District wish they could be). I bought a mask for mek and several pairs of earrings for myself, because dang do I like weird fabulous giant earrings. I may have to adjust my work gender presentation to allow for them, because I miss getting to wear such delights.
We took a train home --modulo accidentally being on the wrong line for a chunk of time and having to double back-- where we went into quiet mode, quite exhausted from our adventures. Phone games and eating dinner and watching some Unraveled episodes (because Brian David Gilbert is _the cutest_) and once we were more awake, two more episodes of Our Flag Means Death. We've gotten from the subtexty "this show feels kinda gay" part into the straight up textual "oh yeah, we're gay" and I am definitely here for it.
Obviously I love Lucius more than anyone else (although Roach is the prettiest and _obviously_ I have The Strong Feels for Jim and nnnnnnnn who do I have to fight to get a book accurate 12-season series of the Bloody Jack books, with full gay intact? I mean, Jacky Faber has never exactly been ~a pirate~ but she's also not _not_ that and she has so many good adventures, and dang I'm due a reread-slash-finishing the series (because LA Meyer died a few years back and if I read the last book then it's The Last Book, but I think I can handle that for him? Maybe?)
Fuck, I just...have so many feels about pirates and about queers and about queer pirates, yanno? Always has done been my favourite fantasy trope.
Anyways, that's today. Tomorrow will be a rest day, and I might even remember to take a proper shower. I am having a good April vacation, and I hope you're having a good time of things too!
~Sor
MOOP!
no subject
on 2022-04-19 06:55 am (UTC)I took a bunch of pictures during that visit but never did get around to formatting them for posting. Several are of that monstrous cab-forward engine you noted. The cab-forward design was to protect engineers from passing out when the train steamed through tunnels in the Sierra Nevada near Donner Pass.
..."Tunnels in the Donner Pass?" you might ask. Ha, I've got pictures of those in another blog, this one from 4 years ago!
no subject
on 2022-04-19 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2022-04-19 06:28 pm (UTC)Not so obscure, but my favorite outing in CA is always The Exploratorium -- I suspect you've been there, but if not, it's very recommended.
As for trains, if you have any interest in Train (and Train Museum) destinations, my FIL is a very serious Train Guy: building model trains is his primary hobby (at least, if I count the boats as a lifestyle instead), and he tends to build his trips around trains and train museums. So I can probably get recommendations if you'd like sometime.