The country mice go to the city

It was truly a case of the country hicks going to the big city.

For you old enough to remember, is was like when the cartoon country mice went to visit their city cousins.

Last week, Nicole and I took a trip to the big city of Sacramento. It was for some serious business, but when the country mice go to the city, there’s always some comedy involved.

It started right away.

Parking.

With thousands upon thousands of state employees in Sacramento, don’t even try to get into a parking garage. They are all full by early in the morning.

So that leaves the famed “street parking.”

The first spot looked amazing. Pulled right in and realized it was 30 minute parking.

Next stop.

About a half-mile from where our first meeting was to take place, we finally found street parking that allows more than two hours. Given we had a full day ahead, that’s what we needed.

And then came the “parking app” situation.

Huh?

Turns out you can’t even put a credit card in these parking meters. Nope, you have to download an app. Luckily, I have a tech savvy wife or I’d probably have just taken the ticket.

She figured out how to do all of this newfangled stuff and we were street legal, so to speak, but quite a distance from that first meeting. Luckily, we country folk try to get to places early just in case issues like parking apps arise.

So we set out on foot in the concrete jungle to find out where that first meeting was located. We were so early, we had time to take a look around the state capitol, a building that has been under renovations for a long time.

The have completed the renovations in the “old” part of the building and it’s an amazing thing. The restoration is top quality and really paints the picture of the history of California. The grounds, too, are wonderful; mowed to perfection.

The greatest thing I saw, though, was the loads and loads of school buses bringing students to see their state capitol. This is a tradition that has been going on for eons and it’s one that is important in the educational process.

Now back to that first meeting.

We were waiting on one other person and stood there for a while as this line continued to grow and grow. For us, the biggest “security” line around here is getting into the courthouse. But in Sacramento, getting into the office building where the senators work is akin to going through an airport.

Needless to say, we were a bit late for our meeting, but it still went well.

During all of this, we were also doing a lot of walking — in the concrete jungle. Us hicks are used to walking on dirt paths and over the river and through the woods. But in Sacramento, everything is concrete or hard floors inside buildings.

After finally getting into and out of the building where the senators work, we were off to a discreet building that generally houses the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — with the exception of the top floor.

That floor is occupied by GoBiz, the state’s economic development arm and our destination.

As we walked into the building, it just seemed different.

The security guards insisted upon getting our identifications and they had a lot of questions.

All I knew is we had an appointment at GoBiz but they seemed insistent upon someone coming down from the top floor. While waiting for our escorts to come down, we had to go through even more security.

When we finally were on the elevator, it was explained it is generally a federal building, which means tighter security and even more uptight security guards.

In the end, we had our meeting and were finally able to begin our trek back to the car. Nicole had wisely added a few more dollars via the parking app so we didn’t get a ticket on the already outrageous cost to park a car on a public street.

Alas, we were back to the car and finally were able to head to our hotel — the downtown Holiday Inn.

The decision to book a room there may have been the best one we made.

This particular hotel is located in the heart of downtown Sacramento. Just out the back door of the place, there’s a walkway that goes under the interstate and leads to Old Town Sacramento. We had been there once before and wanted to go back.

Into the concrete jungle we returned, nosing around the area and trying to figure out where in the world we might get some dinner. We decided on the riverboat that is both a hotel and restaurant.

It was an excellent choice. The food was simply outstanding. But there was one issue — the mashed potatoes. For the first time in my life, Nicole delivered me the bad news: “These mashed potatoes are better than yours.”

I’m not sure what she thought I was going to say, but I agreed wholeheartedly.

You see, Nicole regularly tells people she married me for my mashed potatoes. It’s almost to the point where I’m convinced that was the case. That’s how good those mashed potatoes were on that listing boat, which really made the bathroom awkward.

But I’ll take a listing boat that has food that good.

After dinner, we walked on more concrete and explored a little bit of the downtown area of Sacramento, including where the Kings play. It is a great setup they have down there with walkable areas, activities for people of all ages and just a good atmosphere.

It was also fun to be in a place where there are activities happening all of the time. There are lively restaurants and bars that were hopping and moms pushing their small children around in strollers.

For us country mice, it was certainly a different place to be — and it was fun.

We then took our final stroll on the concrete and headed back to the hotel to collapse. In total, we strolled a little over five miles in one day.

Our feet could feel our pain.

We’ve walked that much in a day many times, but this time, our tootsies were so sore it was ridiculous. I am convinced it’s because we were in that concrete jungle the entire time and our poor little country feet were not used to that kind of city punishment.

But it was worth it; both taking care of the business for which we traveled — and being city mice for a day.

Greg Little is editor of the Mariposa Gazette and can be reached at greg@mariposagazette.com