Sacramento

The California State Railway Museum here in Sacramento is really impressive. A lot of effort has gone into making the exhibits look truly realistic.

My favourite was a sleeper car from the mid-20th century complete with the rocking motion and dim lighting you would have experienced on board travelling at 50mph in the middle of the night. I even started whispering so as not to disturb the sleeping guests in their bunks.

There's a great playroom with Thomas and Chugginton play tables and a toy train exhibit on the second floor.

There are heaps of information boards and exhibits covering the creation of the first transcontinental railway (one of the wonders of the modern era) but I didn't get to take many of those in - the boys were way too excited to stand still at just one exhibit.

The only disappointment in the place was the bodgerama 20-minute film that was meant to be about how the railway transformed life in the west but was like a bad 80s soap opera done in period costume.

A quick walk through the old town and waterfront area showed us that they've done an impressive job restoring this zone to a goldrush-era look, with the timber floorboard shopfronts and wide dirt 'roads' etc.

I would have liked to visit the museum that covered the gold rush but the kids were getting jumpy.

So we went back to where we'd parked Bessie and instead checked out the Red Bull Xtreme Sports Motocross action that was kicking up dust directly beside us.