Road Trip Through The Sacramento Delta

Yesterday Gerry and I celebrated being married for 29 years and 6 months. We first went to a small craft fair that a couple of my stamping friends were participating in along with some other ladies. It was held at a Straw Hat Pizza in Natomas. Leaving there we drove over towards the airport then took Power Line Road which runs along the east side of the airport to the Garden Highway. We then drove along the Garden Highway which is the levee road along the Sacramento River into Sacramento and stopped at the Crepe Escape on Freeport Blvd and had some lunch. Gerry had the Aloha crepes which was ham, eggs and pineapple with some kind of sauce over the crepe. Potatoes were served with it. (I didn't think to take pictures). I had a dessert crepe with apples, cinnamon, brown sugar and granola and whipped cream on the side.


Leaving there we drove down Freeport into the town of Freeport. This is where the Sacramento Delta begins. It had been several years since we had driven through here and noticed grapes being grown. We crossed over the river at Freeport to the Yolo County side of the river. This is not a very good shot of the river looking across to the Sacramento County side.

Pear Orchard. Pears have been grown in the Delta for a long time. Every year in July there is a Pear Festival in Courtland which is on the Sacramento County side of the river. Years ago we went to the Festival. People come from all over and the tiny town is overwhelmed with people and cars.

The Courtland bridge to cross over back to Sacramento County. The two ends of the bridge fold up so bigger/taller ships or boats can pass through. This is the route taken by ships going to and leaving the Port of Sacramento to go to the Pacific Ocean.

Oops, not a good picture. I mistakenly uploaded this one. It is looking across the Courtland Bridge to the Sacramento side.

A better shot. On our way back we took this bridge to get over to the Sacramento side.

This is the first of two ferries we took to cross the river. It goes from the Yolo County side to Grand Island.

It is called the J. Mack Ferry and is run and maintained by Cal Trans (State of California).

Heading back to the Yolo side.

Waiting for the ferry to get back over.

There it is.

A small boat crossing behind the ferry. There are huge sign posts on the side of the river telling boaters to not cross in front of the ferry.

There are 2 control rooms on the ferry with 1 pilot. This is the one facing Grand Island.

The ferry is pulled by a cable to go in either direction. This is why boaters cannot pass in front of a ferry proceeding across the river.

We are on the ferry going across to the other side.

More vineyards.

This is the Ryder Island ferry, much larger than the Grand Island ferry. That ramp sticking up at the end of the ferry is lowered when it gets to either side so cars can drive on or off the ferry. There were 2 Cal Trans employees on this ferry, 1 in the pilot house and 1 down on the deck.

The Rio Vista bridge. The middle portion of the bridge rises completely up for ships to pass through.

This little park area is located at the river's edge in Rio Vista.

Another view of the Rio Vista bridge.

It was here in Rio Vista where a whale made its way up the river and lingered here for several days. It was named Humphrey. Then about 3 years ago or so another whale and her calf made their way up the Sacramento River. They actually made their way up to the Port of Sacramento where they lingered for several days and then stayed here around the Rio Vista area before they were manuvered back down the river to the ocean. The mother was injured and I think the calf was too. It was quite an ordeal and people lined the river in different spots to watch the whales and the efforts to move them out of the area.

The Rio Vista City Hall located at the river's edge. Notice the sand bags next to the bench. When it is high tide there is sometimes flooding. I believe Rio Vista is the largest town on the river. For years every summer they held a Crawfish Festival. I believe that festival has been moved to another location. We went down one summer and it was awful. Thousands of people show up and there were people drunk over the place, fights breaking out, etc. We decided it was not something we wanted to do again.

Here's a monument for Humphrey the whale.

Before we left Rio Vista we stopped at the local bakery and got some water to drink and some goodies to eat later. We took the Ryder Island Ferry again back to the Yolo County side of the river. We were on Ryder Island going to Rio Vista. We were going to take the Grand Island ferry again then decided to just stay on the highway and get around where we could take the Courtland bridge.

I don't remember what bridge this was.

We crossed over the Courtland bridge to get back to the Sacramento side.

Getting back into Sacramento, we drove through Courtland, Hood and Freeport. Further down the river on the Sacramento side is the town of Locke. This is a town founded by the Chinese laborers who worked on building the levees. It is a national monument now.

After we got into Sacramento, we stopped at Oto's Market. I needed to get some rice and we got bento boxes for dinner. It was after 5pm by then and there wasn't much left of the bentos. I got a Huli Huli chicken dinner and Gerry got a Korean steak bento. We also got a small container of Ahi Poke and some extra rice. Gerry said his dinner was very good, the meat was very tender. We had our goodies we got at Rio Vista bakery for breakfast this morning.

It was a beautiful day on the Delta although it was pretty windy. And a most enjoyable day just being together!!