Text 9541, 66 rader
Skriven 2014-02-05 22:53:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: sacramento 147
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Breakfast - sad fruit, sad pastry. A cheery attendant who
greets all comers, hoping for a tip. We just turned tail
and left, hoping for better pickings out on the economy.

What's to do on a nice sunny but cool day but take a look at
Old Sacramento, which on the face of it is a nice stroll
along a pedestrian street down to the river. Well, it's
nothing to write home about, the walk taking one through a
slightly dubious area into a rather down-and-out mall and
then across under the freeway to the tourist area, which we
found seriously underwhelming. I think we stopped for some
kind of snacks at some point, but my memory is wiped on
this.

The Crocker Museum is a pretty nice facility, befitting a
greater city perhaps. I enjoyed the physical plant and some
of the California modern work but found the huge collection
of 19th century locally produced landscapes rather boring -
in this it reminded me of the Oakland museum only not as
interesting. A good overview of European art from the middle
ages on, with a focus on Dutch and Flemish works of the 18th
century and a quite fascinating though confusingly arranged
collection of 20th century glass. Also a neat origami
collection next to a small but select gallery of
pen-and-inks, both I think temporary exhibitions.

We gave the place its full due and were peckish, though not
enough to give over to the blandishments of the school caf.
Instead, we headed down to Grange, because it's not that far
a walk from the museum, and the Lucky Something burger is
said to be one of the best in town. We were greeted and
seated in a high-ceilinged pleasant techno sort of room and
handed ... brunch menus. It turns out that though it was
just Saturday, they were serving that horrible godforsaken
meal, so it was my turn to be in a mood;, I refrained from
ordering food and just stuck with beer.

Luckily, the burger appears on the brunch menu, so Lilli's
little heart was satisfied. When it came, it was indeed a
pretty good burger, not quite as rare as hoped, big enough
that I had more than a taste of it. With this she had a
Rhone blend 11 from Neyers, a caricature of the Grenache-
Syrah quaffers we have become accustomed to in the last
30 or so years. I doubted that it should ever have been
bottled, much less offered under that supposedly prestigious
label.

My first beer, a Ruhstaller Kolsch, just didn't do the job -
it smelled like nothing and tasted like nothing. Might have
been fine if it was 90 outside, but it was maybe 55, and my
fault for ordering it, but to do me credit I had originally
asked for something more interesting which was out.

A glass of North Coast Old 38 Stout, rich with roasty malts,
thick with notes of coffee and chocolate, helped my
disposition immensely.

After what turned out to be an okay meal we were forgotten
for half an hour so I went up to the bar to ask for the tab.
The staff were suitably embarrassed, and we got a sizable
discount off our bill, which brought the total well into the
reasonable range.

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