When Lauren was in town in June, we decided to play tourists in the city I call home, Sacramento. For those of you unfamiliar with Sacramento, it's the State Capitol of California about 1.5 hr drive from San Francisco. The City of Trees for its impressive urban forests, and we’re also America’s Farm to Fork Capital, local restaurants and grocery stores in Sacramento are all about sourcing local farm fresh ingredients.
My city is also home of the NBA team the Sacramento Kings, although I’m a Lakers fan, Ssh don’t tell the locals. I love that Midtown Sacramento is very walkable and super bike friendly, seriously there are bike lanes everywhere around here along with super wide sidewalks. Even though its get crazy hot here, like in the 100's all the trees give off a great canopy of shade and make it feel much cooler on those triple digit days.
Lauren and I had such a fun weekend, exploring Sacramento together, it was fun to try out some new restaurants and sites together! It was so much fun sharing with her why I love Sacramento so much! We’re mixing up our Girlfriends Guides Guide and sharing our weekend itinerary with you, Lauren is going first sharing our Friday, and I’m sharing what we did on Saturday!
Friday in Sacramento
When I was presented with the opportunity to visit Sacramento for the second time in two months, I jumped at the opportunity immediately. Sacramento holds a special place in my heart because it is the first city that I ever visited in California and of course because it’s where Katrina lives! Though I was only in town for a long weekend, we packed in a ton of activities and I got to see even more of this beautiful, vibrant city.
We started the day getting breakfast from the new cafe called Toasted. It’s a restaurant that sells various types of fancy toast, both sweet and savory. They have a pre-set menu or you can build your own toast creation. We chose to build our own, but their in-house selections sounded delicious as well.
We then ventured to the coffee shop, Pachamama, and got lattes to go with our toast. The decor was beautiful inside with pops of Tiffany blue paired with natural wood elements and exposed brick. It was a great place to do some brainstorming because the vibe was great.
After breakfast we hit the pavement and strolled down Oak Park to visit their many unique shops. This is an up and coming area in Sacramento and has various restaurants and shops to appeal to everyone. I loved the unique items in each shop.
The next stop was to the famous ice cream shop, Gunther’s, that has been around since 1941. Walking inside was like a time warp with what I could imagine to be exactly how it looked in the 40’s. Outside of their house made ice cream, they also sell shaved ice, freezes, and sandwiches. Being my first trip here, I was so impressed with the quality of the ice cream. They had so many different flavors, some that are hard to find in commercial ice cream shops (hello Butter Brickle!), so this was a real treat! It was a hot day, so the ice cream was the perfect way to cool off. We sat outside under an umbrella and enjoyed people-watching and chatting.
After ice cream, we headed to the WAL Public Market to check out their shops. This is an indoor shopping center with unique shops, coffee shops and restaurants. The shops here vary from vintage clothing to a record shop to a rug shop.
At this point in the day, it was time to check into the hotel that we were staying at that night, the Hyatt Regency Sacramento. This hotel was in a perfect location with close proximity to all the great spots that Sacramento has to offer. The hotel is located directly across from the state capital and we even had a perfect view of it from our room! The hotel has so many awesome amenities such as a heated outdoor pool with cabanas, a cocktail bar, restaurant and a wellness spa.
After relaxing for a bit, we switched gears and headed out for the evening. Our first stop was happy hour at Revival at The Sawyer, the rooftop bar located at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel. We are all about rooftop bars and try to fit them into all of our trips! The inside of Revival was incredible and so beautiful. It was very sleek and modern with touches of glamour. Our drinks were delicious and the views from the rooftop were awesome! The vibe was perfect and the music playing there set the scene just right.
Once happy hour was over, we headed to dinner at OBO Italian Table & Bar. Their focus is on simple, nourishing flavors of rustic Italy. Once again, I was not disappointed with the decor or their artisan comfort food. We ordered the “Dinner for Two” which includes a bottle of wine!
Afterward, we headed back to the hotel to have a poolside blog planning session where we exchanged ideas for our blogs and began planning out our next projects. Our girl's trips are always fun and adventurous, but we also sneak in a little work here and there.
When we were done with our blog chat, we were in the mood for a late night sweet bite, so we headed to Rick’s Desserts which is an old-school diner serving a vast variety of desserts. They are open late at night, and when we got there at 11:30 pm the line was nearly out the door (always a good sign!). Let me tell you, their dessert was delicious! We had the strawberry cream cake and peanut butter cookie. It was the perfect ending to a fun-filled day!
Saturday in Sacramento
One of the things I was really excited about doing with Lauren was using JUMP Bike to get around Sacramento! As I mentioned earlier Sacramento is super bike friendly. JUMP Bike recently launched in Sacramento and they are so much fun! They are semi - motorized bikes allowing you to get around faster in an eco-friendly way. Basically the faster you pedal, the faster you’ll go!! You reserve your bike through the JUMP Bike app and pick your bike up and then you're off to explore!
It was such a fun ride; we laughed pretty much the entire time on the bikes. We rode our JUMP Bikes almost the entire day around Sacramento. We loved JUMP Bike so much we want to pass along the fun! We partnered with JUMP Bike to give you a Free 30 Minute Ride! Download the App and register to locate the nearest JUMP Bike and use code SACGUIDE30 for 30 minutes FREE!
We had a blast on these bikes. We rode our bikes from The Hyatt to Temple Coffee on S Street and placed our bikes on hold while hanging out and enjoyed our lattes. Temple is one of my favorite coffee spots in Sacramento and I love thier S Street location.
One of my favorite new to me places for brunch in Sacramento is Paragary's. The food and ambiance are both incredible! We couldn't resist a photo-op with our bikes parked outside of Paragary's.
After brunch we headed to the Midtown Farmers Market, it's one of my favorite Farmers Markets in Sacramento. There’s a great mix of fruit and produce, flowers and craft items all together. It’s a great spot to people watch.
After the Farmers Market, we rode the JUMP Bikes around the State Capitol. It was so much fun! If you're a California native and never visited the State Capitol, it's a must! Capitol Park is so lovely and serene, its filled lush trees from all over the country and monuments including the International Peace Rose Garden.
Me and my girl! We have so much fun together!!
After our time spent in Sacramento, Lauren and I finished our weekend with a shopping day at the Palladio in Folsom! Read more about the fun we had there!
We're so excited about our next girls trip! This time I'm flying to the East Coast. Crossing our fingers we'll be hanging out again soon, drinking lattes, soaking up all the sights and exploring a new to us city together! Check out our recent Girlfriends Guides here: San Francisco, Sonoma, and Chicago.
