GREAT LIVING IN SACRAMENTO

I am writing this post in response to a Forbes article about the most miserable cities in the nation...and Sacramento was on their list.

Sacramento has several aliases - some fun, some accurate. We are:

The River City
Camellia City
Cowtown
Sacratomato
City of Trees
We are the "River City" because we are nestled at the fork of the Sacramento and American rivers. The Delta breezes cool our city each evening. We celebrate the rivers great boating weekends, the Jazz Festival in Old Sacramento which rests at the edge of the Sacramento River. In the hot summer days, we coast in rubber rafts and inner tubes down the American river. Many of our local wineries have situated themselves on land adjacent to the rivers.

Camellias and azaleas love Sacramento. Camellias start their show in early spring, pink and white blooms exploding in yards and parks all over Sacramento. There is a beautiful Camellia grove planted in Capitol Park that is almost a century old. When Camellias have had their say, azaleas take over and show off through the summer.

Many refer to Sacramento as the Cowtown. It is hard to tell where this really came from, but it is fun. It shows our humorous side. Many think of Sacramento as a small town and in many ways it still is. We treasure our small town status.

Sacratomato is probably a reference to the tomatoes that can be found during tomato season along the roads. After all, Campbell Soup is in south Sacramento and the tomato trucks aren't careful about a few tomatos choosing not to stay with the truck during those turns!

We are proud that we have more trees per capita than any other city in the world, Paris being a close second. (Some will say Paris is first...I prefer to believe those who claim it is Sacramento.) When traveling through the city, tree tops are the predominant view.

Now, there are other wonderful things about Sacramento. It has developed a fantastic night life with midtown hopping most nights. We are becoming a draw for "green" companies. We are one of the most diverse cities in the nation. Our weather is perfect...we have four seasons, all of them mild. Our springs are beautiful with temperatures in the 60's and 70's. Our summers are a dry heat and average in the 90's. Our falls last all the way through October with wonderful temperatures in the 70's and 80's. Our winters are mild, with lows in the 30's and highs in the 50's.

Finally, and what many like about Sacramento is our proximity to other entertainment venues. We are 2 hours from Lake Tahoe and some of the best skiing in the country. We are 2 hours from San Francisco, a city that speaks for itself. Enjoy well known wineries in the Napa and foothill regions - less than an hour from Sacramento. Enjoy the California coast, again only hours from Sacramento.

Come visit our beautiful city and find out just how wrong Forbes was!