Sacramento Boat Show

There is no need to go to Mississippi to stay on a houseboat and authentic history. The Delta King is boarding right now in Sacramento.

Guests of the Delta King enjoy a great river view, excellent food and drinks and a cabin that is quite unique. But unlike those early passengers, you'll have to settle for a landscape that remains fairly constant. The Delta King is not going anywhere anytime soon.

But he did not need. This historic 285-foot boat is docked along the Old Sacramento River, which today has been transformed into a collection of hip restaurants, eclectic shops and trendy night spots that attract millions of tourists and local residents.

The Delta King and his twin, the Delta Queen, was baptized in 1927, the year when the ships began traveling between San Francisco and Sacramento. The journey lasted more than 10 hours and cabins are available for $ 3.50. But for a dollar, you can bring your own blanket and find a place to sleep on the loading deck. This service river continued for about 13 years until the boats were moved to San Francisco Bay and used by the U.S. Navy as net tenders, floating barracks, troop transports, hospital ships.

After the Second World War, the Delta Queen was sold and moved to Mississippi, where she still works. And therein lies the reason for the Delta King will travel too much these days: the Delta Queen has taken the King of the Delta engines. The Delta King was towed from.

As if that was not enough for the indignity of the king, the boat sank in the Bay of San Francisco in 1982 and remained underwater for 18 months. It took a five-year renovation to restore the Delta King in his tip-top condition present.

The elegance and expertise are evident as soon as one enters the lobby where the rich red oak paneling and fixtures create a feeling of opulence. If you remember the grand staircase of the Titanic, the dining room has a similar meaning with oak railings and an elegant setting. It is easy to imagine how this extraordinary journey of the river must have been for 1920 of revelers eager to escape a hard week at work to enjoy a taste of forbidden fruit (ie alcoholic beverages).

The cabins on the Delta King are actually twice the size of the back rooms of river-boat days. There are 44 rooms, situated on a couple of bridges overlooking the river, or a view of current activities along the waterfront in Old Sacramento. The river views are slightly more expensive.

We found even the largest rooms small, but not smaller than expected for a cabin aboard a riverboat faith. Our room had a queen bed on one side, a single bed, second, and a tiny bathroom - with a toilet tank unusual six feet high - in the middle. Color cable TV was available on the queen side. The cabin was a pleasant place to take off your shoes and read the newspaper or relax - but there was much to discover a few steps from the dock of the Delta King.

Old Sacramento, a local official visitor told us, was once the skid row in Sacramento until, in 1960, a major redevelopment project has been launched to restore historic buildings and attract new businesses region. As he explained, someone made a huge mistake to Interstate 5 just three blocks from prime waterfront Sacramento, until the redevelopment, which had effectively cut here very picturesque and historic remains of downtown.

The history of Old Sacramento dates back to 1839 when it became the first commercial colony in the area. The discovery of gold near Coloma in 1849, the business community along the Sacramento River began to prosper. Hotels, saloons, bathrooms.