California Automobile Museum

A riverside beer garden with a big lawn, lawn games and fire pits, plus wood-fired pizza. Kids eat free on Mondays; they just have to stay at your table.

A solar-system playground built so kids of every ability can use it, with ramps, spinners and separate areas for babies, preschoolers and big kids. There's a pond with fishing piers too.

A big art museum that actually plans for kids: Tot Land downstairs is for play, books and making things, and there are loaner strollers at the door. Do the galleries first and save Tot Land for the reward.

An old-fashioned burger and soft-serve stand from 1963, still family run, for burgers, shakes and floats.

The easy pick for Old Sacramento: every room has its own bedroom door (bedtime solved), and you're across the street from the boardwalks.

Sleep on a 1927 paddlewheel riverboat in Old Sacramento, a short walk from the Railroad Museum. Staterooms are small and most sleep two, so it works best with one kid (book one of the queen-plus-twin rooms).