SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity

Huge restored locomotives you can walk right up to (and into), in Old Sacramento. Train-obsessed kids lose their minds here, and on weekends a real excursion train runs along the river.

Gold Rush Sacramento in Old Sacramento, and the people who run the Underground Tours of the buried streets below it. The tour is the part school-age kids remember.

Gold Rush streets on the river with wooden boardwalks and old-fashioned candy shops, a block from the railroad and history museums. Start at the visitor center on 2nd Street and just wander.

A café in a garden yard under old fruit trees, with picnic tables, Adirondack chairs and room for kids to wander. It's a short walk over the Tower Bridge from Old Sacramento.

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).

A British pub in Old Sacramento for fish and chips a short walk from the Railroad Museum, with a kids' menu that includes a single banger and mash.