Rick's Dessert Diner

Square-slice pizza with a T. rex mascot, which is all a dinosaur kid needs to hear. Lots of vegan options too.

A small state museum about California Indian life, with hands-on things for kids, on the same block as Sutter's Fort. Do both in one morning.

A rebuilt 1840s adobe fort in Midtown where kids can poke through the old rooms at their own pace. It's a quick visit, which makes it a pretty good one with school-age kids.

A Midtown taproom with Neapolitan and Detroit-style pizza and a real kids' menu, so the brewery stop works for everybody.

A Midtown Italian and pizza place that local parent guides keep naming, with plenty of pizza and pasta a kid will actually eat.

East Sacramento's favorite park (everyone just says McKinley), with an adventure playground, a separate tot lot and a rose garden next door. Summer brings a wading pool.