I love Capitol Park.
First of all, the flowers. The International World Peace Rose Garden, which sits at the corner of the park near 15 and L, is beautiful. I've written a separate review for it, which you can check out here: https://bit.ly/3rD4qAq
I'm a huge fan of the desert garden, which lays near 15 and N. I'm from the mojave desert, so one of my favorite things to do here is to take pictures with the cacti, and then send them to my older sisters with messages like, "I'm almost to your house, be there in ten minutes!"
Last time I was here, I found a cactus I did not recognize. I sent a picture to my mom, asking, "Do you know what this is called?" She replied, "Jumping Cholla." I took pictures of what I thought was a rare bloom, and later realized was a fake flower. Lol. There were lots of opuntia and barrel cacti in bloom, though.
My daughter messaged me to ask what I was doing, and when I told her I was walking around Capitol Park, she asked if I could send some pictures of the Rose Garden to show her friends who she was with.
You betcha... I had been heading towards Old Sac, and had already reached 9 and L, but when my kid asks for a picture of a flower, I cannot say no. I sent like 30.
There are many kinds of trees at Capitol Park, each labeled with its name on a little silver plaque. So, I should know the name of my favorite tree, but I don't. But it's the one with the yellow/red-veined flowers that like like fuchsia. There are several of them on L between 12th and 13th.
There are a few redwoods here, technically, but they are nowhere near as impressive as you can find elsewhere in NorCal. They are like sample-sized sequoias.
If you're a fan of memorials, Capitol Park has you covered. There are lots of statues and war memorials here. Plus, of course, there's the Capitol itself, which doubles as a free state history museum.
Whenever I walk through all the orange trees near the Capitol, I can't help but flash back to bringing my little sister, her first husband, and their baby to stroll around here when they were living with me, about 14 years ago.
"Where's Martin?" Asked my sister. We both looked around, but couldn't spot him, until he jumped out of an orange tree with an orange in hand.
"Um, I'm not sure if you're allowed to eat those..."
He didn't care. He looked like a kid in a candy store. This was the most excited I had ever seen him. "I've never seen an orange tree before," he said.
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