4. Dog friendly city

I’ve never had a dog moving to Sacramento. I saw the occasional cute dog tied to a pole outside coffee shops in the Bay, or walking on the street, but here in Sacramento a lot of places will allow your furry friends to sit with you outside on their patio or other outdoor seating area! Many of them also have dog bowls and  I’ve even heard of Cafe Bernando having dog treats up front for their four legged visitors! There are a good amount of dog parks, even ones with dedicated small dog areas for your little ones to run around. The Rover app has a lot of pet sitters available if you didn’t want to lodge them. There are just a lot of options for your pet care, Vets, groomers, hospitals, and even boutique pet stores! Some of our favorites are The Pet Inn for lodging, Pet Department Store, and Lynn Robie Dog Park.

5. Referrals VS the internet

When we first embarked on home ownership we needed things like handymen, window coverings, and then painters, contractors and other people that help you take care of your home. (I totally admit that we are not handy when it comes to home maintenance. We have aspirations and are getting a bit better, but far from what I would consider adept.) I was given a list of referrals from my real estate agent. When I went to search these businesses there were few reviews if any. I felt like I was taking a crap shoot calling these people. Yelp and Craigslist exist here, but so do Angie’s List and NextDoor. Some people ranged from really terrible to wonderful and have made it to our Go To list. I found that most people find their contractors and such from word of mouth versus the internet. This was a bit disheartening for me as a nerdy type that didn’t have a lot of people to get referrals from initially, but are finding our way. 

6. Activities

Where do you find things to do here? That was my biggest question after we settled in. I looked at Meetup groups and considered joining a kickball group. I didn’t actually end up pursuing any of these. The Meetup group events I saw seemed like they were advertisements to services people were trying to promote (Tango lessons or self defense classes seem really common) businesses and the thought of playing kickball outside in the summer did not seem great.

I eventually joined the Crocker Art Museum that has a good amount of events both in the Museum itself and offsite. Social Media, i.e. Instagram and Facebook has been a very unlikely source of event spotting. Some of my favorite accounts to follow for events are Unseen Heroes and Visit Sacramento. 

This is just one Bay Area transplant’s experience and I’m sure other people have different experiences. If you are a recent transplant I’d like to hear what your experience was like!