For our new Out of Office column, reporter and photographer Brad Branan takes us on a journey to some of his favorite hikes around Lake Tahoe. 

California’s capital was one of the wettest cities in the state during dry Prohibition, home to a rebellious generation who escaped into hidden drinking dens. A century later, there are still plenty of speakeasies in Sacramento if you know where to look. 

Once upon a time — 1959, to be precise — Fairytale Town opened at 3901 Land Park Drive in Sacramento, just four years after Disneyland debuted in Southern California. Almost immediately it was acknowledged, year after year, as one of the region’s top five family amenities — and still is. 

When Off the Beaten Track debuted in early 2021, the Capital Region was tenuously crawling back from the worst pandemic in more than a hundred years. As we poked our heads outside, we wondered which businesses made it out OK, and how did they do it? Their compelling tales were the overriding storylines of those early post-pandemic days, while impacts from COVID-19 stretched throughout OTBT’s run.

Behind a nearly obscured sign on Highway 99 is a 95-year-old bastion of Italian American food and heritage that still offers Spaghetti Monday every week. 

Not quite two years old, the Amador line of Rail Explorers in Ione is a unique, self-motorized way to experience the countryside of Amador County’s historic Mother Lode region.

This isn’t just any park. The McKinley Park rose garden is the setting for countless al fresco weddings, confirmations, quinceañeras and private soirees. It also provided a stunning backdrop for the scene in Sacramento native and filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,” in which the two young lovers own up to their emotions.