Things to Do in Sacramento

"Ornate" and "sweeping" only begin to describe the Crest Theatre, whose rich history extends back to 1912, when it was opened as a vaudeville house. Within its gargantuan auditorium, plush seats perch in subtly curved rows while elaborate lights and a sea-blue ceiling wash the space in ethereal hues. Moviegoers settle into the elegant confines to take in both new and classic films, reading the subtitles in a whisper to stuffed animals that forgot their glasses. Out in the lobby, a richly patterned carpet and bronzed floral motif cover the sprawling space as visitors belly up to the bar and snack on high-quality goodies.

Founded by three Scandinavian families in 1977, Scandia Family Fun Center flings open its doors and invites families in for afternoons of youthful fantasy. Manicured hedges and lush green mounds dot the center’s challenging miniature golf course, while go-karts rumble past on the Stockholm Raceway. The sounds of splashing and laughter not only indicate the birth of a pirate, but also a gentle collision between Baltic Sea bumper boats, accompanied by the crack of speeding baseballs and softballs at the batting cages. The center’s Scandia Screamer lifts passengers 165 feet into the air before accelerating to speeds of 65 mph, while the Swedish Scrambler opts for a more amenable 25 mph. Visitors can also exercise their opposable thumbs at a fully-stocked arcade, visit Scandia's snack bar brimming with pizza, hot dogs, and churros.

A pilot sinks into her cockpit, buckles up, checks the controls, and gets ready for takeoff. The engine hums to life and soon the ground rolls beneath her, until she lifts away and the buildings nearby shrink to the size of dust motes. But there's something unusual with the scene: the pilot isn't old enough to see a PG-13 movie let alone pilot an aircraft. That's because the Aerospace Museum of California doesn't let age become a barrier to flight. Children of all sizes climb into airplanes, pilot virtual jets in simulators, and experiment with the physics of flight while adults do the same, exploring the history of aviation both on Earth and beyond.

More than 37,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor exhibits chronicle everything from the very first airplanes made of cloth and wood to futuristic Mars-destined craft made of space-wood. Some of the museum’s prize possessions include the McDonnell-Douglas A-4C Skyhawk I, better known as one of the Blue Angels’ stunt rides, and the Grumman F-14D Tomcat, just like the one co-starring in the 1986 film Top Gun. The Fun with Physics exhibit hammers home the idea of hands-on learning, letting young engineers play with simple machines, whereas the engine room dishes up eye-candy for motorheads, including specimens from 1910’s Le Rhone to the marvels that propelled the Titan rockets.

One of the most common bowling game interrupters is the human need to ingest food, a dilemma Country Club Lanes West solves by serving savory snacks and crisp beverages inside their bowling facility. Chili fries drizzled with cheese, 6-ounce hamburgers, and slices of pepperoni pizza spring forth from the snack bar to fuel players caught up in high-scoring games and documentarians chronicling their search for the 11th pin. Postbowling celebrations kick off in the Showtime Lounge, where revelers start games of billiards and darts while sipping on a selection of draft brews, including Yuengling, Fat Tire, and Budweiser.

The nonprofit Heidrick Ag History Center harvests the rich history of agricultural machinery and transportation through an extensive collection of vintage tractors and trucks. The 130,000-square-foot space houses both the Hays Antique Truck Museum—home to such artifacts as a one-of-a-kind Breeding steam-powered truck and broccoli steamer from 1916—and the Fred C. Heidrick Antique Ag Collection, an assemblage of olden-day iron horses and golden cows collected over a period of 60 years.

Using skills acquired from his childhood days building his own planes and combines from scraps of wire and wood, Mr. Heidrick himself restored most of the equipment—some of which was formerly little more than heaps of rust—to its original condition. Palettes of green, red, and yellow pop from John Deere tractors from the 1930s to the 1950s, a Deering reaper machine from 1891, and a 120-horsepower Holt built in 1917 to tow artillery during World War I.

Glowing streams of red and green lasers skewer clouds of smoke, scattering as players charge through with Laserforce Gen6 weapons. The 6,000-square-foot arena swells with high-energy music, which sets a steady pace for up to seven teams as they swarm two levels, seeking enemies to blast against the black-lit backdrops. Digital babble drifts from more than 25 games in the arcade, from the sounds of explosive combat in shooting games to the screams of traffic cones in racing simulators such as Super Bikes 2 and Dirty Driving. All-night laser-tag sessions immerse combatants during monthly lock-ins, which let them form teams to practice different defensive strategies, such as guarding the best shooter with a human pyramid.