Amerihost Inn Redding

(With apologies to Carly Simon!) Well, it's not ALL just waiting. There's obsessively checking the weather in Rome; revising the packing list; dithering about which luggage to use; shopping for must-haves, and then returning them...Very important step today: got my husband set up to use Skype! Only one big hurdle remains: SHOES!

Any delusions that we would have a lot of sun while in California were dashed pretty soon. You may have read about the bad storm that moved through CA bringing high winds and torrential rain. We rode the storm out at an RV park near the Klamath River (which fortuantely did not overflow!) and then headed inland towards Redding, CA. We thought things had eased up but we ran into a lot of rain on the ...

... started to snow, but then the sun broke through the clouds and we really did get to see the lake as a brilliant blue--awesome!

We had thought to stop for the night in Medford, but we decided to push on to Red Bluff instead. For a late lunch we stopped in the lovely town of Ashland--it was touristy, but in a fun way. The big draw was the annual Shakespeare ...

... my supervisor and Jean, big boss met us downstairs to escort us to get new pictures taken for our "key cards" It appears the first ones taken were too dark and had to be redone.

We then walked around and met everyone (major who's who people) and the rest of Diane's Unit. I was given a tour of the building and discovered that until I received my "key-card" I could leave my area to go to the restroom but could not re-enter my ...

... us had very bruised shoulders the next day.

Poison oak is a big problem on the trail. Almost everyone has been infected. It starts as itchy little dots that look like mosquito bites and then morphs into huge swollen areas. I thought I was immune at first because 70% of the people had gotten it but not me! Oh was I wrong! I now have it on my legs, arms, and stomach.

Trips:

Lassen National Park- We went to Lassen one of our first ...

... die all the time. In Whiskeytown, they have a really bad problem with Mexican drug cartels growing marijuana in the remote areas of the park. Last year there were some really bad forest fires that happened and these Mexicans guarding their marijuana cropped stayed to protect it and got burned over. They finally called 911 to save themselves and they found all of these assault ...

We are in the planning stages, trying to leave next week to go first to Sacramento to visit my Dad, then to Hood River to visit my Mom and Brother, then back to Redding where we may or may not meet our boyfriends, then off to Norway. Whew! Obviously this is very late to ...

... many energy-efficient features. We apprecited the elegant simplicity of the interior of their home which incorporated many of the touches of Japanese aesthetics that we have come to admire. Two other neighbors, Karen Valdes and her college-age son Rylan joined us as well. It was another fine evening on our journey into new friendships. Ron and Keiko run a beeswax candle business that has flourished over 20 years. Their factory is located next to their house. In the ...

Brad, Nath & I went to the US for 3 weeks to visit our oldest son Adam & his wife Kristina who had recently moved from Denver to Portland Oregon.

We flew into San Francisco from Australia & picked up our hire car ( Brad immediately driving on the wrong side to oncoming traffic!!!) & headed north ...