Best Western Hilltop Inn Hotel 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!

... not fun for Jim.

Redding has a reputation for being sunny most of the year, so we were hopeful that things would be better. Unfortunately, the storm had dumped 2-3 feet of snow at upper elevations, so our plans to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park were delayed temporarily because the road through the park was impassable. So, being the flexible travellers that we are, we toured the area ...

... we stayed at in Bellingham for when we get back home.

When we arrived at our hotel we thought the best way to get rid of the road kinks was to go for a swim, which we did. It felt great! After a shower and clean clothes, we walked a couple of blocks to the the Ramos Mexican Restaurant and split the Mexico City Tacos--perfect!


Title Language: Spanish

... 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 ...

Hello again from Whiskeytown! I apologize because I just haven't had the time or motivation to write. Work is hard and hot (last week it got up to 112 degrees) from 8-4:30 and each weekend we generally jet off to a destination immediately after we shower. I feel like I never have time to do anything except work, eat, and sleep.

A few times we have had lovely evenings of cooking with the crew, one of our trail leaders, and his fiancé. We once made ...

... good! I arrived on June 14th at around Midnight to my house where I live with 7 other girls. I share a room with another girl, Dayna. We had orientation the next day which was boring overall but also included some very interesting topics. Jim Milestone, the superintendent of the park, spoke a lot about death and marijuana. Apparently working at a national park is really dangerous and ...

... Then, suddenly, you see snow and, with binocs, the cratered mountain.  After entering the park it's a couple more miles -- then you crest a hill, see an overlook, and when you pull off and get out of the car there's nothing to say but "Wow!"  The water -- rainwater and snow melt only; no springs flow into the lake nor do any streams or rivers run into it -- is the deepest blue you've ever seen, and clear but there seems to be no bottom.  Even in mid-June the crater is snow-lined ...

... so unsure about so many plans, as we have not even bought our tickets yet, nor are we technically hired anywhere, irony of ironies... but that is what you call Faith I guess. Or procrastination. May God give us the grace to succeed. Much love to you all. Until then...

... Ogden walked the four miles into Gold Hill, where we had lunch at a favorite cafe of his. Lise drove down later to pick up Ogden, and we then said our goodbyes to these two remarkable people. We had eight more miles to walk to our next host home in Central Point. These were the last miles walking in Oregon, through very scenic, rolling hills, with views of distant snow-covered mountains. It was mostly uphill, which was more tiring, and as the day grew warmer we shed extra ...

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 ...