Whoopla

On Friday night we stayed in the dinkiest run-down motel in Redding. It was very comical, now that I look back upon it. The paint was all worn off and the lobby smelled like Indian food. I wanted to go swimming but Kevin didn’t think the pool, situated smack-dab in the middle of the parking lot, was very sanitary. It had little pieces of unidentifiable objects floating in the water. All night long we could hear the people above us because the walls were so thin. And I won’t even begin to tell you about what we think was orange juice, served at continental breakfast. Kevin kept saying he was going to pretend we were camping "so it wouldn’t be so bad."

Lassen Volcanic National Park was very cool. Totally worth the trip. One surprising thing was all the SNOW up there!! It was incredible. One of the trails was closed because of the snow. I wondered when it was open (if not in JULY)! On one hike, we kept getting lost because there were huge mounds of snow covering the trail. Despite the snow, the weather was perfect - warm with cool breezes. We took two different hikes that ended up at different waterfalls. On the first hike, we followed a creek that wound through a meadow. It was very green an lush (with snow in the background!!). The second hike was more arduous. In fact, I told Kevin that I’d never been on a hike before where I walked uphill both there and back! (Obviously this couldn’t possibly be true - but that’s what it seemed!) On the second hike there were fields of yellow wildflowers all across the mountainside. It was quite beautiful. On our drive through the park, there were all sorts of interesting things off the side of the road. At one point we got out of the car to see some boiling mud ponds and sulfur pits spitting steam into the air. The stench was horrible but it was entertaining nonetheless.

On the way back home, I talked Kevin into eating at one of those greasy Chinese buffets. He hates buffets for two reasons, he says: 1) they encourage gluttony and 2) all the food sits out in the open for hours, where little children can come sneeze upon it. And that, he says, is very gross.