They Prefer *Golden*

In August, California is brown.  They would like us to think it’s the Golden State, with golden hills, golden fields, and golden bears.  We see brown, brown, and, well, we haven’t seen any bears yet but I doubt they are golden.  California is a very brown place.

Leaving Blue Lakes it was foggy, thanks to the proximity to the coast.  As we climbed into the mountains we climbed out of the fog and into the sun.  The mountains near the coast were lush and green, covered mainly in evergreens.  However, they quickly transitioned to brown hills and mountains, and the remainder of the day our views were filled with “golden” vistas.  It’s fire season here in the west, and after driving here for several days it becomes obvious why all the signs in the national park warn of extreme fire danger. 

Turns out there’s a bunch of mountains between Eureka and Redding, California.  It took us over three hours (due, in part, to some serious construction on the mountains) to make the drive to Redding.  It was beautiful, particularly when we were paralleling the Trinity River.  However, we weren’t expecting several hours of mountains (our three previous passes through the mountains to the north during the zigzag tour of Oregon were much quicker) and at times it seemed they would never end.

We arrived in Redding around noon and headed to the Sundial Bridge, the last official stop on my Architectural Wonders tour.  It’s a beautiful walking bridge crossing the Sacramento River in Redding, and yes, it’s also a working sundial. 

After Redding we pointed south and drove to Sacramento.  For two hours we drove through an amazing variety of agriculture – olive groves, fields of sunflowers, tomatoes, and other plants we couldn’t identify from the highway.  Nothing grows here without irrigation, but with the addition of water this valley provides an abundance of food!  It’s the tomato harvest here right now, and as we neared Sacramento we saw tractor-trailers on the highway filled with tomatoes heading for processing.  More unusual still were the tomatoes lying on the shoulder of the road like litter – they had fallen from the open trailers in transit.  For several miles the road was spotted with red!

We had a wonderful dinner with friends in Sacramento – more former co-workers from our days at the TV station in Harrisonburg.  They were recently blessed with twin boys, so it was a fun night of juggling the boys while preparing and enjoying a wonderful dinner.  The unusually pleasant weather allowed us to eat dinner in the back garden, surrounded by lemon and lime trees.  It was a wonderful evening!

**Whoops!  Forgot to mention in the original post that as we drove through the mountains in western California we passed through Willow Creek, home of the Bigfoot Museum.  We saw the museum, but unfortunately the big guy did not make an appearance (he was probably at church).