We just spent the last week before school in a vacation home in Junction City, CA. Julie found a VRBO on the hillside just above the town. While the drive there was pretty long especially going straight up I5 then winding along 299 out of Redding, the time did pass quicker than I anticipated. This vacation was the first time we have deviated from choosing a costal location with easy beach access. The closest we had come to this kind of location was our Santa Barbara vacation (4/2009) which was still only 20-25 minutes from nice beach access.
Well we arrived at the cabin with a few hours of daylight left. As we walk in the door we are greeted with a song from Big Mouth Billy Bass hanging on the wall! During the rest of the week Billy entertained us with a little ditty often. So, we headed in, unpacked and headed out for a walking tour of the neighborhood. The lots were large enough that you could only see a couple of other homes. As we walked around the neighborhood, hoping to find convenient access to the river, we discovered all the neighborhood access was on private property.
I started the following morning with a run around the neighborhood, being greeted by a curious dog along the way. Then we investigated the "town" of Junction City where we picked-up some lures to fish with and headed west along 299, which parallels the Trinity River, until we found a good access point called Pigeon Point to setup on the river and play and relax. After a couple hours we drove west on 299 to Willow Creek looking for an ice cream stop and ran into this big creature:
Bigfoot was a popular figure in all the little out croppings (too small to be called towns) up and down along 299. To the right is Anna posing with Bigfoot in Willow Creek. On the way back we found another shaded fishing hole we called Shady Bend (since it was shaded and at a bend in the river).
The following day we we headed back to shady bend and Anna took a shot at fishing. It only took a couple of times reeling in the line before she caught her first fish!
... more to come ...
Well we arrived at the cabin with a few hours of daylight left. As we walk in the door we are greeted with a song from Big Mouth Billy Bass hanging on the wall! During the rest of the week Billy entertained us with a little ditty often. So, we headed in, unpacked and headed out for a walking tour of the neighborhood. The lots were large enough that you could only see a couple of other homes. As we walked around the neighborhood, hoping to find convenient access to the river, we discovered all the neighborhood access was on private property.
I started the following morning with a run around the neighborhood, being greeted by a curious dog along the way. Then we investigated the "town" of Junction City where we picked-up some lures to fish with and headed west along 299, which parallels the Trinity River, until we found a good access point called Pigeon Point to setup on the river and play and relax. After a couple hours we drove west on 299 to Willow Creek looking for an ice cream stop and ran into this big creature:Bigfoot was a popular figure in all the little out croppings (too small to be called towns) up and down along 299. To the right is Anna posing with Bigfoot in Willow Creek. On the way back we found another shaded fishing hole we called Shady Bend (since it was shaded and at a bend in the river).... more to come ...
at the theater! Great movie, moving, inspirational! We took Anna and she couldn't stop talking about it afterword. The shark scene is brief, and not gory or the focus of the movie. It's really abut how she recovered and triumphantly returned to surfing while discovering a more fullfilling outlook on life. After seeing the movie I'm thinking about getting the 
. Check our her 
in Kindle format for only $11.99 for my phone and / or computer. Seems pretty good sofar! Check out Mark's 
I found the 
on Amazon while looking for a replacement camera for my Nikon Coolpix S50. Which has been repaired once after being dropped and may be in need of repair again. After the first repair I've decided it's isn't cost effective to repair these point and shoot digital cameras. Especially the ones that are in the $200 - $250 or less price range.
by Tim Wu. If I pay more for U-Verse to get the higher bandwidth cap I'm still under a more restrictive cap than people using AT&T's video service to get their entertainment.
shoes. I just took my regular budget for new running shoes and went a different direction than usual. I've been reading up on barefoot running for a couple years and thinking about trying a pair of 
. When I first started looking into this new foot wear there was only one store in town that carried them and the selection was small. They hadn't developed their KSO's yet either. This year the Komodo, the Bikila, and Bikila LS are all new. These models looked like they might be a better fit with a nicer upper. So, I went to REI ( one of the many local stores that now carry Fivefingers) and tried on a pair. This time around I liked the fit and feel and just had to try them. My wife thinks they are too strange to be seen in. I noticed on the way out, 
is launching the final mission for the space shuttle Discovery. Watch it live on 