Thanksgiving in God's Country

One thing that I admit loving about being a teacher is the big blocks of time off. Adding the weekends, I had nine days off for the Thanksgiving holiday, and my family and I had the privilege of heading north to visit my parents and feast with them. My parents live in northeastern California, which I think is absolutely beautiful. In other posts, I have mentioned the volcanic topography, dry pine forests, and vastness of this region, and every time I go up there, I find something new to photograph. This trip was no different. Conditions weren't always great for taking pictures, but ya gotta try!

One place we love to go is Burney Falls. My daughter was taking her nap, so she and my wife stayed back at my parents' house. My son however, would never dream of passing up a chance to go tromping through the woods, so he skipped his nap and off he went!

Accompanying my son was his cousin, who is two months older than he. As you can see from the size difference, some kids mature faster than others... that and my brother and sister-in-law are both Amazonian.

Tourists entering Burney Falls National Park must pay a fee to your friendly neighborhood federal government official manning the shack at the entrance. The locals however happen to know about an alternate route whereby you can get in for free. The access road is on the other side of the creek from the main entrance, and to get to the park from the "local" route, all one has to do is cross this footbridge. And what a beautiful little footbridge it is.

I try every time I go there, but I have always been unable to stand at this point and not take a picture of Burney Falls. They are just too beautiful.

It was late afternoon, so the sun was doing some interesting things to the surrounding trees in relation to the falls. Those streaks you see in the photo are actually droplets of mist from the falls. Click on the photo and you can really see the streaks of mist. Click on all the photos for that matter!

This shot of the tourists at the bottom of the falls gives you a better idea of just how big the falls really are - 129 feet high to be exact.

When you are done looking at the falls, there is an intriguing trail that loops around and takes you back to the place where the locals park their cars.

My son was on the last part of the trail before making it back to our car, when I noticed the late-afternoon autumn sun was poking through the tree branches. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but the most ethereal light was illuminating the forest. The photo still turned out pretty well if I may humbly opine.

On Saturday morning, we departed my parents' abode and made our way on Highway 299 for Interstate 5, and home. There is this one place on 299 - not far west of Hatchet Mountain summit - where you can get the coolest views of Mount Shasta. The weird cloud cover made for some pretty horrible photographic conditions, but this time of year, I was just grateful that the mountain was visible at all.

Highway 299 and Interstate 5 link up in the city of Redding, which is by far, the largest city in California that is north of Sacramento. Redding's newest claim to fame is the Sundial Bridge, which spans the Sacramento River. It is a suspension footbridge with quite a gimmick. The gimmick is not so apparent with the above photo, but the next one gives you a better perspective:

In all honesty, a new-agey bridge like this looks totally out of place in a - ahem - rustic town like Redding. I am not making fun of Redding - I love Redding! My wife and I would love to live in Redding! However, looking at this bridge and where it is located brings to my mind an image of a pig in a tuxedo. Depending on your taste in architecture, I will leave it up to you to decide in this particular metaphor if the bridge is the pig or the tuxedo.

Once we walked to the far side of the bridge, we figured the world just wouldn't be right unless we gave the kiddos an opportunity to throw some rocks into the Sacramento River!

My daughter needed to get very close to the water in order for her rocks to make it in. Naturally, Daddy isn't going to let her get that close to the water without being right there with her!

After all the rocks had been picked clean from the embankment, it was time to cross the bridge and head for home. Walking the other direction gave me the opportunity to snap this interesting photo. The sky was doing strange things that day. Personally, I chalk it up to Global Warming!

Here's hoping that you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Now, after my almost week-long hiatus, I am ready to start blogging again.

Good Day to You, Sir