Part One, the start of our camping trip to California and Mt. Lassen Volcanic National Park

Tuesday afternoon we wanted to be out of here by 2, but dh said it probably would be closer to 3:00 pm. Well, he was right. Even though it was close to 2 when we left the driveway, we had to stop and get gas, stop for a quick Subway trip for ds, and stop back at home for one forgotten item. By then it was 3, and we were finally on our way. It was decided that if we were going to be that close to Corning, CA, we were going to go that extra hour south and back to stop at the Olive Pit and pick up some delicious green olives, stuffed with almonds, or garlic, or in smoke flavoring, or wine. They are so good!! Dh’s sister advised us to check out the Olive Hut instead of the Olive Pit. It is smaller, homier, and less expensive, oh and less of a tourist trap. So, we drove straight through with a quick stop at sil’s to drop off some mirrored closet doors. That was a very long drive!! 8 hours!! We stayed at The Holiday Inn Express and the next morning found us at the Olive Pit, just checking the prices, and on to the Olive Hut. Sil, was right!! We did like the Hut better. I started in on a migraine though as we left the first place. (I am attributing it to the heat, by 9:00 AM, it was 90+F). It lasted a short while fortunately, and did not go into the usual pain; it was just that aura stuff going on.

I think we left Corning around 10:30 and headed the hour back to Redding and across to the east to Burney. We had reservations for camping at McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, with my parents, who had dd for the weekend previously. We got there just shy of 2:00 pm, and were able to set up our camp, even though it was in another loop, separate from my parents. We thought it would be good to be a distance from them, but it was a nuisance really. So, when we were offered another site closer to my parents, we took it, the next day. It was soooo gooood to see dd again after 5 days without her. I felt I could totally relax once she was within my sight again. Her comment to me, “I never want to do this again…..until next year!!” I know she enjoyed helping grandma and grandpa a lot.





That evening before sundown we took a small hike down to the bottom of the 129 foot falls. It was so much cooler down there, than the 90 F heat of the area. On our way back up we saw bats. At first it was one chasing a dragonfly, then it was 15 chasing all manner of little bugs. That was pretty cool. That black dot in the middle of the photo is a bat.






The next day we moved our campsite after the other family checked out. Later we headed down to the lake. Lake Briton is a mile away so we took one of the vans. Dd really wanted to swim since it was so hot!! There is a nice beach, very crowded though. And the water is ICY!!








Friday we took off to Mt Lassen, with a stop along the way at Hat Creek Radio Observatory. A few years ago, when we went to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, we checked out Lowell Observatory. When you hear observatory, you usually think telescopes, right? I do!! Well, this was radio signals sent up by satellite dishes, then when they come back, they are fed into a computer and it comes up with a picture of the image. It was different, but cool in its own way. If you google Hat Creek Radio Observatory, there will be all kinds of links, but I think this one above is pretty good explaining what they do. (They also work with SETI).










More later.......