Redding!

Well today is Sunday, and I've been in Redding since Friday afternoon. I would've written sooner but it's actually been a pretty busy weekend.

I drove up from Frazier Park on Friday. It was about seven and a half hours, and boy was it windy!! It was blowing me all over the road. I was so worked up from trying to keep my car on the road for 7 hours, that when I met my captain I could've sworn I was shaking like a leaf!

My captain's pretty cool, he showed me around the base (we're stationed at a training center/air attack base) and the dorms I'm staying in. I've met a few of my crew mates as well as some rookie smoke jumpers that are staying at the end of the hall. Apparently they aren't good enough to stay with the veteren smoke jumpers in their dorm. I have a roommate but I haven't met her yet. The room is pretty small, especially with all of our gear in it. But I guess we'll be loading our gear into the buggies (crew carriers) this week and that'll give us a lot more room.

I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures yet, but here's a few. One of these days I'll get some photos of Mt. Shasta and Lassen. You can see them from around my training center.

Oh yeah, so Corey came to visit (from my engine crew). She's right across the state on the ocean side, by a town called Crescent City or something. She's actually in Gasquet, but that might not be on a map. So we were looking for pets we could safely (and legally) have in government housing. We almost got matching ant farms, but instead we got Sea Monkeys. Does anybody remember those? Well they've got new habitats. Corey got the original since she's never had them, and I got the City. Most of you who know me know I feel more at home in a city than in the backwoods. Maybe it's convenience, who knows.

We went to the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay. This is the Sacramento River. Yes, it flows through Redding as well as just about every other town I passed through getting here.

This is the Sundial Bridge. Apparently it's the largest working Sundial Bridge in the world.

Another pic of the Sacamento River.

We walked through a garden/arboratorium and saw some really cool trees and plants:
A Monkey Puzzle Tree

I forget what this is called. A Chinese Red Blossom or something to that effect.

This is called the "Lookout Tree". I don't know

if you can tell or not, but it's actually a tree with this weird basket weaving thing around it. An artist did it, and had the staff helping him. It was pretty cool.
In the gardens was a mosaic oasis, and this was just one of the many amazing mosaics there. Some of the pieces were really incredible.

So this is only a small portion of Redding. Like I said, I'll have to go around taking pictures closer to my station, as well as some of the local parks and attractions.