Sunday - July 25, 2010

Starbucks here we come! Our room at Bridge Bay was lacking a coffee maker so we headed off to the comfortable familiarity of Starbucks for coffee, breakfast and wifi. We perused the lakes in the area via google maps and decided that WhiskeyTown Lake looked like it had a friendly kayak launch site. We stopped at the visitor center for directions to the best spot from the local ranger dude and purchased some very handy straw hats to help prevent spontaneous combustion while out on the lake in 105 degrees.

NOTE: Again I'd like to mention that there would be glorious pictures of our day out on the lake had Kirstin not forgot to bring the download cable. Rest assured that as the days move forward we finally got smart and started taking some cell phone pics as well.

The water was wonderful and we parked the kayak in several different coves throughout the day and enjoyed swimming in the lake - the water was perfect and helped keep us cool. I would like to assure Big Carl that we hydrated and reapplied sunscreen frequently. :-D

(Kirstin stepping in again ;-)
I just have to tell everyone what an incredible thing this kayaking stuff is!!! Hadn't ever really done it too much, and within minutes, I was hooked! The ability to cruise along the edges and see everything under and near the water is sooo cool!!! The kayak also allowed us to get out wherever the banks were reasonably smooth and it was just awesome to have the freedom and feeling of being close to the water!!! I want a kayak now!

After kayaking we headed out in search of dinner that didn't involve the hind-end of a whale. Once getting out of the back roads from the lake, Kirstin asked her handy-dandy i-thingy where we should go to dinner. It suggested a Tapas restaurant which conveniently happened to be 500 yards from the parking lot in which we were sitting. So we drove around the corner to Tapas downtown in Redding, California. It was amazing and such a welcome change after the Whale's Butthole the night before. Here is a picture of our lovely dinner.






And then, as if the wonderful dinner wasn't enough - this is the site we were greeted by as we returned to our hotel room for the evening.


That was about it for the day. We returned to our room, took showers and relaxed for the evening by watching a really cool show about this circular building in Dubai and pondering where to go next.

Nighty night.