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“Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the Mall of his choice.” Dave Barry
We’re hanging out at the Shasta Mall in Redding, California waiting for Papa G to finish up a morning of business back at the hotel before we head on to San Francisco where Baby Girl’s Mommy and Daddy are anxiously awaiting her return. We ended up at the Mall because I typed “playground” in to Map Quest, and this is where it instructed me to go. We ended up just running up and down the open areas as the Playground was full of kids and quite hectic. She was happy with that though . . . but finally it was break time and snack time. That’s when I captured this with my iPad. She’s just chillin’!
Funny thing is I never go to the Mall anymore, and will avoid it like the plague during the holiday season. I prefer to either do my gift shopping on-line, or make something that is personal and meaningful. I just can’t do the crazy crowds anymore. I didn’t buy one thing here at this Mall – even tho I did do a bit of window shopping. Everything is either too expensive or just not what I’m looking for. I would have bought a rain jacket for the Baby if I had found one . . . but could not find a single clothing store that sells them for toddlers. Weird. So – maybe I need to design something and get it on the market asap?? Hmmm . . .
299-365
“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” Bernice Johnson Reagon
Today it’s time to head north – home to Canada. I’ve been gone from home for three weeks now. Hubby flew down over the weekend, and is driving back with me. Tonight we were to spend the night in Northern California – just north of Shasta Lake – with my niece and her family. However, as we approached Shasta Lake, this is what we saw . . . a huge plume of smoke billowing above the trees. As it turns out . . . a vegetation fire had started in the median of the highway about two miles north. As we were stopped in traffic, fire trucks and police cars and fire-responders kept flying by. We even saw several PG&E trucks. At that point it was growing to about 350 acres on both sides of the highway. After two hours of sitting still in 100 degree F weather, traffic started moving – only for us to find out that we were being re-routed and not allowed through. We had to go back to Redding, east on 299, and then north on 89 to Shasta City. From there – we were not allowed south again on I5, we had to continue north. My niece lives about 20 minutes south of Shasta City. Therefore, we did not get to see her. We ended up finding a hotel in Ashland, OR – just across the Oregon border. We had left the Bay Area in the morning about 9:30am for what should have been a 4-5 hour drive. We arrived in Ashland about 10pm – over 12 hours later!
I was SO disappointed to not get to visit with my niece and her family. I could have let it completely ruin my day, my experience, the time my husband and I were spending together. Happily, I am married to an incredibly supportive and amazing man. We both realized that the whole situation was out of our control. After discussing the alternatives (just going back to Redding and spending the night, or finding a way around the fire), we decided that we’d explore the route around . . . not knowing how long it would take us or how bad the roads would be. Well, the roads were quite amazing . . . as good or better than I5 . . . and though there was alot of detoured traffic we moved along at a good pace. All in all, it took us about three hours to go around. And we did what we always do – talk about life and listen to good music and just enjoy each other’s company.
201-365
This is shot with my iPad as the sun was setting and we were back headed north on I5, just south of Yreka. Gorgeous sunset with the full moon on the horizon . . .
201b-365
Nurture Self 365 