Little bit of this, little bit of that

I had another relaxing day of sightseeing today. Before I got things started, I went to the local Safeway in Redding to buy a few things for lunch. At the checkout stand, the lady at the register happened to see my Washington State driver's license, and commented that she used to live there. Born and raised in Ellensburg...I knew where that was because my parents live just south of that town! Small world!

It was already a beautiful sunny day as I arrived at Redding's Turtle Bay Exploration Park. This preserve is devoted to educating the public of the natural environment, culture and history of the Sacramento Valley area. I went to the museum first, which had a cool exhibit on costumes used in movies and television. Stuff like Indiana Jones' hat, jacket and bullwhip, and Darth Vader's outfit. The Paul Bunyan Forest Camp outside the museum is geared for children, but it was deserted when I walked through it. I was mostly interested in checking out the animals they had on display. As I walked up to the gray fox enclosure, I saw a little head pop up to see who was coming. Immediately, the fox jumped up on a tree branch to have a better look at me, which allowed me to have a better look at the fox. Inali was confiscated by people who were keeping her illegally. Because she could not be returned to the wild, she was now staying at Turtle Bay. Such a beautiful animal, but so sad she can't be free.

A prominent feature of the exploration park is McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, which I accessed by crossing over the amazing work of art, The Sundial Bridge (see photo above). These gardens include plants of Mediterranean climate zones from around the world. I'm not really big on gardens and plants, but I do appreciate the rare and unusual. I also decided that it would be good exercise to walk the paths of the gardens. In particular, I enjoyed looking at the monkey puzzle tree. I had heard of these trees, but never saw such nice specimens! Because it was so late in the year, many plants were not at their peak. Still, it was nice to take a stroll.

The only other destination of the day was a short drive out of town to Shasta State Historic Park. This park is devoted to the history of Shasta City, as told by interpretive signs with old buildings outside, and displays inside the town's original Shasta County Courthouse. The courthouse actually had a reproduced gallows out back, and jail cells downstairs. As I walked around the jail area, I noticed a smell that I've detected at so many old buildings. Kind of a damp, musty odor...not unpleasant, but a unique earthiness. I guess you can say it's an "old" smell, which lends a certain authenticity!

Before I left Redding, I decided to eat my lunch in my vehicle, parked in the quiet corner of a shopping center parking lot. I scanned the radio dial, searching for a good station. I was thinking there wasn't one until I finally found a soft rock station. Right at that very moment, they played Five For Fighting's Slice! Ahh...I was enjoying my lunch a whole lot more!