Life and all in Redding California
Hike Redding! Image captured during a break in the weather on a January day from above the Hilltop Dive trailhead to the river trail. This section of trail gets plenty of use. You can park on Hilltop and be rewarded with a pleasant aerobic walk down to the river and back. Click to enlarge:
Here’s the trailhead on a sunnier day.
A Facebook post reminded me of this image I captured of the old and semi-famous Gene’s Drive In. A classic Highway 99 burger joint that in its day often attracted crowds of hot rod enthusiasts. Seen here with a “classic” dented Geo Metro parked out front, more indicative of the hard times seen a few years back. Gene’s did not survive the economic downturn.
I think it was mostly the big neon sign that made it seem special. In the end, not enough to save it, like many other neon lit Redding landmarks.
A few years back, Redding adopted a “50s Glitz” proclamation. That was to be our design theme for downtown. It hasn’t been widely adopted, luckily. What few new structures that tried it ended up looking ridiculous and forced. Not real neon, but neon-like colors and plastic signage. I hope the idea fades out. Neon elevated Gene’s to a certain charm, but obviously not enough to sustain it. Neo-Redding should look elsewhere for a design theme.
Popped the drone up for a few minutes and captured this image of Mt. Lassen from the park entrance yesterday.
The road up to the park was filled with cut Christmas trees strapped to the tops of cars, and in in the back of pick-up trucks going west. Lots of families making the outing into an annual tradition, the hunt for the perfect tree. Maybe punctuated with a few sled runs on Eskimo Hill, and some hot cocoa. All this about 50 miles east of Really Redding.
I captured these images from the boat launch on the Sacramento River at Caldwell Park a few evenings ago.
It was very beautiful. I can’t help but wonder how it would be if passenger trains could traverse our river city by daylight instead of the middle of the night, like they do now. Years ago, the region enjoyed the Shasta Daylight, a passenger train that came through by day.
Railroad and River. That’s Really Redding.
The Vineyard is a gated community in northeast Redding for active, over 55 adults. It’s a truly great neighborhood, and is also very pretty. I happened to be out there helping a client sell her home, when I noticed the November sunset was particularly stunning.
Here are some other images of The Vineyards I recently captured. Below, their clubhouse:
And below, two of the lakes:
It’s a great place to live, and the beauty there is unmatched. Where better to live out your sunset years than a place with actual sunsets like these? The Vineyard is Really Redding.
