Lassen, Redwoods, Winter

As previously mentioned, we've been enjoying some of the natural surrounds of Redding. Lassen National Park is a dormant (yet still active - don't ask me why they call it dormant), volcano. We managed to head up there (about 1 hour away) before the main road through the volcano was closed for winter. Zeke had his first touch of snow which was pretty cool :). For the main part of the day we hiked into 'Bumpass Hell' (great name hey!). You hike in, then walk around on a boardwalk built over hot bubbling, steaming mud pools. It was quite an experience. The smell took us back to Bendigo - the dreaded sulfur smell of the Bendigo Creek, only intensified! We spent the day with our good Aussie and Kiwi friends! Lou and Shane are a couple from Taree, NSW, that we've loved hanging out with. And of course, Tim, our Kiwi boarder was with us - but he's lots of fun too :).

The students all had time off over Thanksgiving. Again we used the time to explore! We travelled with Lou & Shane, and Mike, Bek and the kids - all Aussies! The northern coast of California is famous for it's large Redwood trees. The size of the trees was amazing. The most spectacular drive that we took was though an untouched part of the woods. It was magical! Something mysterious and breathtaking about it. The coastline was just as spectacular. Similar to the Great Ocean Road in parts, but the rocks are grey in colour. Just beautiful. We also enjoyed our first west coast sunset! A pod of whales decided to show off their spouts of water too! My (Taff) first sighting of whales. Unfortunately they didn't want to show off their jumping skills!

We returned to Redding on Thanksgiving so we could enjoy our first Thanksgiving with an American family from the church. Lots of delicious food and great people to enjoy it with.

These days we are enjoying sitting by the open fire as the days are colder. So far, all our wood has been provided free of charge! Today our landlord gave us a truck (ute) full of pre cut wood! It's perfect! Apparently the last couple of days have been unusually cold. I would say the weather was on a par with Bendigo. Doesn't seem to be any colder than what we're used to. The good part is the snow is only half an hour away! Our neighbours have another property there which we have been invited to spend some time there whenever we like.

So our christmas tree is up (with our home made decorations) by the open fire and for the first time all the christmas songs make sense and it feels like a 'real' christmas. We even has christmas stockings hanging from the mantle piece! We'll be celebrating Christmas with the people in our house and some other families from Australia who have no one else to share it with. Although we really miss our family and friends at this time, it should be a beautiful Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone!