I guess picking up where Emily left off, we finally made it to Redding!
Redding wasn't originally on the docket of places to stop, but we sure are glad we made a point of stopping there. Way back when we were in Nashville (a whole 2 weeks ago!), you might recall us telling a story about how we met these cool guys while at dinner and ended up hanging out with them later that night. Well one of them, Blake, had a bunch of friends out in Redding that he said we should hook up with when we passed through. I love new friends, so it sounded like a great plan.
To sum it up, Redding was awesome. We visited Bethel, a church/Bible school, spent the afternoon longboarding/geocaching at a park, and then met up with Blake's friend (our new friend) Lori for dinner at Chipotle. Post Chippy, we met up with a ton of other new friends and burned the midnight oil chatting it up. It seems we have a new place on our list of "places we need to revisit".
(Sun Dial Bridge at our new favorite longboarding spot)
I love how when we choose to step out of our comfort zones, make decisions grounded in love, things work out so perfectly. By choosing to reach out to these 4 trendy guys at the Silly Goose in Nashville, that led us to new connections (and more importantly friends) in Redding. By Stan choosing to trade bunks with the Irish guy at the hostel in Flagstaff, that led us to hooking up with our 2 German friends and having a place to camp the following night at the Grand Canyon. I don't mean to imply that we choose to walk in love in anticipation of receiving some sort of karmatic reward, nor can one expect that every single time you hold a door for someone or pay for their gas. But in such a love starved world, when you choose to act in love, it becomes contagious. Love is a doorway to many wonderful and amazing things. But more of my thoughts on love later.
We left our dear new Redding friends this morning and drove 7 hours to Portland, Oregon where we are staying with the wonderfully hospitable Meggie Burke. My 2 favorite things of this trip: meeting new friends, and getting to see all our old ones. I like people. :)
Who knows what tomorrow holds, but I know that it will involve coffee shops, acts of love, and rainy Portland, which is good enough for me!
P.S. In Redding, we kept seeing these weird lizard/snake things.
Thanks to 2 seconds of google research I found out they're called Southern Alligator Lizards. Ginger saw one (and snapped the photo above) and I saw one (almost ran it over with my longboard). Their tails can sometimes be up to twice the length of their bodies, which appeared to be the case with the one I saw. Pretty crazy. Here's a couple google images for your viewing pleasure:
Cheers! Jason :)
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