Thursday, June 19, 2014

Summer Family Vacation - June 2014


Day 1, Sunday -

We left our home at 6:15 a.m. and headed on our way to Hat Creek Hereford Ranch RV & Campground, located in Northern California.  We have been wanting to go to Burney Falls for a couple years now.  I finally set up the trip.  Of course it is going to be the hottest week we have had all year, some how that figures.  We always end up with some weird weather, usually heavy winds.

When we were heading out I kept feeling like something was off, but not sure what.  As the day proceeded I started to understand what that feeling was all about.  Our first part of the trip we decided to go through a local town, and were detoured do to a police block. 3.5 hours pretty uneventful.  We stopped in Redding, CA at the Big Bear Diner for a brunch with my friend Jana and my niece Holly about 4.5 hours into the trip.  We had fun visiting, good grief the people were so loud we could hardly hear ourselves talking.  We took a quick photo.

Here is were things go astray. I lock the trailer but when I do the whole key assembly comes out.  We cannot get the notches to match to put it back in and work correctly.  We are not far from Camping World and head there hoping the can repair it.  Their service department is closed. But next store to them is a RV sales lot.  It ends up one of the sales guys knows how to get the lock off the door and they have a new one so he installs that.  We depart on our way, with a nice new locked door.

As we get down the road further, not to far mind you.  A man pulls up along side of us to inform us that our trailer door has blown open.  OH MY GOSH, we pull over and the door indeed is wide open and has damaged the trailer with a small dent, and a missing light cover.  The paper towels are blown all over the trailer.  The door is also bent.  It seems that the door was going to be the issue of the trip.  We got it locked securely and I was on door watch for the remainder of the trip.  Stress!  This was not the relaxing vacation I had planned.

We arrive at the RV park and find it is quite empty and we have our choice of sites.  The camp is in a beautiful setting in Northern CA.  It has a fishing pond which is quite large and has some pretty large fish in it. The grounds are shaded or sunny depending on site.  It is very quiet and relaxing.

My brother and his girlfriend stop by for a visit and have dinner with us. Not our normal first night meal of burgers but spaghetti.  Yummy!  Everyone went fishing but did not get a bite.  But they had a fun evening.  My brother was able to bend our door back enough for it to lock.  We will have it looked at upon our return home.

To bed for a great night of sleep.




Day 2, Monday -

We spent the day with my brother and his girlfriend, near Burney.  We went to this beautiful waterfall at Hatchett Creek.  Here are some of the shots from that location.





Hatchett Creek Falls

The log has slats carved into it so you can climb up and jump in. 





The beautiful lilies grew wild everywhere

Dave jumped in he is crazy.  It was absolutely freezing.  You can tell by his face.

My brother under a huge stump with rocks attached



We then headed to her house to have brunch and spend the day doing whatever.  We ended up on the quad runners riding up into the hills for a view of Shasta.  (No photo to hazy).  Then further on to the creek running through her property that was beautiful.  She has a pond on her property and we spent most of the afternoon there. I decided to take a deep in the pond, but actually slipped into the pond.  It was so cold!  Later I took the boat out for a row around the pond.  I found I am not the best at rowing a boat, but did get back to shore.  The bond has trout and everyone fished again.  No fish, a couple of nibbles.  We then had a BBQ by the pond, wonderful tri-tip and other yummy foods.  My brother Dave BBQ apples they were pretty good. I took a few shots of dragon flies and deer in the area.
Time for leave hats.  My brother is a great model.

Creek on the property

View of the beautiful pond

Relaxing



I see you too.


There are cute farm animals at the house too!  The goats were afraid of me and the chickens wanted to peck me or see what my camera was, funny.








We had root beer floats and then hit the road back to camp.  It was so nice to spend time with my brother and get to know his girlfriend better.  She has a beautiful piece of property and log cabin home.  So peacefully.

Day 3, Tuesday -

Relaxation and stay at camp day, ah how nice.  We pretty much hung around camp, relaxing in chair, walking around, photographing, fishing, and biking.
Started the day off with a nice pancake breakfast, made fresh guacamole for the afternoon.  After spending the afternoon just hanging out, we had our cheeseburger dinner, followed by berry cobbler made that I make in our cast iron dutch oven used with charcoal briquettes.  Yummy!

We took photos of dragonflies, birds (more of Dave taking photos of birds) and bull frog tad poles.  My big find for the day was this huge bull frog.


Baby fish

Bullfrog tadpole



Mr. Bullfrog so big!

This bird kept trying to escape me camera but I finally got a glimpse


Some type of beetle that visited us, kind of yucky.


We had a fire and our friendly bat showed up, yikes, I hate bats.  I did not stay outside much after that friendly visit.  The last night at camp I was able to capture a couple of photos.





I took a bike ride while Dave fished.  No fish again.  The ride was nice with the moon rising over the trees.

Day 4, Weds.-

Today was hit the road and explore. 

 We headed to Burney Falls State park, to see a beautiful waterfall.  We would have liked to walk some around but dogs are not allowed a lot on the trails.  But we did get to see what we came for and it was great.  An osprey had its nest in a tree right above the waterfalls.  Little risky I would say, if I was a baby bird.









We then headed to Fall River Mills and McCarther.  Not to much happening in these towns.  Stopped at the grocery store, ate lunch at a little hamburger joint and stopped a very boring gift store.

Neat swallow holes in a bank along the road to Fall River Mills: 



We then drove through Castell where we found these treasures to look at.  Peanut was fond of one metal sculptures:









Then we stopped by the Castell campground so Dave could see how fishing is there. Dave spotted a snake catch a fish from the river, here is the snake partaking in its late afternoon lunch.




We then headed home so I could make my BBQ ribs in the dutch oven.  Yummy once again!  For the evening we sat in our chairs, took another bike ride and an evening walk.




The vacation is coming to an end soon.  I have now been told I am going to get up early to go fishing in Castell.

Day 5, Thursday -

Dave got up to go fishing down the road from the campground.  Still no luck on fish.
  
We then headed over to Subway Cave.  We made it about 1/2 way through as I could not handle it, to dark and to quiet.  It seems to not take long to go through but it was not my thing.  You do need good shoes, a jacket and very good flash lights.  Regular flash lights hardly do anything.  It was very cool.  Flashed this photo from inside the tube where I stopped.




We headed to Burney to get some pizza.  No cook night for me!

Finally success Dave gets his fish!  






Here are some photos I took while walking around the campgrounds:




Bullfrog tadpole








Old John Deere Tractor


The last night at camp, enjoying the relaxation by the fire.  First night we work long pants, it was hot pretty much  the whole time we were here. 


Day 5 - Last Day

We packed up the trailer and a very uneventful ride home.  It was beautiful driving towards Lassen.

We will miss this wonderful place. It was a wonderful time.

FOR MORE PHOTOS VISIT: Flickr Album

View of Lassen, heading home.






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