We just arrived back in town yesterday afternoon after almost a week visiting Northern California and while I am happy to be back, I am now making it my mission to move to Chico, Redding or somewhere nearby...
Chico is a small college town with a big city feel. The downtown area has tons of very cool shops and eateries. One of our must visit places is a coffee shop called The Naked Lounge. Their mochas are made with Ibarra chocolate and it is one of my top coffee shops ever (I have been to many so I'm a good judge of these things). We stopped there to get our fix a few times during our visit but we also found another great coffee shop called Bidwell Perk. I picked up a heavenly chocolate chai there on our way to the actual Bidwell Park with the kids. They have an area called Caper Acres that is just for kids. We've been taking ours there since our first visit with Phoenix in the early 2000's. The park itself is huge and in addition to Caper Acres, there are trails for biking, hiking, jogging, etc... and watering holes to take a dip. I would move to Chico for this park alone. Okay, and maybe for the coffee and chai.
On our last full day of vacation we drove to Redding to visit the Turtle Bay Exploration Park. The museum portion had a cool Lego exhibit and information about early Native Americans who lived in the area, as well as info on the wildlife. We watched an aviary show, which featured a few different animals and many birds of the region. We saw turtles (of course) and tried to hike the botanical gardens but I was stubborn and hot and forgot my hat, so, it didn't happen. We did cross the sundial bridge over the Sacramento River and took in all of the beautiful scenery. I'm now checking out job opportunities for my husband in Redding because it is so close to the forest I am convinced we need to live there! Probably wishful thinking but oh well...
Other highlights of our trip were a tour of the public radio station in Sacramento where my husband's brother works. The kids got to wear headphones and talk into the mic. We hung out in old town Sacramento our first day and I took so many photos! We also visited the zoo in Sacramento and saw some amazing animals up close. One of my favorites was the zebras! I want to share a lot of the photos but I will do so in about 3-4 installments. I took too many to include here. Also, I forgot my Canon and only took pics with my iPhone. Still, from all of the photos I snapped it will be evident that we enjoyed every second of our time away. School (and work) starts back up in three weeks so I'll have to stare at these photos from time to time and try my best to get back into school/work mode. It won't be easy but if it means Fall is around the corner, I'll accept that my break from work is coming to an end.
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