Hi friends,
To celebrate my birthday this year my hubby asked me what I wanted to do. I chose a trip! We couldn’t go too far because both of us could only take a few days off from work. He chose the location – and I agreed! We went to Northern California for five days. Initially, we were only going to go to Napa and maybe spend a day in San Francisco, but we’ve been there multiple times, so we decided to add Mount Shasta to our mini-vacation. We went to Mount Shasta, Calistoga Ranch in Napa, and Santa Rosa in Sonoma – in that order.
Our trip started with an early morning flight to San Francisco. After landing, we picked up our rental car and drove to Mount Shasta, which is about a four hour ride. We were both in a relaxed mode. About an hour into the drive, we stopped to pick up snacks and have some breakfast. After breakfast, I took over the wheel and drove the remaining portion of the trip on interstate 5. My hubby is from San Francisco, so we visit often and have been to the surrounding cities in the past, but never as far north as Mount Shasta. It is a simple drive (once you get out of the city) on the 5, mostly passing multiple cities on the boundary of the freeway, followed by lots of open land and fields. During our drive, I saw a few sunflower fields and they reminded me of my sister, since that is her favorite flower. Once we hit the Mount Shasta area, the drive was filled with amazing landscape, it was mountainous with large forest trees as far as the eye could see.
We checked into Mount Shasta Resort. We had a cabin nestled in the mountain, right next to Lake Siskiyou. The cabin was just the perfect way to spend some time in the forest, relax, and connect with mother nature.
After we got settled into our cabin, we took a nap and then went out to explore the city and have some dinner. There wasn’t much to see, just a few little shops, restaurants, and lodges. When we returned to the to the cabin we went for a walk around the lake area.
The next day, I slept in, which was nice! My body needed the rest. Mid-morning, I went to the clubhouse to pick up some breakfast for us. We had breakfast on the patio, with a view of the lake. It was very relaxing! Later in the day, we went to Shasta-Trinity National Forest and stopped at a few of the surrounding towns. We wanted to see waterfalls and chose to go to the Middle Falls overlook trail.
That evening, we went back to Mount Shasta for dinner at Liliy’s, a cute local restaurant with a french menu. The next day, we were going to visit the Mount Shasta Museum and the Mount Shasta Trout Hashery. It is the largest trout hatchery west of the Mississippi ( located next to the Museum). Since it was still early, we decided to find the Museum, so we knew where to head the next day. To our pleasant surprise, the Museum was still open because there was a play being performed that evening. We got to see the Museum and walk around the Hatchery. The Museum is small, but has some interesting exhibits regarding the history of the area. We really couldn’t see the trout in the water because it was getting dark, so we decided we’d come back the next day.
On our last day in Mount Shasta, we watched the World Cup match (Mexico vs. Netherlands) in the morning. I was disappointed that Mexico lost, but we never lose hope, they is always the next World Cup to play in again (I am following Mexico, USA, & Germany). After the game, we headed to the clubhouse for brunch and to check out. The Resort has a beautiful golf course, which the restaurant overlooks.
After brunch, we went back to the Museum to check out the trout hatchery. It was very interesting and fascinating. The hatchery is operated by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and funded from fishing license fees. It is open to the public and admission is free. There are small vending machines where you can buy food to feed the fish. It was interesting to see the multiple tanks that the trout are kept in and the process followed to raise them. The entire process takes 18 months, from hatching to release into a lake. I had never seen so many trout in one place!
After visiting the Museum, we started our drive towards Calistoga Ranch in Napa. I’ll share pictures of Calistoga Ranch-an Auberge Resort in my next post.
Hope you like these pictures from our visit to Mount Shasta!
Have you been to Mount Shasta or Northern California? Do you go camping? What do you prefer – to stay in a cabin, tent, or RV?
Hugs,
Paola
Mount Shasta.
This was our cabin.
This was our rental car. It was perfect for the drive in the mountains and wine country!
My hubby’s dinner. I ate the asparagus, it was delicious!
My dinner – it was a tasty salad! The dressing was one of the best vinagrettes I’ve had!
We shared the mud pie a la mode dessert!
Enjoying breakfast on the patio!
We took a selfie 🙂
Lily’s Restaurant.
The Clubhouse at Mount Shasta Resort.
The Trout Hatchery.
