…“If you’re an outdoor person” he adds, “there’s whatever you want to do outside,” he adds. “And then once the snow falls, Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta are right here." He looks back at Milo, "the town is pretty dog friendly too.” Brandon Withrow / The Daily Beast When we were done, I swung back to my home away from home while in town—Evergreen, a centrally located boutique hotel, which consists of two, nicely appointed apartments (Pine and Gardenia). They sit above a coffee shop by the same name. It is bookable through Airbnb. I stayed in Pine, which has a spacious, but cozy living room with big windows, an open kitchen, two bedrooms, two beds, and one bath. It is only steps away from a coffee shop, which makes incredible toast. The downside is that—and I know how this sounds—they start making bread around 6:00 am. My stomach literally woke me up every morning because of it. Brandon Withrow / The Daily Beast That night I had dinner at Mosaic, a casual restaurant with updated American cuisine (specializing in pizza), within a somewhat elevated atmosphere. Mosaic is the house restaurant for the Sheraton at the Sundial Bridge, but it’s not your typical hotel restaurant. Brandon Withrow / The Daily Beast First, they have a great menu, which is often hard to say about hotel restaurants tied to a chain. For an appetizer, try their wonderful crispy brussels sprouts, which are tossed with lemon marmalade and spiced pecans. For a main, I decided to check out their fortifying braised lamb (Moroccan braised lamb shank. couscous, green chickpeas, date, apricot, lemon vinaigrette, mint yogurt sauce and roasted onion & chili), which I had with Diora pinot noir. I also tried their refreshing King Tut (Lillet blanc, lemon, St-Germain, orange liqueur, orange juice, absinthe rinse, citrus foam), which is garnished with 24k gold flakes. (I was apparently in a citrus mood.) Brandon Withrow / The Daily Beast Secondly, the restaurant and the hotel are both revenue streams for the local conservation nonprofit, Turtle Bay. “The Sheraton is franchised under Marriott, and it was built by Turtle Bay,” Sous Chef Megan Teren tells me. Turtle Bay Exploration Park is a 300-acre gathering place that features a museum, an arboretum and gardens, a wildlife rescue center, and other outdoor spaces. “All of our funds, after bills are paid, go back to our local museum and park for the community." Turtle Bay is an interesting place where parents can bring kids to learn about animals and others can come to just enjoy nature. There is a limited number of spaces for housing animals, which means they focus on only those that are unable to survive in the wild on their own. All of the animals are considered ambassador animals—like a bobcat, two foxes, a racoon, or a laughing kookaburra—meaning they are visitor facing and provide educational opportunities. All are trained to do almost entirely what they would do in the wild, and are even taken on unleashed free walks. When they are rare species, they are given reproductive opportunities. Brandon Withrow / The Daily Beast Outside Turtle Bay is the Sundial Bridgewhich crosses over the Sacramento River, leading to the Sacramento River Trail. The free-standing bridge was designed by Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava. By not using foundation pylons the bridge takes a less invasive form and stays out of the water. It serves as both a public art display and a nicely designed pedestrian bridge with cycling lanes that connects the rest of the Turtle Bay campus. If you want lunch or a coffee while at Turtle Bay, their riverfront bistro, Branch House, which opened in September, is a convenient stop. (Mosaic is just around the corner for dinner.)… https://www.thedailybeast.com/reddi...-is-an-outdoors-haven?source=articles&via=rss This liberal publication has an interesting article here. He saw a very beautiful area that is not that well known. His review of that he saw is a good read. I’ve been to all the places he writes about and they are as good as he says.
Upstate CA is 20% of the size of California with less than 3% of its population. The region is an outdoor Heaven the locals refer to as Gods country. https://e.issuu.com/embed.html?d=25..._res_without_crop_m&hideIssuuLogo=true&u=scwa
Here we have Lassen Volcanic National Park and Shasta caverns national landmark. We have several state parks, one of which has what Theodore Roosevelt called the 8th wonder of the world, Burney Falls.
