Snow and Rainbows

We made it to Anderson and the Gaia Hotel just fine.  They have swans and koi in a big pond that were fun to watch.  The round buildings, each with their own central courtyard are set up around the pond.  By the looks of the parking lot, there weren't too many people staying there on a Monday night.

Turns out the restaurant I wanted us to go to is closed on Mondays, bummer.  We ended up going to someplace else where we over paid for  what we got, which was not very much food...the oysters were good though.

Avenue Q was great!  We really enjoyed the show, and our front row seats.  We were surprised however by the large number of folks who left during the intermission...mostly old folks whom I can only assume were offended by the content.  The puppet sex was hot!

The next morning we took our sweet time getting up and moving.  Jillian took a shower while I did a bit of work, glad I brought my computer, cuz I was able to take care of a few things.  We headed out right at noon and headed over to the outlet mall in Anderson.  We had a $300 budget and did great!  I ended up with new undies and 3 new bras, seven shirts, four pairs of pants and a skirt...Jillian got a new jacket and bag...and we had money left over.  Which was great because we ended up having to stay in town another night.

After eating dinner at In & Out Burger I realized how cold it was getting.  I thought to check the road conditions before heading out.  Sure enough, chains were required on the 299!  Shit, we didn't have chains, it was getting dark and I have no experience driving in the snow!  We started looking at alternate routes - down I-5 to 20 and up 101, or up I-5, over 199 and down 101?  Either one would be a 6-7 hour trip and I was already tired.  I ended up calling the boss and letting him know that I would be staying in Redding area another night, therefore miss the morning meeting and heading home Wednesday. 

We stayed another night at Gaia, we couldn't find a better deal anywhere, and really, the room was really nice.  On the way to the hotel I took Jillian to her first truck stop...where we found the world's largest rice crispy treat!

The next morning, we got up with the 7 a.m. alarm and were on the road by 8.  We ate at the Black Bear Cafe in Redding and checked out the road conditions.  And although chains were no longer required on 299, I was still scared to drive Oregon Summit in the early morning.  So we headed north into Oregon.  Didn't take long before we started seeing snow along the side of the road.  It was thickest around Mt. Shasta so we pulled over for a few pictures and to trow a snowball, fun!

We stopped at Macy's in Medford and bought a new bed set...and got a fantastic deal.  Somehow the lady working was able to give us the sale prices for this weekend's sale now, and then gave us a deal on a couple pillows, and then another discount on top of that!  What should have been $410ish we got for $140ish!  And to top it off, these are pictures of the first of two great rainbows that we saw today.