Redding and Bodies Revealed
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2007
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34
55
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Redding, California
Sunday, June 8, 2008
We left Tahoe and headed north toward redwood country. Along the way, we stopped in Redding CA. We stopped in Redding for the night and ended up there about one week in a campground called Green Acres. Not a bad place, and the owners were very nice people making us feel right at home. While we saw Redding as a stopover point, it turned out to be an interesting place with a lot to do and see. Redding is one of the larger towns between Tahoe and the northern coast, nestled between Mount Shasta and another mountain whose name escapes me. It also is home to a unique landmark-a sundial bridge. It is one of a few bridges in the world that was constructed to be a working sundial.
While in Redding, we visited the Sundial Bridge and Turtle Bay Exploration Park. The park is a neat place, with a small aviary of colorful birds, and a live butterfly exhibit that you can walk through. They also have show of local birds of prey with hawks, vultures, and owls. A museum and other exhibits give a flavor for the local history, the culmination of Native Americans, pioneers, and miners, and common animals and reptiles that you might observe in the area. We went there mainly to see a special exhibit called Bodies Revealed.
What a fantastic exhibit-we highly recommend it if you have any interest in the workings of the human body. As the marketing materials proclaim, it will certainly affect they way you see yourself. Bodies revealed is an exhibit of real human bodies and parts that have been dissected and preserved using a "revolutionary process" by which a plastic-based material is injected into the tissue. The process allows any bodily system, gland, organ or tissue to be individually preserved and isolated for display. You can see your entire circulatory system standing upright in a glass case in the shape of a human (imagine what it would look like the invisible man stepped into a mesh of red silly string), or check out your entire digestive system (including glands and organs) isolated for your observation, or take a sideways view of your body bisected vertically or horizontally. It's like nothing you've seen before and really gives you an appreciation of our physiological complexity. There are many of these exhibits throughout the country if one is interested (check it out on www.bodiesrevealed.com).
We also took a ride up to Mount Shasta one evening. It's a cute little town at the edge of the 14,162 foot mountain, the highest of the Shasta Cascades, that gives it its name. There was much more to do and see, and a number of other day trips that would be interesting to check out if we are there again. But we were eager to get to redwood country!
