Mt. Shasta

After two days spent at the Glyconutrient conference in Sacramento, we traveled a three and half hour journey to Mt. Shasta. It was the first time for both of us to visit. We stayed at Stoney Brook Inn, a bed & breakfast in McCloud that's about one exit away from Mt. Shasta City. It took a bit of time to adjust to being unable to go online or even use my cellphone, but with the beautiful scenery, the delicious breakfasts and truly warm and wonderful people at Stoney Brook I didn't feel so disconnected. Our room was clean and cozy, although it did remind of the tiny business hotels we stayed at in Japan (but with more character).

Sunday, July 2 - Day one. Using one of Naoki's Japanese guidebooks (please read his blog to pull that books info), we went in search of Mt. Shasta City Park, where crystal clear water gushes from the base of the mountain. A quick visit to the tourist information center got us on the right path. Never, and I mean, NEVER would I ever think to drink any kind of water that wasn't bottled or filtered without it going through numerous tests, then disinfected, and then boiled for impurities. I relented after seeing a series of people come with their water bottles and jugs to drink water from that spring, and it was undoubtedly the best, cleanest tasting water I have ever had!

Have you ever seen that Adam Sandler movie called "Waterboy"? In one scene, Adam Sandler passed Fairuza Balk's character, his love interest, a prized bottle of H2O that came from some far off place bottled by one-eyed monks or some such nonsense as that. Anyway, when he get's trampled by a gang of hulkin football players, Fairuza runs onto the field and revives him by giving him a drink of that "holy" water. Well, my point is/was that stuff probably tasted like the icy cold water that came out of Mt. Shasta!

We then ventured onwards for lunch at Black Bear in Mt. Shasta City. I had the stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes and Naoki had the chicken avocado sandwich on sourdough with a side of coleslaw. They really do serve homestyle diner food. We were too stuffed to get dessert and didn't want to overindulge on our first day there.