Lewiston is probably the cheapest place to live in California, not counting Hayfork and vicinity.
The "locals" change every year, as new retired bus drivers and assorted low-lifes move up from Orange County. Only the Traveling Pinochle Club stays the same.
But there's not much you can do to screw up a bridge lighting and a visit from Santa Claus, even if the tradition only goes back to 1991 and is therefore eighty years younger than the bridge itself.
Thing is, Lewiston is never going to get any better, or any worse, so it's a fair bet that the bridge lighting will always be worth going to. It will always be authentic, in its way, while the local festivals in big cities like Redding descend ever downward. There's just no way to un-twist the roads to Lewiston, or get the Board of Health to knock down the temporary housing built in 1959 for the dam construction, and this keeps out both high-quality cardiac care and the sort of high-pressure community movers and shakers who ruin the party.
Lewiston, California, will always be full of clueless morons looking for an easier life, and they will always put on a pretty neat Christmas party. I lived there myself in a travel trailer for four years, and you can take it from me. read more