Death Valley part I

Since I'm probably not going anywhere fun for awhile, I will subject you to lots of pictures of death valley. Also, it is hard not to take amazing pictures there.
Rhyolite is a Nevada ghost town, which is the only place to ever mine Rhyolite, an (apparently) useless mineral.

Despite its ghostiness, you can still reach out and touch someone there. I think. Lord knows my cell didnt get reception the entire weekend.

Rhyolite is strange because it has crumbling CONCRETE buildings. the same shade as the dirt and rock.

The concrete ruins were alongside buildings with found rock masonry.

This mine outside Big Pine was surrounded by weird white powdery rock. Several collapsed shacks and all kinds of machinery and tin cans were about. Oh yeah, this was several miles down a dirt road (and hours from civilization, we were about to find out)

If there is one ubiquitous sign of miners, its discarded, rusty tin cans.

Desert Landscapes

I have too many wonderful pictures from our recent trip to Death Valley to begin to tell the amazing story. So instead I am posting a few desert landscape pictures. You would think the desert all looks the same, but this is far from truth. It boggles the mind to think all these pictures came from the same place. You go around one mountain, and suddenly, everything has changed.

Oh yeah, and the skyscapes are just as varied in the desert too.

4 year anniversary--To Santa Cruz!

This past weekend Leggy and I went to Santa Cruz to celebrate our four year anniversary.
We stayed at the luxurious Econo Lodge and did it up, tourist style.

The weather was amazing, as we frolicked on the beach, went on rides at the boardwalk, and cruised west cliff drive.

We topped off the trip with a visit to the Tech Museum, which now has BODYWORLDS 2 on exhibit. We spent an hour gawking at the (more often than not) ridiculously posed skinned cadavers. It is macabre and fascinating! I'll never look at my own body quite the same way; its kind of disturbing to see how fragile all our fleshy parts are.

I'm sad to see our summer go; it was the best one ever.

Hiking in East Bay Hills

A couple weeks ago I went hiking in the East Bay Hills. At Joquin Miller Park near Chabot space center has some amazing trees and views of the bay.

This is an easy trail, so its great to take visitors or parents. I highly recommend it!