did i miss something?

when did 2010 get here? oh, it must have been somewhere between my family's visit to california for 'a week in the life of tara' and my dog nearly dying of kidney failure!

needless to say, the last three weeks have been chock full of excitement, some good, some bad.

my folks arrived in california with my sister and my niece on christmas day - or rather, on christmas day night. we started our girl bonding, mom, sis, and i, by taking a late night drive up to lax airport (about an hour from home) to pick up their luggage, which, thanks to the inevitable holiday airline delays and changes, did not arrive with them in orange county.

fortunately, the drive and conversation were enjoyable and the luggage pick-up fairly simple. the only negative was that it meant i'd be in bed later than i'd have liked given the next day's planned adventure.

since we had decided to cancel our plans for yosemite due to concerns about weather and transportation, i agreed to accompany my dad on his own personal national park passport stamp hunting adventure. so at 7am on saturday morning, we were on our way to death valley national park.

i'll be honest, death valley is not a park i've been particularly motivated to visit. i mean, just the name of it alone is enough to make you want to stay away. but, i needed to get te stamp at some point, and truly there's no better person for me to go stamp hunting with!

our first stop made for a longer drive. it DID included a bonus stamp, though not much else. as a result, the mojave national preserve was a fairly quick drive by. we got out of the car, took a few pics, locked ourselves in jail, and demonstrated how to mount a saddle before heading on to death valley.


what surprised me most about the park was that i enjoyed it. the landscape was more diverse than i expected.


we stopped to enjoy a section that reminded me of the badlands, before heading on to my personal highlight, badwater basin. at 282 feet below sea level, it is the lowest point in north america.


dad and i made sure to stand in holes so we could TRULY be at the lowest point. silly tourists just walking on the well-worn path. ha!


i'm not sure if you can tell, but there's a sign on that wall of rock that indicates where sea level is.

how bout now?


after badwater basin we hit the golden canyon where we did some light hiking and a little climbing.

and then it was time to head home. remember how i said we left at 7am? well we arrived at home around 9:30pm, and of that time, spent all but probably an hour and a half in the car. needless to say, it was a long day, but we were happy to arrive and find that dylan and kelly had made it safely from oregon (via car). we spent some time chatting and planning for the week's adventures before i said my goodnights and goodbyes, leaving them to enjoy the donahoo's vacant and generously 'donated' home away from home.

..........to be continued............