Death Valley, California or BUST!

Day two of our adventure had us leaving Las Vegas and venturing out into the desert! Eeek!! *grins* Death Valley, California to be exact. We did a lot of thinking about which route would be the best to take from Las Vegas to our hotel near Yosemite, but we finally decided that since we were so close to Death Valley we might as well see it!We were sure glad we did. It was a pretty neat little drive. Hmmm, I say "little" drive, but Dad was the one doing all the driving. It actually worked out to a nearly eleven hour day of driving! But, we stopped several places along the way so it didn't feel abominably long.

Just as we crossed over into California we started noticing the big wind turbines that are used to create "green" energy. Rising over hills in the horizon we were excited to see several all together...We thought this (above) looked like a lot until we rounded the bend and came face to face with THIS!Wowiee!! They were everywhere, all across the skyline! You'd think they could power the whole state of California with all of these beauties *winks*

Just inside Death Valley National Park we stopped at an over look and saw the expansive beautiful color-filled sand dunes.Here are cutesie Mom and Dad with the dunes over their shoulders. It was over a hundred degrees outside, but the wind was blowing about one hundred miles per hour, so it kind of leveled out the heat *laughs*

Dad, Mom and I were leaning into the wind in this picture *grins* Aren't the sand and sky so pretty!?!

We kept driving and driving until I spotted these amazing waves in the sand...

It looked so soft and delicate. I just had to stop and feel it. So, we pulled over for a nice picnic lunch and I got to feel the sand *grins*

Can you see that little cloud of dust in the upper right hand corner of this picture? I was so enamored with this sand, I made Kenny take a picture of me tossing it up into the air! *laughs*

We continued on our drive and sweet Dad didn't make a peep of discomfort that he was driving on and on and on for-ev-er! Another neat place we stopped we got to climb up on some dunes. I wasn't thinking ahead wearing flip flops to the desert. That sand was hot stuff! My feet would just sink right in and it would burn the tops of my feet! Good gracious!

Kenny is really amazing about spotting wild life, anywhere and everywhere! Look at this cute guy out in the middle of nowhere!

I don't know how he kept his little feet from burning! *winks*

Well, we finally made it to our hotel in Oakhurst and were relieved to get checked in for a restful nights sleep.

Look at this amazing stone fireplace in the hotel lobby! There was a grand piano I was fighting the urge to play too *winks* Day three is coming up tomorrow!