This is my third story about Death Valley National Park. Obviously I was quite impressed by it. Honestly it was an unexpectedly spectacular place, but I also discovered a few things that took me by surprise.
Perhaps I’ve lived a sheltered existence but I was startled
In this second segment about my recent trip to Death Valley National Park I want to talk about some of the iconic places within the park that my daughter and I visited. Many sites I had considered ahead of time with the help of friends who had been there before. Others were serendipitous.
One such unexpected outing occurred the first morning before dawn. Halley and I wandered a couple miles east of Stovepipe Wells to the Sand Dunes. We didn’t know
Death Valley was not what I expected. This first trip was full of surprises. Let me preface my story by confessing that the desert isn’t one of my favorite places and I’ve avoided this park for decades. But how long could that continue? My curiosity got the better of me, and
Solvang is a small town about 35 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, California. It is best known as “that Danish town” and indeed tourism is its chief industry. The village has modeled itself on similar towns in Denmark. The traveler is expected to get that “Old Country” feeling about the place. And people
Claremont wasn’t on my schedule today. I could easily have been talked into staying indoors rather than venturing forth on a rainy morning. It has been so long since I’ve driven in the rain I couldn’t remember how to turn on the windshield wipers! That says something about the extent of the California drought! Still, I was tempted by
Visiting the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California, was something of a lark for me. I just had a hankering to go check it out. It may seem like historic airplanes are something of a departure from my usual adventures but honestly I’ve had an interest in them for years. I think it’s because my husband liked them from the time he was a kid and heard stories from
I made the short drive to Descanso Gardens in hope of seeing some tulips or daffodils. I hadn’t given up on finding these flowers that I associate with spring. The weather was warm, pushing into the 80 degree mark and the sky was hazy and brown. As I drove along I began to doubt the wisdom of the trip. Perhaps I was already too late. Had I missed spring?
Descanso is located in La Canada Flintridge, just to the northwest of Pasadena. The garden isn’t the well-manicured type like The Huntington. My destination garden has a relaxed feel. You won’t find pristine lawns and 18th century statues here. What I did find was
Heaps Peak Arboretum is located in the San Bernardino National Forest. I haven’t been there in years but it’s one of those places I revisit every now and then. I confess my expectations weren’t high for this trip. I had thought I was looking
San Juan Capistrano is a small town about an hour’s drive south. It’s also the place to which the swallows return in the spring. The main attraction is of course the mission, the 7th in the long line of 21 missions founded along the California coast.
I set out
