We made it out alive!

Sorry, I couldn't resist this dramatic title, but it seemed appropriate given where we've been.

We thoroughly enjoyed our three-night camping trip in Death Valley National Park with our friends Carl and Carla and their youngest son, Christo.  For those who don't know, Death Valley is Tom's favorite place on earth.  BC (before Cindy), he camped in DV at least once a year.  BK (before kids) we camped in DV twice.  AK (after kids), we camped in DV with Lukas when he was 13 months.  After Natalie was born, we didn't camp for a long time because of her health issues, and then we chose a closer park (Joshua Tree) for her first camping trip.  Joshua Tree is 2 hours from our home and DV is 6 hours...it's easy to choose the closer site, but almost 5 years later we finally returned to DV.

Tom stressed for several weeks before the trip about whether the weather would be ok for the visit.  In early November, there's still a chance of very hot weather, but there can also be very windy weather.  It turned out that the first day was the hottest at 92 degrees at the temperature peak and there was only a very little breeze at night and in the morning.  The nights were warm: just below 60 degrees, which is WONDERFUL for camping with kids.  The weather could not have been better.

And with Tom's new van, we enjoyed conversation with all of us in the same vehicle.  Packing was a little tighter than it would normally be, but we were still able to get two families' stuff in the van...not bad!

Tom picked a campsite (Texas Spring) that was more centrally located than we've camped in the past, so we could see the main tourist attractions without having to drive as much.  We were surprised when we arrived to learn that we had decided to camp on one of the busiest weeks of the year: but thankfully there were two campsites for us to use (there were only four left when we arrived).

We really enjoyed camping with another family and learning tricks and meals from them.  Carla brought glow-in-the-dark necklaces for the kids.  This is going on our camping trip list for the future: not only did the kids love them, but at night we could see the kids easily.  They also made a great night light when the kids went to bed, and they played quietly with them when they woke in the morning (there was still a little glow left).  A definite winner!

And Carla made great breakfast burritos (Carl is cooking the bacon over the fire) and tacos.  I made pumpkin pancakes (from a box) for a breakfast and tri-tip and baked potatoes for a dinner.  It was so fun to share meals and see how other people do it.  And everything tastes better when you're camping!


If you double-click on the picture above to make it bigger, you can see Lukas climbing the butte right next to our campsite.  Of course anything Lukas does, Konrad wants to do, but he had to be satisfied with only climbing halfway up.

Our day trips consisted of hiking up Mosaic Canyon and seeing the dunes and the pup fish, and driving to Dante's View and Badwater Basin.  We also saw the beautiful colors on Artist's Drive and visited the ghost town of Rhyolite, just outside of DV (Lukas was very excited to go to Nevada for Rhyolite...he keeps saying he's been to three states now: California, Texas and Nevada).  Natalie and Konrad loved camping too.  It's still a chore to keep them from wandering off, but it's getting easier as they get older, and of course having three more people on the trip helped a lot.

I hope it's not another 5 years before we go back!

Carl and Tom with Konrad and Natalie, ready to hike up Mosaic Canyon.  Konrad was eating a banana.

Natalie waving hi during a hiking break.  She got adventurous in her climbing and thought she could do more than she could. 

 

Konrad says "I did it!" every time he climbs something.

 Lukas and Konrad coloring while waiting for dinner, with the sunset in the background.

Kids entertaining themselves while waiting for breakfast.

Lukas with a piece of salt, at Devil's Golfcourse.

Carl, Carla, Christo and Konrad, at Devil's Golfcourse.

Pioneer re-enacters, one reason this was a busy week.

Our family at Dante's View.

Candid snapshot at our campsite: Lukas reading to Natalie, Konrad playing with trucks, Cindy coming out of the tent, Christo, Carl and Carla chatting.