Spring Break 2010

We just got back from our trip to Death Valley and Las Vegas. We had a great time!

I will write a little about Death Valley now and more about the trip in the coming days.

I had never been in Death Valley and found it so very interesting and scenic. We spent the first night in a town called Tenopa, it was right in the middle of nowhere, not far from the old Spanish trail Our room was right next to the hot springs, and I bathed there at night, it was great! Next to our building, there was a Bistro with gourmet food which is very unusual to find in such a secluded area, the chef owner used to have a Zagat rated restaurant in Las Vegas and graduated first in the New York Culinary Institute, but I guess he decided to get away from it all and open a bistro right in the Hot Springs area.

After checking in, we drove around to an oasis in the middle of the desert called China Farm. Again,m it was totally unexpected, it was really way deep in a canyon, surrounded by mountains and desert. We took some pictures and looked around, after that we started on our Death Valley trek.

It's hard to describe all the sights, so I will just write about some of my favorite spots. The first one, was the beautiful valleys full of desert flowers, which is very rare for Death Valley, but they had lots of rain this year and flowers bloomed abundantly although they won't last very long. The lowest point in the US, 282 feet below sea level, was very interesting too, as far as the eyes can see is a dry lake with some moisture in some parts because of the rain, but in general it was an arid, dry, amazing landscape.

I was a little disappointed in the sunset, I was looking forward to a gorgeous desert sunset, but without a cloud in the sky, the sun settled behind the mountains without much fanfare!

On our way back to our Hot Springs "resort", we stopped for dinner at a cafe in Shoshone, they were about to close and we just had a sandwich.

One of the most beautiful sights, was the absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, amazing desert skies. I have never seen so many stars, so close up and bright, we sat outside our room just looking at the sky. As I looked up, I saw the most brilliant shooting star..I made a wish...