Christmas Break

Christmas was wonderful.

My husband took us (my 10 year old daughter, Lucy, our two boxers, and me) for a trailer adventure to San Jose, Lake Tahoe, Death Valley, and back home.

In San Jose, we visited the Winchester House. This was my daughter's favorite part of our trip.

We stayed at Joseph Grant, Santa Clara County Park, which was absolutely beautiful. Google Maps gave us short-cut direction options (Quimby Road) which should never be driven by any vehicle larger than an Echo or a Bug. Parts of this winding, mountain road was barely big enough to fit our truck/trailer. And, had a vehicle been coming in the opposite direction there would have been a collision, for sure. Thank God for the power of prayer!!!

In Tahoe, we stayed at Zephyr Cove. It was the first time our boxers had seen snow. We were prepared and purchased snow jackets for them. They seemed to like. My husband was amused when they would make yellow snow or when their hot scat would cause it to melt in the snow.

I enjoyed Death Valley. We visited Manzanar Japanese Relocation Camp. It was a humbling experience. I have been to Kushimoto, Japan and I have many Japanese friends, so this part of American history made me feel ashamed. Americans must learn from this and never, ever, ever make that kind of mistake again. Especially now, when tension's are high and there is much anti-Muslim sentiment provoked by the independent actions of a few terrorists. Okay, I'll get down off my soap-box.

In Death Valley, we also visited Scotty's Castle--a place that I'd never heard of before, but a place that I would recommend visiting.

We (my husband, actually) drove over 1600 miles total because I refused to drive our Chev 2500 diesel pulling our 27 foot trailer--if you've seen me drive, you'd understand why. Over all, our trip took us over 8500 feet above sea level in Tahoe, then down -282 feet below sea level at Badwater in Death Valley.

Our next trailer adventure is to Borrego Springs for President's Day. We are excited about this because our twenty-one year old son, John, will be flying in from Minneapolis, MN to join us.