March 17-18 2026 Death Valley, California

 101 degrees and sunny. Yikes.

Our casita at Furnace Creek Inn. It was hideously hot-over 100, but we had the POOL at the Inn. 

The garden at Furnace Creek Inn. Sunset. 

We had dinner in the dining room. It was packed, so we were lucky to snag a reservation. We went to Salt Creek to view pupfish. They just opened up the new boardwalk. 

 This is how dry the desert is around salt creek. Pupfish.

Judy, Jill and John on the Salt Creek boardwalk. In our cool cabana by the pool. 

A shelter in the garden. Some of the rooms overlooking the garden.

The front of Furnace Creek Inn. The dining room at Furnace Creek Inn. 

We ate dinner the last night on the patio outside the dining room. We only had 2 reservations for 4, so they would not let us push the tables together. It was hot at first, but cooled down into the 80's and was quite pleasant. 

Judy with her birthday cake. The night sky here is amazing. This is from the garden, where the palm trees had some light.  Right after this photo I dropped my phone on the cobblestone walk and the screen broke. Boo.  We had to go to Vegas, where the closest Verizon store is and I got a new phone, traded in the old one for $900.

March 16, 2026 Death Valley, California

 100 degrees and mostly sunny.

We drove down to Death Valley for our annual family Death Valley trip. We have been going this time of year for almost 30 years. The flowers are still blooming, but it has been so hot and dry there are not as many and they are much shorter and smaller blooms. Still pretty. Field of sand verbena.  Desert gold. 

Desert gold. View of flowers, the valley floor and the Panamint mountains. 

Road side view. Desert gold. This is a much smaller display than a couple weeks ago. 

Lots of tourists viewing the flowers. Have to watch where you are driving. 

Lake Manley is still here. It does not look much smaller to me. With this heat wave it should evaporate soon. 

Desert gold and colorful cliffs. Happy hour on the patio at Judy and Jill's casita.

Sunset from Furnace Creek Inn.

The dining room was sold out, we only had a reservations for 4, so three of us had dinner at the bar with a lovely view of sunset. I  like the menu at the bar much better than the dining room. The pond by the casitas at night. 

Not really  a good week to visit Death Valley. The Inn has a beautiful pool we will be using.

March 10-15 2026 Shoshone, California

 High of 80 and sunny.

Aliens have landed in Tecopa! We took advantage of the sale at the hot springs, campground, dump and soak for $5. We dumped the bus, and then soaked.

$5

The desert tortoises are out. We got home to Robbie digging a ditch in the yard. The washer waste water was routed to come up in this area. Judy want's to park her car here, but not with washer water coming up under her car. Robbie dug down and put in a leach line. Thanks Robbie.!

Robbie installing pipe and John and Robbie filling the hole back up. Now it is safe to park the car there. Jill came in today. Judy picked her up in Vegas and we had dinner at the Crowbar tonight. 

Sunset. Egad, it is getting too hot too early!!

Sunset. 89 and sunny. I finished this basket. It is made from local grasses and dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads gemstone bears and the center is a bear I fused with murrine I made. It is 7 1/2 x 7 x 1 1/2 inches.

 Cool clouds this evening. Sunset.

Dinner on the palm patio tonight. Brian gave a nice talk at the museum today with old photos and memories. 

We have friends from the Bay Area here. We are starting our annual family Death Valley trip. Before dinner we moved the big tent shelter around so Judy can park her car under it. Then we had a nice happy hour and dinner on the Palms Party Patio.

We attended Judy D's painting workshop. Lots of fun. These are  what I painted. 

I finished another masterpiece. It is made from dyed pine needles, glass and gemstone beads,  polyester thread and the center is a raven sandblasted and painted on slate.