Visiting with Marty and Sam at LOLV 3 '09

 From Death Valley we headed to Sam and Marty's new house in the Lakes of Las Vegas

This is the first time we have seen them since have moved in, and we had a really nice visit with them.  Bruce and Marty played several games of Wii golf.

Right after purchasing in this lovely golf community, the Lakes of Las Vegas property management announced that it was closing two of the three courses.  The local TV station interviewed Sam about her concerns about being a resident in a  high end golf community without a golf course.

Afterwards we took a long walking tour of the grounds

 It's a beautiful PGA course  with some challenging tee off s

The challenge is getting up the mountain to the green .  Even in a cart it is a difficult climb.  Then just try to keep your eyes onto where you are driving.The view is fantastic.

There is also the problem of sharing the course with the wildlife,

or finding your ball if it lands out of bounds.

 Eventually the climbing got to be a bit much for us senior citizens so Sam rescued us with their ATV.  Nice Toy, guys!

Later that afternoon er took a walk around the lake which gives the Lakes of Las Vegas community its named.

 The community has p[reserved some surprisingly nice wilderness areas for hiking

Combined with some very urban amenities

Like a Ritz Carlton surrounded by designer shops in a Venetian like village

California Touring Death Valley and Beyond 3 '09

From 395 at Lone Pine we headed east toward Death Valley National Park on highway 190

One drives through the Argus Mountain Range  then drops down to the it is the lowest and driest area in North America.

While it is hard to show  with a picture, it is a VERY long trek

  through one of the harshest landscapes on earth

Eventually, we arrived in Death Valley Junction on the boarder of California and Nevada

From there it was a short hop to Las Vegas

California Touring Hywy 395 Alabama Hills 3 '09

 Continuing North on Highway 395 we reached the Alabama Hills.  Again this was a   vacation area for us when we lived in California. And one of CC's  top ten places to for photography.

 

  The Alabama Hills are a "range of hills" and rock formations  near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains ,  west of  Lone Pine California.

 

Though geographically considered a range of hills, geologically they are a part of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Alabama Hills are a "range of hills" and rock formations  near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains ,  west of  Lone Pine California.  Though geographically considered a range of hills, geologically they are a part of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

 Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, towers several thousand feet above this low range, which itself is 1,500 feet (460 m) above the floor of Owens Valley.

 

 The Alabama Hills are a popular filming location for television and movie productions, especially  Westerns set in an archetypical "rugged" environment. 

Since the early 1920s, 150  movies and about a dozen television shows have been filmed here, including tom Mix, Hoppilong Cassidy fils, the Gene Autry Show,  and the Lone Ranger. Classics such as Gunga Din,   The Violent Men (1955 film),  and part of how the West was Won, were also made here.

 ,

 More recent productions such as Tremors and Joshua Tree, were filmed at "  movie ranch" sites known as Movie Flats and Movie Flat Road. I

 n  Galdiator, actor Russell Crowe rides a horse in front of the Alabamas, with Mount Whitney in the background, for a scene presumably set in Spain.  Star trek Generations was partially filmed here........as were many many more.

 Interestingly the area is inextricably tied to the history of the South.   You see, The Alabama Hills were named for CSS Alabama. When news of the  Confederate warship's exploits reached prospectors in California sympathetic to the  American Civil War Confederates, they named many mining claims after the ship, and the name came to be applied to the entire range. When the Alabama was finally sunk off the coast of  Normandy by the USS Kearsarge in 1864, prospectors sympathetic to the North named a mining district, a mountain district and a mountain pass, a mountain peak, and a town after the Kearsarge

   You can learn more about the Alabama Hills and its hitory by visiting Dow Villa Motel and Cafe in the town of Lone Pine

California: Touring Hywy 395 Fossil Falls 3 '09

Highway 395 runs along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range in California. Some of our most memorable road trips  have been along this highway.  Bruce and I decided to spend an extra day to revisit some of these sights.  First stop: Fossil Falls:

 Bruce and I had been here several times with the Sierra Club's  Camera and the Desert Sections,  and yet,  it was still hard to find.  The formations  cannot be seen from the road, and only one small sign off of Highway 395  exists to even alert motorists that there is anything of interest nearby.  If you go to Fossil Falls, located just off U. S. Highway 395 on the east side of the southern end of California’s Sierra Nevada, don’t expect to find either fossils or falls.  What you will find, rather, is a spectacular lava flow sculpted by rushing water and wind late in the Ice Ages—a “fossil” of nature’s handiwork. 

  As you hike the rocky trail through the formation, you’ll wonder at first where the “falls” are because the land immediately before you is relatively flat, but abruptly, you’ll come to the chasm that reveals the spectacular lava falls. 

The black shiny lava has been worn smooth over the eons.  It was primarily water from the Owens River, which once flowed from an ancient lake, that polished the lava into a smooth structure.  The resulting formation is reminiscent of a Renoir sculpture.

   You can climb down into the chasm and explore the lava gorge, or you can take the high ground and enjoy the scenery that surrounds you. 
For more information on this unusual  place see:
http://www.desertusa.com/mag07/jul07/fossil.html

California: Visiting my Mom 3'09

When we departed Charlotte North Carolina on the morning of  March 2nd there was snow on the ground, and when we arrived in San Diego CA that afternoon.it was 70 degrees out and Spring was in the air.

The first stop on our trip was our rental house in Orange county (one of several visits we made to it during this trip). After  inspecting the property and arranging for  some landscaping issues to be taken care of,  we turned our attention toward visiting CC's  mom.

We had a nice visit with Ray and Jackie at their home in Riverside County.

The weather was so nice we all took a short ride  to see the new Diamond Valley Lake

 CC paid her respects to her father and grandmother while she was in the area.

and also went by to see her grandparents farm.

.Bruce was jealous of the view Ray and Jackie have of Mt San Jacinto from their front door.

 Seeing her mother and the mountains made CC very homesick for California

Linda Berryman's House Warming 2 '09

Linda Berryman moved into her new home this month

And decided to have a few friends over for a housewarming party

Her center island is a magnet for good food and conversation

But so is her dog who also functioned as the greeter

of course there were many quiet conversations

and a lot of laughter

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow 2'09

It snowed  enough tonight to cover the ground .  We've seen flurries in the past  couple of years, but this is our first true snowfall since we've been here.

Bruce couldn't resist the chance to build a snowman.

Kat seeing us out of doors thought she should be able to come out to play as well. I don't think she has ever seen snow before.  As soon as her paw touched the snow she retreated to the shelter of the eves with a bewildered look on her face. She kept looking up at me then back out at the yard as though she was asking, "What is all this white stuff?"