The Great Plain

The reason we were told not to slip and fall was because the ground was made of nothing but salt. Many years ago, the entirety of Death Valley was a vast body of water called Lake Manly. Over time, the climate changed and the air in the are got dry and hot. The lake slowly evaporated, leaving behind vast deposits of evaporites, such as salt and borax. This plain was one of the larger chunks of salt that got left over.

Fragile Crystalline Growths

Of course, this wasn’t the craziest thing about the whole place. The absolute craziest thing was that the salt was actually just a giant crust on top of an underground lake. Turned out that the depositing salts had layered over top of the bottom most layer of water, which allowed the lake to remain in this section of the valley, protected by its salt shield. In the heyday of the Valley, people would use dynamite to blast into the mineral rich water below and advertise it as a healthy soak for tourists. Several of the holes have closed up since then, but this one remained for us to marvel at.

The Underground Lake

We eventually left the salt flats, and I was struck once more by just how ridiculously flat the valley could be. There was just nothing there at times.

Stay Flat, Death Valley

This Is Probably Unsafe

I can’t really think of anything for this one. I like the shot though. Again, people for perspective.

Canyon Walls

We exited the canyon and saw what looked like was a large chunk of missing ground. Turns out that that’s what happens when the flash floods come through the valley. In the basin of the flooded area out you can see the debris that came with it.

Wash Out

There wasn’t a whole lot of life in the valley, but there were quite a few ravens flying around. This was the only one I was able to get a good shot of, and it luckily happened on the second day of the trip.

Quoth The Raven...

The Valley Floor

We arrived early in the morning, which worked out perfectly because the canyon is named for its color. Sunrise is just the right time for the golden hues to be brought out, according to people in the know. For a hint at the scale, look near the bottom of the picture. There’s a person there.

Golden Canyon

As so often happens in the desert, the sky overhead was the clearest blue I think I’ve ever seen in my life. Any clouds were a luxury that were to be savored. The plane didn’t exactly provide any shade.

The Wild Blue Yonder

This next shot speaks for itself. This time there’s two people in frame.

Climbing the Canyon

After hiking up through the main drag, we were able to see this large tower. I’m sure it has a name, I just can’t quite remember what it was. Sure was tall, either way.

The Nameless Tower

We rounded the corner and saw this path. I promise that it wasn’t as terrifying as it looked.

Acrophobia Says Hello

First up is the captain of the entire affair, my father. He’s a good boat driver.

The Captain

The first thing we did was to get my sister and sme of my younger cousins out tubing. I’m not a huge fan of the tube because the rider has almost no control, which I loathe. They enjoyed it though, so whatever.

They Weren't Going So Fast

We didn’t have our ski around on this particular trip, so there was no skiing, but we did go kneeboarding. Here’s my sister coming back from her trip around the lake. She has a big smile quite a lot of the time.

Swimming Back

And here’s one of the few pictures of myself on this site. Curiously, I’ve yet to appear with a shirt on. Diabolical master plan or harmless coincidence? You decide.

Thumbs Up, Mate

During the tubing I got bored because the kids didn’t want a lot of bumpiness. I started taking pictures of clouds to kill time. Here’s one of them.

Clouds!

First up is my sister Emma around the fire. One of my younger cousins brought her iPod Touch, and Emma commandeered it in order to play a generic version of Rush Hour. She got pretty into it and refused to pay attention to anything else. I don’t even think the camera’s flash at night got her attention for more than half a second or so.

Emma and the iPod

This is my Uncle Othmar. I really don’t think anything I could say would describe him better than this picture, so let’s just get to it.

Othmar

The pixelation on this one is by request of the cousin being blurred, but that’s okay because it’s Lisa in the background that makes it such an amusing shot. She claims to have not done it intentionally, and I certainly didn’t see it until I took the picture. Incidentally, that’s my Aunt Donna on the left. She’s married to Othmar.

A Menacing Grin

This is from when I learned my mom (Ginny) can still do a headstand from a pike position. it’s a picture of my mom doing a headstand from a pike position.

The Headstand Queen

And finally, my dad (Chuck) doing what he did a lot of that weekend, driving the boat while towing some relatives. There was much tubing, skiing, and kneeboarding.

Vroom Vroom

First up we have Pumpkin again, but this time he’s not so grown up. We got the cats a few years ago; this is from when they were just little kittens you could fit in the palm of your hand.

A Smaller Cat

Aone paying attention should be able to work out that the next photo will be of Comet as a kitten, and guess what? You’re right!

Another Small Cat

Next up are a pair of cats from years gone by. This pair are the first cats my family had, and they were also the cats that let us know about my sister’s cat allergies and asthma. I didn’t develop my allergies until several years later, but she had her’s pretty badly. We finally had to get rid of them after she was sent to the hospital by a particularly nasty asthma attack. So here they are, Ms. Frizzle and Bo Peep. In that order.

These Almost Killed My Sister

And to not feel too bad about hving not taken any of the pictures thus far, here’s a crappy picture of Pumpkin climbing on a screen door that I took just now. I heard scritch-scratching coming from my left and went to investigate. Then ran back and got my camera. Then went back and only had time to get one bad shot off before he dropped down and ran off.

Scaling Mt. Screeny

Comet, like most cats, like to sleep. A lot. 9 times out of 10 when you go to their night time home, they’re both curled up in some comfortable cushion or another.

Another Cat in Repose

When she started paying attention, Comet was fascinated with the weird silver thing that kept shining an orange light on her face.

Please Stop

I had a seat on our couch, so Comet played one of her favorite games: go sit on a human lap.

Laps Are Comfortable

Pumpkin wanted to play as well.

'Sup?

This is the reason I started taking pictures in the first place; I happened to see him facing off against a mouse. I honestly can’t tell if he’s staring down the mouse or if it’s happening the other way around.

Stare Down

Both of our cats are quite friendly. When they see someone coming towards them they usually either run up to nuzzle you or simply flop down on the ground and ask for a belly rub. This is the latter.

Cat in Repose

After a little while he took to alternating between prowling around me and sitting down looking for that inscrutable thing that only cats seem to be able to see. It took quite a while to convince him to look at the camera.

The Sphinx

Eventually I got bored and jumped up all at once. He bolted for the nearest tree and scampered up. Don’t worry though, he’s always mean to Comet, so he deserved to be chased at least once, if not more.

Up In a Tree

I love cats. Just wish I wasn’t so darn allergic.

P.S. Pets are closer to people than things in my humble opinion, so yeah.

Hey, what can I say? I really love the fall colors. And the weather. And most other facets of the season. Heck, I just love fall in general.

Pretty Colors Once More

Erty’s Wee Ninja is actually quite a bit of fun to take pictures of (as he is perfectly aware). It’s incredibly difficult to actually get a shot of something when you’re facing the only source of light, but I think it turned out all right. I prefer the challenge of not doing touch-up work and it just feels more natural to me to capture the moment instead of manipulating it. I’ll never be a great photographer, obviously, but at least it keeps me happy.

Wee Ninja

Honestly, I’m not usually a huge fan of taking pictures of couples. I always feel like I’m intruding on something that I really shouldn’t, but in this case I simply couldn’t resist, and it turned out pretty well. Erty, Greta, I love you guys!

Lover's Embrace

Conserve has a pretty strict policy about not building forts, so what do the cool kids do? Build them anyway of course. This one is coming along nicely; there’s already a good roof structure and the walls are starting to come along. I had nothing to do with any of the construction on this one, but I did help build another one deeper in the woods. Some day I’ll get a shot of that one…some day.

The Hidden Fort

This is the shot I never got to take over the last few years. On campus there’s a neat place to hang out on a lake, and right on the edge of the water there’s a large tree that stands out from the rest and is absolutely perfect for climbing. This is the view from the top of that tree. The lighting was pretty terrible…. I’d like to get up there for sunrise some day. Absolutely breathtaking.

The Climbing Tree

Last year I realized that one of the benches in the weight room has a face on it when you pivot it. I get the feeling that there is a brilliant LOLcaption to be made here, but I’m not sure what it is.

LOL Machine

Dick and Maggie work on a portion of the fall play, Arsenic and Old Lace. I don’t really know the dates, but if I’m able to go I definitely will.

Arsenic and Old Lace

A bunch of us were chilling out late at night when I decided to be rude with the flash. Opal got scared. Isaiah doesn’t seem to have cared at all.

Flash!

Who draws the crowd and plays so loud? Erty, of course.

Guitar Man

Autumn is an amazingly beautiful season. Every minute or so I was outside I found myself staring up into the treeline. Kawaii! *(^O^)*

Pretty Colors