Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California.

Every year we make a broad travel goal for ourselves. In 2007, we bought a T@B trailer to test out camping with a baby (Ava). In 2008 and 2009, we bought the Airstream and were taking long extended trips in it (while pregnant with Mila). In 2010, we spent more time in the Airstream than out & traveled cross country to Florida Keys for the first time. In 2011, we explored the west (while pregnant with Luka). In 2012, we went back to the south east (as a family of 5). In 2013, we traveled up to western Canada. In 2014, we explored the north east. In 2015, we traveled to Alaska. In 2016, we bought the truck camper to spend the year in Baja, mainland Mexico and Atlantic Canada. And now in 2017, with 49 US states, all Canadian provinces, Yukon territory & most of Mexico under our belts, we have decided to visit all of our old favorite spots in the West while purposely finding new ones.

One of favorite places in the United States is the Eastern Sierra. For one reason or another, we never get to spend as much time as we want in the Eastern Sierra range. This time it’s different. We are purposely soaking it all in. First stop up the 395 highway is Lone Pine, California.

In the past, we stayed at Tuttle Creek campground but this time around we found a beautiful spot in the Alabama Hills thanks to our relatively new T-Mobile service plans for the work week.

The kids love this spot as much as we do. There’s plenty of rocks to climb on.

And dirt roads for miles and miles.

Pink helmet, pink dress, pink bike, pink flip flops and a pink sky to match. That’s my Mila.

And to top it all off, our buddies Skyler and Tori from @meantforadventure are here as well in their shiny Airstream.

More climbing please!

The wind here this week has been bad so the kids have been occupying themselves with plenty of art projects.

And with Dan working in the Four Wheel Camper now, the kids and I have plenty of room for homeschool in Casita.

The wind also kept us from hiking to the Mobius Arch that we’ve done in the past but we did make it to Shark’s Fin Rock for the first time which wasn’t too far from the campground.

Luka is slowly getting the hand of this bike with pedals thing. He occasionally forgets he has brakes, crashes with grace and has run into our friend Skyler’s leg once. With a few more days of practice, he will have no issues at all.

There’s Shark’s Fin. Dead center.

Can you see Luka in the photo below? So tiny in comparison to that rock.

There are anchors all over the rock for rock climbing. We choose to scramble on the near by rocks instead.

When you are used to wearing flip flops everyday but then go on a hike in real shoes, expect them to feel tight. Mila chose to ride her bike with socks only on the way back while I “chose” to hold her shoes. Haha.

After the work week was over, we decided to spend the next work week near Mammoth. But weekends are for exploring, so on Saturday and Sunday we had plans for more adventuring.

Our last visit to Manzanar National Historic Site was 4 years ago. The girls earned their junior ranger badges then but don’t remember much.

Here in the Owen Valley, over 20,000 immigrants and citizens of Japanese descent were held here against their will from 1942 to 1945. Many of them had merely a couple of days to leave their homes from the Pacific states.

Thick anti-Japanese sentiment fueled by the bombing of Pearl Harbor resulted in Executive Order 9066 allowing civil liberties being stripped from more than 120,000 American citizens and permanent residents in 10 ‘War Relocation Camps’.

It’s important for us to show the kids all the good and the bad of our US past. It was a lot for them to process and it was difficult to answer some of their questions but it’s why we travel. To learn and help each other not make the same mistakes again.

Next stop, a little soak in a near by hot spring. It’s one of things we have been most looking forward too near Bishop, California. Well, besides the brisket jerky at Mahogany Smoked Meats 🙂

Thanks for reading,
Marlene