What a Week!

The week began with a road trip to Death Valley and ended with being a vendor at the Conference of N. CA Handweavers (CNCH) with no down time in between.  I'm sure glad to be home. I think my dog is glad I'm home too, but I don't know if he'll trust that I'll stay put now. I'll share some of my Death Valley photos here, but I'll spare you the other 300+ photos. I may put them somewhere on the web so I can share them with my kids and anyone else who is interested, but I have to figure that out first.

We live in the Central Valley, so to get to Death Valley, we drove over the Sierras and then down 395 on the east side. One reason I chose to take this vacation to Death Valley was to go somewhere warm, but as we drove we stayed just ahead of a big storm that was coming in. I'm sure that some of you reading this live in real cold and warm weather is far off, but it was turning to spring  on our side of the mountains. It was cold on the east side. This is a vista point looking towards Mono Lake. When we drove back this same route 3 days later the weather was warmer, but the "decorative" guard rail was covered with snow.

This is a view of the east side of the Sierras taken the next morning. We are very near Mt. Whitney but can't see the mountain peaks.

Isn't this a beautiful view? We stopped at a newly developed historic site--Manzanar was a Japanese "relocation center" during WWII. At the base of these gorgeous mountains was a square mile fenced with barbed wire that became home/prison to 10,000 Japanese people for over 3 years, non of whom were ever charged with espionage, treason, etc. They were normal people wrenched from their ordinary lives. If you have a change to go to Manzanar you should. Take your kids. The visitor center is excellent and the  story is powerful.

I saw the word "weaving" on this sign. There were building where camouflage netting was woven. I imagined actually weaving the netting, but it turns out that cloth strips were woven into the netting after being dyed camouflage colors--6000 nets/month were woven. The quote at the bottom is interesting. Momo Nagano says "Our pay was $16 per month and we certainly earned it as we took pride in our work. Interestingly, after I finished college many years later I became a weaver. it might have been because I enjoyed weaving the camouflaged nets.

I have plenty more photos but it is late. More tomorrow.