A week ago, we spent the long Veterans' Day holiday camping with five other families in our usual spot, Indian Cove in Joshua Tree National Park, as we have most springs and falls for quite a few years now. Anyway, I've finally put my photos from this trip online.

The weather cooperated beautifully — we thought it would be cold, and it had stormed the day before we arrived, but it stayed clear and sunny for us, not too hot in the day, only requiring light sweaters at night. The moon was close to full, so we couldn't see much else through Scott's big telescope, but we had good viewing of its mountains and craters. The plants weren't as lush as last spring, but it was still surprisingly green. I only took a few halfhearted landscape shots, though (including the ones below), and spent more of my time taking snaps of the kids scrambling on the rocks and doing some climbing myself. Lee borrowed my climbing shoes (she has really big feet for an 11-year-old girl) and looked very smug telling me they were hers now; I think she liked their purple color. I'm not as pleased with my climbing photos as I was last time, because I couldn't get the top angle that works best — there wasn't anywhere I felt safe leaning over the cliff with my camera, unroped-in — but I still kept a fair few.

The morning we left, I saw a golden eagle atop one of the rockpiles, but I didn't have my camera on me and it wasn't being especially photogenic. Still, a sight to see.