The Munce Family: Death Valley and Coronado

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Death Valley and Coronado

We had a quick turn around to California, this time with the kids. We had planned to go to Coronado for their Fall break. Dave hadn't been to the condo since before Covid, so we felt long overdue as a family. We wanted to mix up the adventure a little bit do decided to head there by way of Las Vegas and Death Valley National Park.

Las Vegas with kids was a treat ;). Ironically, Maggie and Jeff were there for a football game, so we connected with them on the Strip for lunch before driving into the park. The kids were wide eyed with all there was to take in; slot machines, gambling tables, The Hello Kitty Cafe, candy stores, all sorts of people, it was good for them to get out of their middle America bubble. We swung by the famous Las Vegas sign (which had a line about 45 people long) before getting the heck out of town.

The drive to Death Valley National Park was full of small towns and open roads, it took us less than two hours and in the middle of a dessert stood an oasis, the The Inn at Death Valley had been built over a natural spring and it was lovely; greenery and water and palm trees. We enjoyed our own golf cart for transport, a lovely casita, and a naturally warm pool, it was exactly what we needed. We spent the following day hiking, exploring sand dunes, and Badwater (Basement) Basin, the lowest spot on the earth, and after dinner, Moon Pies under the (almost full) Moon at Dante's View, a definite Dave plan through and through. We all had fun, we like to quote Piper's favorite part of Death Valley, "the ice cold water in my water bottle."

We set off to Coronado the following day and had a long seven hour journey ahead, overall, things went pretty smooth, the kids managed as well as we could expect them to, patience wore thing a few times, but we were all SO happy to arrive at the condo. We dropped the rental and settled in. Most days were beach days, we did venture into San Diego for one day at the Midway, otherwise we enjoyed the slow pace of the island with daily runs and walks and strolls through town, bingo, ice cream three (!!) times, early bedtimes and lots of family time. We love Coronado and what it means to our family and feel so fortunate to have it as destination, until next time...