the best shots XII (edit)

I’ve been to Death Valley four times; twice by myself and twice with other people whom I showed the lowest point in North America to.  Jhni and her daughter and I went there once in a rented Mercury Cougar (V-8!  Fun! Nice car) and once with my sister and brother in law and her son.  They had just gotten married and took their honeymoon in Las Vegas with my wife and I, during one of our twice yearly trips to the US.  I rented a Lincoln Town Car for that trip because my brother in law is a Prefectural Policeman in Japan, and the Yakuza’s favorite car is a Town Car.  It was a fun irony.

Here we are in the entrance to Death Valley:

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Here, we are near Red Rock State Park in Nevada, near where I used to live:

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Jhni and her daughter and I went there too, and here I am with her daughter at Bad Water, at 283 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America:

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This is my Japanese family in Red Rock State Park in Nevada, on the west shore of Lake Mead:

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And last, a picture of me on the salt flats that make up most of the lower ground of Death Valley.  It is estimated that these salt beds are as much as ten thousand feet deep, minerals washed from the surrounding mountains that have no where else to go but here – there is no outflow from Death Valley.

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