Have Dipaers, Will Travel, Part III: Bodie State Park

Ok, before I completely forget about our vacation I will hurry up and finish talking about it already.
The next stop on our Eastern Sierras adventure was Bodie, CA, a real ghost town! Fueled by the gold rush, in its heyday during the 1870s, Bodie supported a population of about 10,000 and was well known as a center of drinking, debauchery and violence. It shrunk significantly when gold production dropped in the 1870s, but the mine was in operation up until the early 1940s. We spent a few hours wandering around, peeking inside the buildings and checking out the cemetery. Although Bodie didn’t sound like such a wonderful place to raise a family, we saw evidence of many children there, including gravestones and this extremely uncomfortable looking high chair (Susannah Rainier Watters, I don’t want to hear any more complaining from your plush Peg Perego high chair). Bodie is located on a barren, wind-swept hillside in the middle of nowhere (about 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe). It was freezing, and when it's not freezing it's probably really hot. It's not a place for the faint-of-heart, but it’s definitely worth a visit anyways. Dozens of buildings are still standing and it’s fun to stroll through and imagine what life must have been like there back in the day.
The last stop on our trip was in Carson City, NV to visit Alex's cousin Niki, husband John, and their kids Amelia and Jack. They just moved to Carson City last year, and it's really nice to have family within reasonable driving distance. As you can see, Amelia LOVED Susannah.
On our way back home, we scouted out campgrounds around Lake Tahoe and did a little planning for our camping trip there this summer. In the picture we are standing just above Emerald Bay. So, make sure to stay tuned in to the blog for "Susannah Goes Camping": coming August, 2009!