Labor Day camping trip - Mammoth! Tufa towers! Lots of fun!

It was a lovely weekend!  We went camping!  In the Mammoth Lakes area!  And it was really awesome and a great time was had by all.  We drove in on Friday, leaving just after lunch so the kids could nap in the car.  The first half of the drive was lovely!  The second half was awful, due to thick smoke from the Rim Fire.  After a few hours of driving in smoke, and getting closer and closer to our campground with no end in sight, we started making alternative plans in case camping wasn't going to be an option.  Luckily, about 15-20 minutes before arriving, the smoke cleared up and we drove in the twilight up an abandoned-seeming road to one of the most beautiful campgrounds I've been to in the US.

We hiked in a gorgeous mountain valley.  We canoed around a beautiful mountain lake and then played for a long while at the beach there.  We tried to go to a bluegrass festival, but they upped the prices for tickets not bought ahead of time, and the festival didn't look at that cool, so instead we rode the Mammoth gondola (the kids loved it) and hung out in the Village.  We stopped at Mono Lake.  We drove home through the smoke.  The only real bummer is that the combination of campfire smoke and huge wildfire smoke really irritated my eyes, and after a doctor's visit this morning, I am confined to glasses for a week.  Which is worse because in their irritated state, they're super sensitive to the sun, but I don't have prescription sunglasses.  Boo.

Here are a few cute pics taken by my sister and her boyfriend:

Turtle getting dirty at camp - this is just the beginning.  It got a lot dirtier than this:

Tadpole posing at camp, near the bear box:

Pausing to smile for a photo while climbing on rocks, their favorite camping pursuit:

Drumming around the campfire in the evening.  This was an activity they came up with all on their own, and they sang loudly to go along with it.  It was pretty funny.  Especially when Tadpole kept shouting at her father to "stop breaking my song!"  We're not really sure what she meant by that:

Sitting on a log barrier at Mono Lake

Tadpole posing among the tufa towers.  Mono Lake is a very cool place.

All's well that ends well, I suppose, as long as my eyes get back to normal in the next few days, I guess.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.