Climbing sand dunes, Death Valley, California
While briefly living in Southern California, we went to Death Valley for Thanksgiving (having Thanksgiving dinner at 8 pm at the Furnace Inn is one of the most unusual places I’ve had Thanksgiving). We spent our few days hiking and exploring the area’s incredible landscape, and one day, we climbed the sand dunes.
While climbing, Ruby asked, “Will there be a shovel at the top?”
“No,” I said. “There won’t be a shovel.”
As we neared the top, she saw something sticking out of the sand —a small, blue kid’s shovel.
“There’s one,” she said.
Mr. Miscellany and I couldn’t believe it. (We thought three years old was a little too young to learn that sometimes your parents can be really wrong about something.)
The shovel mystery was solved when we summited the dune. A family on the top had thought to bring some sand toys for their children, who had abandoned the shovel and were attempting to build sand castles.
Our daughter happily played with the shovel when it was offered, grinning (somewhat triumphantly, perhaps?) as she scooped the sand.