Right Turn Ahead

This weekend we went to the Poppy Preserve in Lancaster CA to see the wild golden poppies. Now in my minds eye I thought there would be a plethora of of poppies and it would be beautiful but nothing truly prepared me for the sight. We loaded up the car and packed all the camera gear into the back of the car went and got raped at the gas station. Brad programmed the address into the gps and we had her (gypsy) tell us where to go. Now we often refer to days like this as going on a photo safari but it has never really been much of a safari before. We got off the freeway and headed up the small road to the poppy reserve. As we got closer we started to see splashes of color along the road and grew excited. Then we got to an old rusty farm and we had to stop and take pictures but it was mutually decided that we would continue on and see the reserve and then stop at the farm on the way home. So we continued up the hill. We were now at breath taking gold fields and sure enough Gypsy told us to turn right. Now this was a narrow barely paved road that looked ominous. There was old discarded furniture and Lord knows what else along the side of the road. I asked Brad if I should continue on the road because it just seemed wrong. He showed me that we were in the green area of the reserve according to Gypsy and this is where she told us to drive. so onward I drove thankful for my little SUV. Within minutes the paved road ended and we were on a quarry of dirt roads. We were driving right through the middle of the poppies (on dirt roads) and the view was incredible.





Brad was so excited that we were really off roading our SUV but still we were searching for the entrance to the preserve. We finally got right up to the area that is the preserve and realized that we would have to go back to the main road and go down a bit more to get to the real entrance. We got there and parked and started out to get the boy his midday meal. We fed the boy and had him bundled up tight and started to push the stroller to the trails. It was so cold and windy though that it was really uncomfortable and I began to worry that it wasn't safe for the baby. We both decided that perhaps hiking the trails wasn't the best plan. So we loaded back into the car and moved all the camera equipment to the front seat with Brad and went back to the dirt roads to continue our safari. We drove up the hill as far as we could and would stop from time to time for pictures. I had to get at least one picture of Elijah in the middle of the poppy fields so I got him out of the car and woke him up and sat him in the poppies. He didn't enjoy that part of the day as much as we did.





So we finished up and headed down the hill. We stopped at the farm and got some great pictures. We took turns going in to take pictures while the other stayed in the car with the boy. I went first and so when I came back I took pictures of Brad taking pictures from the drivers seat.



SO we finished the day off driving through the back roads back to civilization and had dinner at Claim Jumper. It was a great day and we hope that we will make it a tradition that E and whoever else comes along will enjoy as part of their childhood. I know that I look back on the adventures like this my parents drag us on (sometimes while we screamed, pouted, and fought in the backseat of the car) as some of my favorite memories and I hope that we can create that for our family. I hope that they find the adventure in the little things and are able to always see the beauty. Most of all I hope they learn that sometimes the adventure is all in the getting there.