En route to Yosemite

We had a late start this morning, after our late night.  I got up and had my shower, and even though the light and fan was incredibly loud, the boys kept on sleeping.  During the night, while I finished off yesterdays blog, Robin had sat up, reached out his hand as if to pick up something, raised it to his mouth and drank, and repeated the motion - then lay back down and kept on sleeping!!  Later on during the night, he actually did get up and go and get a real drink of water!

As we were in Ridgecrest, we headed over to the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, to see if we could get onto the station to see the museum, the Armament and Technology China Lake Museum.  Eric & I handed over our photo ID and our car insurance, and we waited for about 10-15 minutes for checks to be made.  Obviously, we are okay, as we were allowed to proceed.

China Lake has been a research, development, test and evaluation site since 1943, and covers more than a million acres in the Mojave Desert.  Civilian scientists and military personnel work together on rockets, missiles, torpedoes, guns, bombs and fuzes, "smart" bombs, cluster weapons, night-attack systems, satellite-delivery systems and parachutes.  The museum spans more than 5 decades of naval history, and we saw, amongst other items a Tomahawk missile, a display of Sidewinder missile sub-systems, guidance, fuse, warhead and rocket motors, a Maverick missile, a MK IV (the Mk III was the "Fat Man" implosion-type device that was detonated over Nagasaki), as well as a number of aircraft (the 1st F-18A Hornet ever made, an E6B Intruder, the only remaining F11 F-1 "Super Tiger" (which set a world altitude record in 1958), and an XF4D-1 "Skyray" (the only remaining prototype, which set several world speed records in 1953)).  There was even a display and video of President Kennedy's visit to China Lake in June 1963.

As we didn't know about the existence of the station or the museum, it was quite a bonus for us to have stopped there overnight.  Even the boys enjoyed seeing the different missiles and bombs.

We then drove off, and eventually left the Mojave Desert (seeing some large and healthy Joshua Trees en route, many with several blooms on them (they have obviously had a good season, as blooming is dependent on water and freezing)), and headed in to the Sierra Nevada ranges, with an increase in water and related greenery.  Coming up to Fresno, our chosen over-night stop, we passed citrus orchards, walnut tree orchards, vineyards, wheat fields and cow farms (not at all like our farms in New Zealand however - there were huge "car ports" with cows underneath them, no grass in that area, just buckets or containers of feed.  There would be several of these covered "car port" structures, with lots of cows, and a central race and milking area).

We also passed fields of oil drills, often interspersed among the citrus - would you like oil with your orange?!

We did make a toilet stop near Isabella Lake and indulged in ice-creams - Eric enjoyed his large cookie sandwich!

Now, Fresno.  We have not seen any of this city, but have cooked dinner (packets of pasta with chopped baby carrots), and skyped Oma.  The boys have played with the Lego they bought at Legoland, and are now playing on Sumdog on their netbooks.  Tomorrow, we head to Yosemite, so plan to have a look round Fresno before we head off.