I assume everyone in the New York/New Jersey/eastern PA/maybe northern Delaware area just felt their buildings shaking.

That was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake originating near Lebanon, NJ (a ways west of Edison). You can look at the details from the US government's earthquake tracking website.

I've never felt an earthquake before, so that was something. I thought the people above me had turned on a motorcycle or something. I had no clue what could shake the building like that. Then it dawned on me. Not the place you expect these things. (I'm sure the Californians find this cute!)

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We are just back from a first ever trip to Death valley national Park to check out the wild flowers.

We saw fields carpeted in bright yellow. We also saw more sparse purple flowers. We also drove through areas of the park that were as dry and dessicated as you can imagine. This is the wettest season of the year and it is still the desert.

Some of the highlights for me were the rock formations. We had planned a second day to explore more and hike, but weather prevented it. We still saw very impressive sights. Shout-out to a helpful ranger at the information desk who helped us choose.

One of the best experiences was outside the park. We would have missed this entirely without advice from Tildes. We visited Ash Meadows wildlife refuge where we saw the pupfish. We also saw a roadrunner, a large grey snake on the road, (we were driving) and a very pale raptor, possibly an osprey.

Thank you @chromebby and @worldasis.

Thanks also @skybrian. We drove through Panamint but stayed in Tecopa.

Death valley has not changed my top three so far US national parks but it is beautiful and impressive. I would go back to explore more but not in summer.