No Cake But Edible Arrangement and Wine

 It's Barbara's birthday! We didn't celebrate with cake as we agreed we's rather gte our carbs from other sources.

Barbara's family surprised her with an Edible Bouquet delivery. We indulged in fresh fruit, wine, cheese and crackers. It made for a lazy rejuvenating day.

I did remember to snap a picture of our condo front door…we had teh ground floor unit.

And we researched these purple trees that flourish and are rampant here, we've decided they are Jacandras. I WISH they could grow in Florida, but it's too wet and a bit too cold up near the Georgia border.

Barbara relaxed by the pool this morning. I sat on patio, watched the golfers and the birds and read.

Excellent day, despite accomplishing nothing of note.

Joshua Tree National Park

Up and out by 7:30 AM to meet Bob, our Adventure Hummer Tours driver and guide. One couple joined us on this hours long experience so we got a lot of personal attention. Bob was delightful, knowledgeable, thoughtful and attentive to detail. The Hummer was much more comfortable than I anticipated.

The day flew by as we saw more types of cactus than I imagined, hundreds of Joshua trees. (Did you know their name came from the Mormons who thought the tree reminded them of Joshua raising his arms in praise of God?) We stopped when Bob realized another group of tourists had blocked the road to allow a seldom seen Mojave tortoise to cross. Later on our Barker Dam trail hike, we got to see a huge Chuckwalla lizard. We saw the Barker Dam and the cattle water trough. We gawked over the 2,000 year old  petroglyphs.  We saw one rock climber scaling the monzogranite boulders of the more than 8,000 climbing routes available. 

Enjoy the pictures of our day. 

Our day exploring a small part of the Coachella Valley was inspiring and illuminating. Palm Springs used to be a prehistoric lake which gradually sank into the earth. Today the city water supply is that ancient aquifer. The aquifer is 65 miles long and deeper than 1200 feet. The city makes no claims on any Colorado Basin water used by the cities on the other side of the mountains. 

We drove over the San Andreas Fault and saw indications of its presence in the valley as the darkish line in the vista view point pictures. No tall buildings exist in the valley due to the frequency of small earthquakes caused by the San Andreas Fault. 

Joshua trees grow about 2 inches a year. They don’t really have bark. They are a variety of palm tree, so have a fibrous inner core.

This has been remarkable day. 

Unpacking, Shopping and Sharing a Reunion

Woke this morning to the bluest sky I have ever seen! Invigorating!

We spent the morning unpacking, satisfied we’d correctly estimated the kind of clothes necessary for a week in the Coachella Valley.

Planned our menus while watching the ducks, geese, hummingbird and golfers busy outside our patio door. 

Shopped after getting turned around a couple of times; the parking lots here and very twisty in the shopping areas. Felt weird when Barbara was directed to onto the Freeway for a few miles…no where near as congested as it is portrayed in movies, but we are in the desert.

Barbara had a learning curse with the Mitsubishi Outlander rental car - she had to cut off the engine to get the car to sift into park and the steering wheel vibrated when another car moved past us too closely. 2022 technology! The automobile ti very comfortable and holds a lot!

Somehow the day got away from us, typical for us when we vacation. 

We dined with Rob and Craig, two friends from my Cunard cruising days. I never lost touch with these guys, but I didn’t realize it had been seven years since I’d actually hugged them! FaceTime just doesn’t come close. Our reunion was so enthusiastic and vibrant that it never occurred to me to take a picture. Sigh. Barbara meshed completely and the guys asked us back for Rob’s homemade pizza on Thursday afternoon. 

This experience reinforced my awe of those brief-moment-in-time connections (I spent a few days aboard ship with these two back in 2016) that can offer relationships which ignore distances in time or space to the extent that it seems we only saw each other a few days ago! 

Palm Springs Bound

Getting up at 3:30 AM is a huge downer for beginning a vacation trip, but relaxing into the plane’s seat and heading toward Atlanta is wonderful. That express flight took less than an hour, we barely had time to chug our complimentary drink! 

Flight from Atlanta to Palm Springs was uneventful and easy. I snagged a shot of Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico…according to the pilot:

Then as we banked to land at Palm Springs, I took a picture I thought was of the Gulf of California. Sadly for my day dreams of scuba diving among the whales and mantas of the Sea of Cortez, I later discovered that body of water in the distance is actually the Salton Sea and the land mass is a portion of the Joshua Tree National Park…an area Barbara and I were set to explore in two days.

Once I was on the ground, Palm Springs Airport a surprise. I have never been in an open air airport, it reminded me of a Greek marketplace. I have never walked out of doors to get to Baggage Claim. It was a clear notice that I was in a vacation environment.

Met up with Barbara, got the rental car, Mitsubishi Outlander, and into our villa at the Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert, CA. Very nice accommodation. My room has its own entrance, a kitchenette, soaker tub, big shower, walled patio and VERY comfortable bed. Barbara’s part is the central focus room and huge patio with great views of JW Resort across the fairway and mountains to the south.

Tired of traveling, we made a quick breakfast for the next day grocery run, then went to bed. 

River Cruise Day 7: Camas & Washougal, WA

 This was a day for just "cruising the river". We passed through the Cascade Locks, but going up and down a lock was kind of old hat by now, so we spent most of the morning sitting on the upper stern deck breathing fresh mountain air and listening to nature.

We also wondered about the construction problems that were overcome to build the railroad and highway systems that intermingled along the river's shoreline.

We were fascinated with levels of the train tracks and highway roads, especially after we realized the train tracks on both levels disappeared into a mountain tunnel. 

Barbara watched as we steamed by a beach we thought was tidal but was, in fact, an rude awakening as to the shallowness of the river and its diminishing depths.

A bit bit further down the river, we were alerted to the distant view of Horsetail Falls, No stop was made, but the ship did slow its progress a bit so pictures could be taken.

 

While waiting to disembark at Camas-Washougal, we toured the Faberge collection that had been gifted to this vessel from the family. 

 

Once the ship docked, we had one hellacious hike up a floating dock to the land. The crew actually had to carry an occasional wheelchair up the ramp as it was too steep for pushing. (A definite design flaw! We discovered later that this was a first stop of this new facility. )

Once on land, we took the Hop ON-Hop Off tour of the towns. We hopped off at the Pendleton Woolen Mills where we DID spend our money!

Back on board, we sipped wine and indulged in a small feat of snacks as we watched Mt. Hood in the distance gradually get close enough for me to capture a fairly clear picture.