It was nearly the end of the
summer, and so far this year, we have not been on any trips - anywhere!
So, we combined a couple of
holidays, a day off or two and found some ridiculously inexpensive
tickets to our favorite destination!
Oh,
and the car rental agency was giving away cheap cars for the week as
well! (How small can a Korean car get?) |
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Our flight arrives late and after
we pick up the car, we head for our lodgings and tumble into bed, ready
to really start our mini-vacation in the morning!
First, we
head for the grocery store for some supplies, and a newspaper so that we
could check the weather
forecast for the week! |
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That evening, we went downtown to
celebrate our birthdays with a special dinner.
Remember
that little Korean car that we rented? The rental car people gave us a
Jeep Cherokee instead.
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| On our way
downtown we stopped off at the local street fair before dinner, they
have artists, candy vendors, t-shirt peddlers, and oh yeah - a rabbi -
in case you need the important life questions answered. |
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| We had our birthday dinner at the
Kaiser Grill, it's a really neat place with purple neon lighting
outside, misters going to keep everyone cool and plenty of ice tea. We
had prime rib and tuna done rare, we really enjoyed it! |
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Thunderstorms from a hurricane
off the coast of Mexico cut our sunning short the next day.
Never
fear though, our motto, when there's no sun, we go shopping! |
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| After our trip to the nearby
outlet mall, we went back downtown for a quick dinner. La Taqueria, a
Mexican restaurant on the corner of Indian Canyon and Tahquitz Way makes
the best margaritas! |
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| The margaritas taste great, the
food is good, and check out the view from the open courtyard of the
restaurant! |
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| On our last day, we headed out of
town to visitJoshua Tree National Park. As we left Palm Springs, we
drove past the huge windmill farms that generate power for the city. Why
am I so fascinated with windmills? Heck, I don't know. |
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| Joshua trees are strange but
beautiful in their own way. They only grow in the American desert part
of the world, and grow very slowly. This one is centuries old! |
The rock formations in the park
are interesting as well. Somehow, the trees and rocks go together! |
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Left above is the flower of the
Joshua Tree. The trees start out as a single stem and grow until the
flower dies, or breaks off from the weight. Then, they branch out and
grow more flowers. We bought some seeds at the Visitor's Center, check
back in a hundred years or so, and we'll let you know how it is doing!
Directly above is the view into Coachella Valley from one of
the peaks. The Salton Sea is in the distance, Mexico is just beyond
that.
To the left is the view of the two of us, Palm Springs
is 5,000 feet below. |
| We really enjoyed our
mini-vacation to the Desert. But it was time to go home, and we were
ready to do that too. The kids picked us up at the airport, and soon we
were back into our regular routine. We will be back, we have more
exploring to do. |
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Back
to The Lodge |