Monday, September 14, 2009

Palm Springs, CA Pt. 2

Some of you may wonder why I have not been writing about my recent travels, the reason is simple, I got lazy. I do though, have a great memory no matter what some friends think. When last I wrote We were on our way to Palm Springs from LA. The trip was not bad at all. Google maps said it should take about 2 hours to get to our destination, they were right on the mark. We did not hit much traffic. As we left LA and drove closer and closer to the desert the temperature gauge quickly rose from 94 to a high of 112. Dry heat...yeah right...who cares if it is dry, it was HOT!!!!

We checked into our hotel room and found it sweltering. It took the better part of 4 hours for the room to reach a temperature that was comfortable. In the interm we just took advantage of the clothing optional status and made our way to the pool which was just outside the door. The hotel was u-shaped surrounding what I later found out to be the largest pool in the palm springs area. Amazingly enough, the water was cool and refreshing. A few drinks and wading in the pool made the afternoon a very pleasant reprieve from the long trip. Both Yasu and I were quickly getting into the vacation mode.

In addition to have a very large pool, our hotel had a nice sized jacuzzi tub, and a huge garden with a small koi pond and huge palm trees. There was also a maze of bushes that provided a very interesting focal point. While we had the pool outside our front door, we had a private patio off the bedroom towards the back. When we arrived there was one other person at the hotel. I asked whether this would make up the total population during our stay but I was gratefully informed that the next day many more people would be checking in. In the end a little less than half the rooms were occupied.

We needed to get away after a day or so in the hot weather so we headed farther into the desert...can you believe it got a little hotter...We went to Joshua Tree national park. The one hour trip was worth the ride. Even though we did not stay to camp or hike, there are many roads that take you through the park. We made a few stops to take some interesting pictures among them a few Joshua trees and a segment of the San Andreas Fault. There were also some very interesting rock formations that i hope I captured well on "film". I know I keep promising to get pictures out to everyone but i am still running into the problem of where to store such large files to allow access. Any suggestions?

Thanks for following me.

Craig