Palm Springs week 2

We met up with Roberta and John Gaskill for brunch at Escena Country Club and had a wonderful meal.

Country fried steak and Huevos Rancheros… oh soooo good…

then off to:

$4 per person and well worth the money.  over 3000 varieties of desert plants

these are all rare plants in the Cactarium:

time for a break on a bench made from a tree trunk

some were flowering or had just flowered.  beautiful place to take a walk.

Our final dinner was at PF Changs in Rancho Mirage.  wonderful dinner with wonderful friends.  we will see them again in February in Sedona AZ!  can’t wait until we met up again.

Monday: time to get back to “normal”!  We had a plumber come out to install a new kitchen faucet, ours has been leaking for awhile.  Laundry, cleaning cabinets, paying bills, washing the truck, took a nap, dusting etc…  and making dinner!  Made some wonderful spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce.  We did take a walk outside the resort and found a wonderful Mexican grocery store..  purchased a few tamales for freezing.  They even have banana and cactus leaves and chicken chorizo. will have to try some of that with eggs..  they also have a small “restaurant'” where the food looked wonderful.  hoping we can find the same when we get to Needles.

Tues: after our day of rest and chores we headed out to the Salton Sea to look for birds. it was a long day, we expected to be gone about for about 5 hours but ended up with an 11+ hour day!  Too much to see and do.

The Salton Sea is about 45 miles from the Outdoor Resort.  the sea is at minus 228 feet below sea level!  two weeks ago we were at 7400 feet above sea level.

lots and lots of birds!

after a few hours of walking around this section we headed to:

what a place!  not sure who owns the land but it is worth the stop.

1/2 mile away is

a World War 2 base that had been abandon and taken over by those who want to be “off the grid”.  It is very large with numerous “neighborhoods”.  Including a church, bar and a few shops.  we did not stop to buy a t-shirt…  maybe next time.

Next stop was at

Snow Geese

Coopers Hawk

Wow what a day and we did not see everything… the Salton Sea is about 35 miles long and 15 wide. We stopped at about half of the places we wanted to, so another trip is on the agenda.  Maybe an organized bird walk too!

Wednesday: another day of chores and resting.. worked on the Satellite dish but did not get it going… We did make it to the fitness center and Eric tried out the hot tub.

Thursday: another long day planned. Bird walk at Coachella Valley Preserve, no new birds but a fun walk with some great people. 

We met brother Ray at the Palm Springs Art Museum for the “Inn Walk”.  We went into 17 Inns, they pretty much all had great rooms and atmosphere.  they hold this event once a year to promote the small businesses and to have a toy drive.  At one Inn we found Ray’s Retreat!

all of the inns had very different décor.  Lots of them had 50’s motif, most had individual hot tubs, all had pools. 

of course the mountains are Right There!

After walking around for about 2.5 hours we headed to the downtown area for the Villagefest.  time for a cocktail at Lulu’s and dinner on the street.  Lots of walking today but a very good day.

Friday: Headed to:

got 3 new birds! California tohee, Nutall’s woodpecker and the Western Scrub Jay

also spotted a Great Horned Owl!

snow up on the mountain…

time to go back and sit by the pool..  relax and read a good book and decorate for Christmas...

made a Rudolph out of palm fronds:

Saturday: Went to downtown PS for Market day and the Desert Art Fair.  the market day vendors were pretty much the same as the ones on Thursday night.  the art fair was really nice.  Beautiful artwork.  Pool time in the afternoon, Eric had traded in his hammock for a lounge chair..

then to brother Ray’s for dinner.  We had a wonderful visit and dinner at his place in Palm Springs.  Another wonderful week with friends and family. We are so fortunate to be able to be here in the desert.