Ah, New Year’s Day. Greg promised Kurt he’d stay to watch the Hawkeyes game so while I slept in, they were hootin’ and hollerin’ like maniacs (guess it was a good first… half? Quarter? I don’t know). I shuffled out and got my things ready to go as we were headed the direction of Joshua Tree National Park that day.
We bade farewell to the dogs and our gracious hosts. It was a short stay but really great to spend it with (new for me) friends as we’d only seen each other for 10 days straight. Which is more than OK but good to mix it up too!
Our plan regarding the Joshua Tree was a little bit whack. We had planned on going this other route in which it would make sense for us to stay in Palm Springs (west of Joshua Tree) but in the end it really didn’t.
We got into California and it was both sad and fun to see the “Welcome to California” sign.
We drove and drove and had a few hours to spend in Joshua Tree before the sun was going to come down. As we drove into the park, I was not particularly amazed by the desert landscape. It was brown, dry, and lacked natural beauty in my mind’s eye. However, once we hit the Cholla Cactus Garden, my views changed.
The cholla are sometimes called “jumping teddy bears,” as they looking fuzzy and cuddly but as soon as a person touches it, ouch! It makes ya jump back!
We stopped for an amazing sunset and planned on returning the next day to hike around.
That night we drove about an hour west to Palm Springs. We pulled into this vintage looking hotel that looked straight out of the 60s heyday of Palm Springs. Ya know, the days of the Rat Pack. Anyway, it turns out they just remodeled all their rooms now they are super hip! I loved this hotel because of that; I think Greg was less impressed. I can’t help it; I loved the dark furniture, huge bed and soft sheets.
We tried to walk to a Mexican Restaurant nearby but we weren’t thrilled about it so we tried to walk a bit further but it was all residential buildings. We turned back to go to the Mexican restaurant but it had closed in that 10 minute period!
We got into the car and headed downtown. It turns out that every Thursday they have this artists’ street festival. There’s food, music, trivia, and crafts. Kinda cheesy but kinda entertaining too. We kept trying to find food but nothing was grabbing at us in particular.
We did see this though:
Fireglass!Sweet!
Finally we just decided to have Thai food as it had been weeks since we’d had any type of Asian food. Yum! It didn’t quite hit the spot like cheap Chinese food would have but close enough. Plus Harrison Ford had eaten there before with Calista Flockhart. Winner! Actually it wasn’t that good but was not terrible.
The end for tonight!
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