Joshua Tree National Park

View from Key's Peak -
The depression near the top
is part of the San Andreas Fault


A Joshua Tree


Interesting rock formations


Skull Rock


Yesterday we spent the day at Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojove Desert (it is considered the "High Desert"). It was a beautiful day and the park had many varied and interesting rock formations. The park is a training ground for rock climbers to "learn the ropes" and several climbers where there yesterday. We went to the top of Key's Peak (5,185 feet) to enjoy the view. We could see San Gorgonio Mountain, at 11,485 feet it is the highest mountain in Southern California. We could also see Mt. San Jacinto, which is the 2nd highest at 10,831 feet. They were both snow-covered. Although they were twice as high as where we were standing, they seemed to be about the same height. The temperature Key's Peak was only 43 degrees and it was extremely windy up there. It was about 80 degrees in Desert Hot Springs, where we are staying this week. When we left the park we went to Twenty-Nine Palms, CA where they have "An Oasis of Murals". They have about 20 murals painted on the sides of the buildings around town. It was very interesting.

Connor Wins Gold & Bronze!

Connor with his boards


Connor (center) accepts his GOLD medal



Connor and Jillian had a karate tournament today. Unfortunately, Jillian has been sick and she missed it. Connor won a gold medal in the Weapons Form category and a bronze medal in the Board Breaking category. Congratulations, Connor!


We moved today from Menifee, CA to Desert Hot Springs. It's a nice park and this will be our last week in California. :-( We will be heading to Salome, AZ next Saturday and then to Casa Grande, AZ the following Saturday. We drove to Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert this evening. Whew...you would never know there was a recession going on when you are there! We even saw a Bentley dealership in Rancho Mirage...don't think I've ever seen one of those before.


On Thursday we met Gwen & Jim; their son, Michael; their daughter, Jamie and her hubby and children; my cousin, Mari and her friend, Jim for dinner near our park. It was a great evening! I had not seen their son or Mari yet, so that was another great reunion. We are planning to meet up with Mari & Jim and Gwen & Jim this week for another visit before we leave. I spoke to Cheryl & Paul last night and we are also planning to get together with them this week before we leave California. They have been in Nevada getting their new motor home repaired for the past 2 weeks, so we haven't seen them in a while. This will be a fun week, but also very sad. It has been so great to see my cousins and get reacquainted with them after 40 years. We have had a wonderful time and they all made us feel so welcome. We will be sad to leave here, but we are definitely planning to return here in 2 years. (If they don't have our pictures posted at the border so we can't get back in.) When we return we are planning to go further north in CA and visit Yosemite National Park and a few other places. Have I mentioned lately that "THIS IS THE LIFE???"

A Day with Gwen & Jim

Mike and his car in the pits


Loading his car in the trailer

Yesterday we went to the Pechanga RV Resort at the Pechanga Casino in Temecula to meet up with my cousin, Gwen, and her husband, Jim. They took us to the Pala Casino near there for the brunch buffet, which was excellent! We all played the slots for a while after lunch and ONE of us did really well...that would be GWEN! She also had done extremely well at that casino Friday night. Gwen & Jim's daughter, Jamie, called and wanted us to meet her at the race track last night. Her husband, Mike, was racing a super stock car for the 1st time last night. His dad has a race team and he just built a car for Mike (Mike is a California Highway Patrol Officer). He has 2 brothers that were also racing. His 17-year-old brother was racing with a broken arm (cast and all). So, off we went to Irwindale to the race track and had a great time. We just never know when we get up in the morning where we will be headed that day! (Have I mentioned lately that "THIS IS THE LIFE"?) We are going to get together with Gwen & Jim and her sister, Mary next week. We haven't met up with Mary yet, so it will be great to see her after 40 years. The last time I saw her she was only 10 years old.

Diamond Valley Lake - Hemet, CA

Diamond Valley Lake

Diamond Valley Lake

Mt. San Jacinto in background -

the 2nd highest mountain in S. Cal.

Whoops! Rattlesnake that

didn't quite make it across

the road near the lake. It

was still squirming. YUCK!

On Friday we drove to Diamond Valley Lake, "The Jewel of California Lakes". It is a man-made reservoir that provides water to the area when there is an earthquake or drought (which they are in right now). It took 4 years to fill it and the water level is down 50% over the past 3 months. When they excavated the site they unearthed "Max", the largest mastadon skeleton ever found. It was a beautiful view and we enjoyed the visitors center.

The Pacific Ocean and Miscellaneous

Surfers in the Pacific

California Sunset

But it's a DRY HEAT! :-)

This Canadian Goose was on the

roof of the park model trailer across

from us this morning before we left.

After we left the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park today (Thursday) we went to Oceanside, CA to see the Ocean. We were surprised to see so many people surfing and swimming, some did not even have wetsuits on. It could not have been that warm!!!

San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park

Cheetahs

Baby Cheetah born 02/19/09

Okapi - Only living relative of

the giraffe - it looks like it's made

up of several different parts :-)

Baby elephant born last Friday

Lion


Giraffe - whew that's a long way down!

Rhinoceros

Gorilla

Gorilla in "time out" :-)

Today we visited the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. What an incredible experience. The zoo is 100 acres, the Wild Animal Park is 1,800 acres. We enjoyed this park much more than the zoo.

The World Famous San Diego Zoo

Mama Panda eating bamboo

Orangs "gettin' it on"

Scarlet Ibis

White egret

South Dakota Badger - Check out the CLAWS!!!

(They can dig faster than a man with a shovel).

Camel

Koala - they sleep 18-20 hours/day

Flamingos trying to cool off

Mama giraffe - due any day

Polar bear (my favorite)

THREE Polar Bears

Since today (Tuesday) was our 30th Anniversary and we were not lucky enough to get tickets for the Tonight Show (I guess we'd have an easier time getting tickets to see Jay Leno in Michigan right now), we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. It was an awesome experience and I really had a hard time choosing which pictures to post here. The giraffe shown here is due to have her baby at any time. I was amazed to hear that it will weigh about 150 lbs. and be 6 ft. tall at birth. OUCH!!! The orangutans put on quite a show for the adults! :-) It was a beautiful day, although a bit on the HOT side. Bob kept saying, "Dry heat...my ass!" :-) We will be going to the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park later this week.

Menifee, California

California Sunset

Wind turbines near Palm Springs

We arrived at our campsite at Wilderness Lakes Resort in Menifee, CA on Friday. It is a nice resort with lots of ducks, geese and other water birds. There is a huge dairy farm nearby, but fortunately our site is on the other side of the park, so we don't have to endure the smell. Yesterday we drove down to Temucula and then we drove to the Palm Springs area to check out the Desert Pools Resort that we will be going to when we leave here in 2 weeks. Bob wanted to make sure the drive through the mountain areas will be OK when we pull the trailer there. We tried 2 different routes and they both seemed fine. The Palm Springs area has over 4,000 wind turbines which power the entire area. They cost up to $300,000 each to install. It's almost mesmerizing to drive through there when they are all turning. On the way back we watched a beautiful California sunset.

Our Site at Mountain Lakes Resort

The Everest at Mountain Lakes


View from our site at Mountain Lakes


Mountain Lakes Resort in Lytle Creek, CA is such a beautiful park! We were supposed to leave here last Friday and go to another of our membership parks in Menifee, CA, but on Thursday our truck was acting up and we took it to the dealer. The dealer paid for our rental car, but there was no way to pull the trailer, so this park was nice enough to let us stay 2 weeks straight. We will leave this Friday for Menifee and are hopeful that the park there will as nice as this one. Mountain Lakes is definitely our favorite membership (Resorts of Distinction) park that we have stayed at.

On Sunday we met my cousin, Gwen & her husband, Jim and their daughter and granddaughter at The Cheesecake Factory for lunch. We had a wonderful visit with them and they are going to come down to a campground near Menifee on the 18th so we can spend some time together there. Tomorrow we are meeting Paul & Cheryl and Gwen & Jim at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. This has been such a wonderful visit with my cousins and we are going to be very sad to leave California in a few weeks!

Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace

He just can't resist a photo op with the King!


The Nixon Birthplace


Reflecting Pool at the Library



Since visiting the 13 Presidential Libraries & Museums was on the "Bucket List" I created when we began full-time RVing 2 years ago, we went to the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, CA yesterday. It is at the exact site where the house he was born in was originally located. His parents bought 8 acres of land and his father built the house from a kit. It was a beautiful setting and very interesting.

Real Time with Bill Maher

Yesterday we went back to Hollywood...this time to CBS Studios for the live taping of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. It was quite an experience to see how a live TV show is produced. This is the same studio where the Carol Burnett Show and Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour were taped. Free parking and free tickets made it even better! We are still hoping to get tickets for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". This was a great evening and one that we hope to repeat, if possible. We had tickets for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" for Thursday, but when Real Time called on Wednesday and said we could get into Real Time on Friday, we cancelled the Jimmy Kimmel tickets. If we lived in this area, I'm sure we would spend a lot of time going to TV shows. We may even try to get into The Price Is Right before we leave California.