Thursday, February 18, 2010

Every Adventure...

...begins with those first steps, the purchase of a ticket, hotel reservations, arranging the car rental, and reading the travel books. Then for me begins the worry; will the weather cooperate, should I go on guided tour or self guided, how much extra car insurance should I get, should I hike alone and run alone (both of which I love, but go against conventional wisdom). The longer between planning and traveling and the longer my list grows. But now I am here, in Desert Hot Springs, and all has gone better than I could have expected. The first night at pool side when talking with other people I mentioned it was my first time to the Palm Springs area and one woman's eyes got big and she said, "You are experiencing desert weather at it's most sublime!" At 78 degrees and only a whisper of a wind, I couldn't agree with her more. I rented a car, bought the self guided map of Mid-Century architecture and saw about a dozen places that satisfied my thirst for all things googie. The next day I went to Joshua Tree National Monument and saw amazing rocks in amazing hues of red and brown against brilliant blue skies. The 49Palms Oasis hike was probably the highlight for me. I hiked all three miles and saw nary a snake only a few lizards and Gambel's quails that startled me as much as I did them. How do those birds stay so clean and tidy looking in all that sand? They are quite pretty. This morning I awoke to the sounds of doves and a magpie instead of crows and robins. Magpies are loud! The platters of fresh fruit, cheeses, breads and hard boiled eggs drizzled with olive oil, lemon juice and parsley were the perfect start to another perfect day. It will be a poolside day, a book reading day, a slather on sunscreen and soak up the sun kind of day.

Pictures, plenty of pictures, to be coming!

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