A weekend in the desert

On Friday afternoon we drove to Palm Springs. We hired a car from Hertz which is based in John Wayne Airport, just a few miles away. We took an Uber to the airport and Will queued at the counter while I checked out the airport's namesake. We got a great deal on the car rental, it only ended up being $64, including all taxes, plus extra insurance, for the whole weekend.

We made sure we were prepared with plenty of food and water. It is recommended that you have at least a gallon (just under 4 litres) per person, plus 2 gallon for the car in case you break down or the vehicle overheats. Check out where the water came from! It astounds me that in a country the size of the U.S.A. they need to import it in the first place... Trader Joe's also stocks NZ butter and cheese.

We had a slow trip to Palm Springs. With 'normal' traffic it is meant to take just under two hours, but our trip took more than 3 and a half. A lot of people head out of town on a Friday, plus it didn't help that in order to avoid the toll roads we were taking the 55 freeway north, which is also the route used to get to Las Vegas, another popular weekend destination. Will did a great job with the driving, despite us being in a little automatic transmission Toyota Yaris with an engine that sounded like a lawn-mower! At times there were 7 lanes in each direction, yet that still wasn't enough to cope with the sheer quantity of traffic.

We finally made it to our accommodation. I had booked two nights at the Vagabond Inn, mostly because it was cheap... It was fine, not flash, but it had a super-comfy king-sized bed, free wifi, plus a pretty darn good free breakfast (the waffle maker was a hit!). It was also in a cool location right at the foot of the hills. It was pleasing to note that Palm Springs actually was full of palm trees!

Spot which one is our rental car below... I'll give you a hint, it's not the one that Prince named one of his big hits after... I would have thought the motel would have been 'beneath' a Corvette owner, but maybe staying at cheap places was how they were able to afford the car!

Once we had settled in we headed across the road to a very good Mexican place for dinner. The food was excellent, but the star of the show were the margaritas which were awesome! Great value too at $5.50 for a rather generous glass...

We were up nice and early on Saturday and headed out to the Joshua Tree National Park, just under an hours drive away. We entered via the south gate and paid our $20 vehicle entrance. The ranger at the visitor centre reminded us to always carry water when leaving the car, even if we didn't think we'd be outside long.

 Our first visit was to the Cottonwood Spring, just a few minutes from the visitor centre. Cahuilla Indians used the spring for centuries, and you can see evidence of a couple of rock mortars which they used to grind food.

The first part of the park is in the Colorado desert with wide open, reasonably featureless terrain, then a short distance from the southern entrance it turns into the Mohave desert.

We spent the whole day in the park, gradually driving our way north west, stopping at the various points of interest to explore. At some of the places there were short (1-2 mile) trails that we walked.

Above is an ocotillo plant. In spring it turns green and has red flowers, but we were just a bit too late to catch it in flower.

Next up was the cholla cactus garden which Will loved! You had to be very careful not to brush up against them as the spines had tiny hooks on them that are apparently extremely painful to remove if they end up in your skin.

We were super excited to see our first Joshua tree (which isn't a tree, but instead, is a type of yucca), but by the end of the day we had seen enough to last us a lifetime!

We then made our way deeper into the Mohave desert and the landscape changed dramatically with all sorts of interesting rock formations starting to appear.

Skull rock was particularly impressive.

Arch rock was also very cool, and fun to clamber up. The whole of this area was one giant playground!

Here are some more interesting rocks...

Next we took one of the side roads out to Keys view point at over 5000 ft. It was noticeably cooler at this altitude. You could look out for miles over the Coachella Valley, including all the way to Palm Springs. You could also see the San Andreas fault down in the valley.

Returning from Keys View we drove through some quite densely populated Joshua tree 'forests'.

We then made our way to the Hidden Valley which was a popular cattle rustlers hideout in the past. You enter through some holes in the rock and came out in a valley completely enclosed by large boulders and rock faces. It was a popular area for rock-climbing with lots of them out in action.

There were some very pretty beaver-tail cacti in flower in the valley.

 We saw a little bit of wildlife during the day, including loads of lizards and iguana.

 

We also spotted a rather cute black-tailed jackrabbit (below) as well as a couple of what were either desert woodrats or kangaroo rats.

However, the most exciting spotting was a snake right in the middle of our path as we walked the Hidden Valley trail. We don't know what sort it was, or whether or not it was dangerous. It slowly slithered its way across the path and under the shade of the bush. We were more than happy to wait for it to get out of our way!

 

I was slightly disappointed that, despite keeping a watch out, we never managed to spot a desert tortoise. Hopefully I'll manage to see one when we are in the Death Valley National Park later on in our trip.

 Our last stop before leaving the park was walking the trail to Barker Dam which was built around 1900 for cattle and mining use. There wasn't much water in it when we visited, but it was noticeably greener in the area, with some plants managing to grow that wouldn't usually survive in the desert, including willow trees!

We exited the park via the west gate in the early evening, after an epic day! We made our way back to Palm Springs, but were so shattered we decided not to go out for dinner. Instead we finished off some of our supplies from the day. We certainly slept well that night!

We spent Sunday morning having a wander around Palm Springs. It is known as being a desert retreat for the rich and famous, and some of the shops reflected that. One design store we went into was selling mens' swimming trunks for $900! The area also boasts over 120 golf courses. Our only purchase was a pretty amazing coffee and caramel thick-shake which we shared!

We headed back to Irvine in the early afternoon as Will had some work deadlines he had to meet, plus we wanted to allow loads of time for the traffic. The trip home was much quicker than the outbound journey and we got back with several hours before we had to return our rental car. We decided to make the most of having wheels and headed to Newport beach since it was a gorgeous afternoon. We managed to get a prime park literally a couple of steps from the sand on one of the side streets, thus avoiding the very busy car park by the Newport pier which can be a nightmare.

Will settled in and did a couple of hours work on his tablet and I went for a wander along the beach and to the end of the pier.

Whilst on the pier I saw a seagull swoop down and steal a small fish off one of the bait tables that the fishermen use at the end of the pier. I managed to whip my camera out in time and get a shot of the very happy bird!

 

So there you go, a very successful weekend away. Time to start planning where we want to go for the next one!

Baseball and other stuff

A few weekends ago we attended our first baseball game. It was the UCI Anteaters versus the UCLA Bruins. It was UCI Staff Assembly day so we got cheap tickets to the game, plus a free pennant each. I had taken my kindle as I thought 3 or so hours of a sport I don't know a huge amount about might get a bit boring, but it was strangely absorbing, I ended up watching every pitch!

I was amazed by how close the catcher stood to the batter, and also how close the umpire was to the catcher. UCI ended up losing the match, but weren't helped by the fact that their starting pitcher was out injured. Will and I are keen to watch another college game at some stage, and also want to try and catch a pro game. The LA Angels play at Anaheim which is quite close to us, although the team is pretty rubbish. The LA Dodgers are a much better team, but Dodger Stadium is in north LA.

Our apartment company puts on free events every now and then, and last Thursday was their Mexican Fiesta night. We had a choice of tacos, a burrito or quesadilla for dinner, followed by churros for dessert. The food was good and well worth the long queue!

On Friday nights there is 'happy hour' at the on-campus UCI Staff Club. It actually runs from 4:30pm until late. There is always a super-cheap 'cocktail of the day', cheap bar snacks, plus unlimited free popcorn. Will and I have been a couple of times now, it's nice that we now actually know a few other people to meet up with there!

 

I'm continuing to enjoy taking my bike on adventures. On Sunday I had my first badminton hit over here. I didn't bring over any of my gear as when I looked into it from New Zealand it looked like all the badminton would be finished by the time I was here. As it happens, the Irvine Badminton Club has added a few extra weeks to their season. I bought a pair of indoor shoes and was able to rent a racquet for a couple of bucks from the club. I cycled 30 minutes to the venue, played for a solid 2 and a half hours, then cycled home, so I slept well that night! It was a pretty good standard, although I mostly played with the men. The woman who runs the club was very disappointed I hadn't turned up a few months earlier as she runs a womens' team who play in a local league and she said she'd have loved me to have played for them. It was pretty warm, I'm not used to playing in those sorts of conditions. I ended up drinking about 4 bottles of water throughout the session!

Speaking of the heat, we are enjoying having back to back summers... We are in the middle of our second consecutive sweetcorn season (4 for 99 cents!) and I am loving being able to, literally, have a second bite of the cherry!

I was pretty sore on Monday after the badminton, so decided to go for a reasonably long, but reasonably gentle bike ride for recovery. I ended up cycling to Fashion Island which is a huge open-air upmarket shopping centre. It has close to 200 shops and dining options, including 4 big department stores (Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom). The grounds are beautifully landscaped, with the koi pond being especially impressive.

On Tuesday I turned up at Mason park at 9am for a free 2 hour bird-spotting walk I had heard about through the Orange County Parks website. It was led by a husband and wife team who were rangers, and they were very knowledgeable. We saw loads of different birds, including two different types of hawk, and also identified some that we couldn't see by their calls. I really like the Western Bluebird, below. Will and I have seen them quite a bit as we walk around the park, but I didn't know what they were. They are nesting at the moment in boxes hanging from trees throughout the park. We also saw a beautiful yellow and red tanager that was migrating from Mexico. The rangers were pretty excited about that one! Apparently they only stick around for a few days, so can be difficult to sight. I really enjoyed the morning. The rangers had a big scope which they'd set up on birds that would stay still for long enough, so it wasn't a problem that I didn't have any binoculars. There was about 16 or 17 people who turned up for the walk, but I was the youngest there by a good 20-25 years!

I really love the hummingbirds that are common over here. They are just so tiny, and the way they can beat their wings so fast to just hover in one place is incredible. They are unbelievably quick and super flighty, so hard to take pics of. I managed to get a few photos, but want to try and take some better ones during my time here.

After the walk I wandered round the park for a bit longer by myself. I had to go visit the turtles, as well as catch up with my other 'friends'. This teeny tiny baby turtle was super cute...

Here's a few more pics

On Wednesday Will was giving a presentation at UCI, so I decided to go along to support him. There was a very good turnout and the talk went well. I found it interesting, even if a lot of it went over my head! Afterwards Jeff, who is the professor Will is visiting over here, took us and a couple of others in the department out for a nice lunch.

That's all for this post. Tomorrow afternoon we are picking up a hire car and heading to Palm Springs for the weekend. We are going to spend Saturday at the Joshua Tree National Park which I'm excited about. The desert fascinates me as it is so different from any landscape we have in New Zealand.