Borrego Springs, March 2023

Between the Salton Sea and the ocean is The Anza Borrego desert, famous for the wild flower super blooms.

Pass through ocotillos, Slowjamistan, and a park to ride ATVs.

Borrego Springs library is amazing.  Recently built to withstand floods, it is off the ground-smart and gorgeous.

They have an astronomy theme throughout.

Found the cutest retro hotel.

They have a motel and cottages with kitchenettes.

Great mix of new items that fit in and old items.

Loved the art too.

The city is famous for large metal sculptures.  

There is a whole herd of horses scattered throughout the desert, just off the freeway.

Just one of these.

On the other side of the highway, the dinos are further off road, but totally worth it!

The road to go up and over the mountains, towards the ocean.  Pretty good rocks.

The view of the valley.  The road down the other side was delightful.  It criss crosses the Pacific Crest Trail and we saw hikers here and there.  Also at the top you can get a glider ride!

Even though there is no super bloom, the poppies on the side of the freeway are pretty amazing.

Books and Cozumel sunsets Feb - March 2023

 Books and Cozumel sunsets

-by Louise Penny

The Nature of the Beast:  Not going to stop now, I liked this one.

A Great Reckoning: Yup, still good.  More fallout from the long arc.

-by Hua Hsu

Stay True:  Auto biography of his time in college at UC Berkeley.  Centered around a tragedy, but such a detailed account of thoughts and happenings that I flew through it.

-by Steven Rowley

Lily and the Octopus:  Oh man, this is a tear jerker that I should not have finished on a flight.  When your dog dies from cancer.  It was worth it-not a straight forward story, but one where they play Monopoly and talk about movies.  

-by  Ying Chang Compestine

Morning Sun in Wuhan:  Middle grade level.  Story  of people being kind from the beginning of the pandemic.

-by David A. Adler

Cam Jansen #1: Modern version of Encyclopedia Brown

-by rojiman and umatan

Cat-Hair Hats for Cats: This is exactly what it sounds like.  A Japanese couple takes the hair from their cats and fashion it into hats.  Then they photograph the cats wearing the hats in cute poses.  The photos are fantastic.  I will never make any hat and our cats will never wear any hat.  Thankfully I have lived vicariously through this book.

-by Margarita Montimore

Oona Out of Order:  Fun beach read.  Starting on her 19th birthday, Oona time travels to a different year.  So as she mentally turns 19, she ends up in her 50s, not knowing anything about what has happened in the middle.  She makes mistakes and learns.  Great plane read.

DNF

-by Virginie Despentes

Vernon Subutex 1:  Read about a third and decided I didn't need to finish.  Well written.  Very similar to Jennifer Eagan-each chapter focuses on a new person in the network, music industry at the center, some of the people are jerks.  

-by Jennifer Eagan

A Visit From the Goon Squad:  Even though I really got into the sequel, this just didn't grab me.

-by Kerry Greenwood

Cocaine Blues:  First in the Phyrne Fischer books.  Watches all the shows, but started in on this and I felt like I read it before.  If I did and don't remember, huh.  If I didn't, yet feel like I did, huh.  Oh well!

Road trip to Palm Springs and the Salton Sea, March 2023

 Love a road trip!

Snow on the Grapevine.  

We missed the big snowstorm, but a week later there is still a lot left.  As long as it doesn't all melt at once, it is great for the drought situation.

We took the road on the top of the mountains.  Whole new perspective.  Big open sky country, so beautiful.

We ended the day in Palm Springs.  Somehow we have never visited before and we only got to see a small part.  Next time we will ride the mountain tram.  The library has a wonderful seating area with a koi pool inside.  

Dates!  Before the music festival, the Coachella Valley was best known for date shakes.  It took me 20 years to finally get to try them.  Delicious...but it is ice cream based, so it's hard to go wrong.

We hoped to get to taste a variety of dates, but they were closed except to make you a date shake.  Maybe next time.

Unfortunate mascot

South of Palm Springs is the Salton Sea.  This is the yacht club for the lake that can no longer support boats.

The whole story is crazy-we watched the documentary Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea before visiting.  Highly recommended though it is now out of date.

The visitor center is a great visit and the only thing to actually do around the Sea.

The beach and floor of the sea is nothing but barnacles.

Some beautiful moments, but overall, not much reason to go back.

Bombay Beach sign being photographed by tourists.  I don't think anyone bothers to actually visit the town.

Salvation City-one man's obsession that has attracted a few others to expand the area. 

LA city library steps, March 2023

 

LA city library from across the street.  

The main entrance has a water feature through the center of the steps (currently dry).  The steps themselves have a different type of writing/communication on each level.  I was fascinated.