February 24th – The Living Desert is a conservation area, very close to where we are staying, whose mission is to preserve a portion of the Colorado desert in its natural state, to provide educational and interpretive programs and to build up, under controlled conditions, plants and animals that are threatened with extinction in the wild. We spent about five hours here and really enjoyed our visit. The park is divided into two sections – one representing all four North American deserts and the other the five deserts of Africa. The botanical gardens in each area represent the great diversity of flora found in each of the deserts. The North American section includes birds, reptiles, and mammals such as wolves, lions, coyotes, and bobcats. The African section includes many well-known animals and birds from that continent but more importantly includes the cheetah and Cuvier’s gazelle, and the rare Grevy’s Zebra, all of which are endangered. The park’s intent is to assist other zoos around the world to re-populate this species through controlled breeding programs. Recently, addax born at the Living Desert were reintroduced to an area of Tunisia’s Grand Erg at the edge of the Sahara, adding to the numbers and populations of this nearly extinct African antelope.

Horned Owl

Great Egret

Greater Roadrunner

Camel

Yellow Billed Storks

Dino??

One of the last things we expected to see was a big 3/4 acre G-scale model train layout. With over 3,300 feet of track laid, it is operated by 1 employee and about 25 volunteers. There are six different loops of track varying from 150′ to 940′. The scenery models many of the local features such as Old Indio, the Grand Canyon and mining and logging areas. The amount of rolling stock was impressive and the diligence with which the volunteers were tending to their task reminded me that everyone can find a passion for their volunteer time.

Model Trains

Model Trains

February 25th – As I’ve indicated earlier, the desert cities are in a valley – called the Coachella Valley. The valley extends for about 45 miles and is on average 15 miles wide. On the west side is the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains and on the north and east by the San Bernardino Mountains. The famous San Andreas Fault runs through the valley, close to the base of the San Bernardino Mountains and shifts the land masses about two inches each year.

Back in 1935, a young engineer had a dream of building a tramway up the sheer cliff of Chino Canyon – originally dubbed “Crocker’s Folly.” With lots of setbacks, political problems and two wars, it took 28 years before Francis Crocker saw his dream come true. The tram ride has become a very popular tourist attraction and the national park at the top is one of the largest in the country, including some 272,000 acres of protected mountain terrain.  Since 1963 nearly 18 million people have traveled the 10-minute, 2.5-mile ride, which begins at the Valley Station – elevation 2,643 feet and ends at the Mountain Station – elevation 8,516 feet. The new tram cars installed in 2000, are the largest rotating tramcars in the world.

During the 10-minute ride to the top one gets a full 360* view of the mountain in front and the desert valley below. It was fun to hear the chatter in the tramcar and then the giggles as the car swayed over each of the five towers. Once we reached the top we headed to the restaurant for lunch-with-a-view. There was a 20*+ temperature difference between the desert and the top, but the sunny blue sky still made it seem quite warm. After lunch we watched two movies – one about the national park and the other about the building of the tram. There are a number of hiking/walking trails but we took the shortest one, due mainly to the icy condition of the trail. Yes, there is snow at the top!

Looking back down to Main Station

View of Coachilla Valley

Snow on the mountain

Since we were already in the Palm Springs area, we had decided to make a reservation at Johannes for dinner. One of the members of our house group had suggested they make the best schnitzel..and they do. Arriving back in Palm Springs a little early, we decided to stroll through town. What a surprise – the main street was being shut down and vendors were unloading all means of equipment from their vans. It turned out that Thursday night is the weekly Village Fest, with booths set up along the main street for about four or five blocks. After dinner we strolled through town again and enjoyed the fun atmosphere of this weekly event.

February 26th – Today was intended to be a quiet day spent researching other spots that we might like to stay if we come back to this area in the future and running some errands. Imagine our surprise when we went to get our car out of the garage only to find that the door opener no longer worked. We sent a note to the owner and then walked down to El Paseo to redeem our free lunch coupon. Raila arrived just minutes after we returned with another opener and we were finally on our way. During our drive we stopped in Old Town Quinta, with its cute Spanish architecture and little boutiques. George even managed to get his watch battery changed for $5, which was worth the trip. It would have $30 at the local mall.

February 17th to 20th – It’s been 40 years since George’s cousin, Ted and wife Sue, moved from the Toronto area to the west coast for work. During that time they have moved from Vancouver to Seattle, raised a family, became US citizens and have recently retired to Ridgefield, WA to be close to the grandchildren. They  also own a home in Gold Canyon, AZ which is where we caught up with them. There have been many visits back to Toronto during those 40 years,  but as with all families who live large distances apart, visits home were reserved for parents, brothers/sisters, and family celebrations…leaving little time for the extended family. It was a real treat, therefore, for us to spend 2 1/2 days together catching up on 40 years.

Ted, Sue, Nancy & George

Sandwiched between conversations about growing up in the east end of Toronto, friends from Calvary Baptist Church, Camp Manitomono, and school, various family members and general reminiscences, we found time to learn how to play pickle-ball, visit the ice cream store at Tequila Flats, take a cruise on Canyon Lake,  have lunch in Superior (a struggling mining town right out of the 1930s) and tour the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park. On Thursday evening we celebrated George’s birthday in style at the local golf and country club where we had our first taste of elk. We are looking forward to spending more time with Ted during our family adventure to France in June.

Tequila Flats – Ice Cream Stop

Big Horn Sheep

Boyce Arboretum – Gnarly Tree

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Boyce Arboretum – Ayers Lake

The road between Palm Desert and Gold Canyon is virtually four hours across the desert. There is not much to see (other than scrub brush and random sequoia cacti) and there are only three or four populated crossroads (one could be called a town) along the way.  Just after you enter/leave Arizona, there is a one hour time change. We did notice a difference in the landscaping of private residences between Palm Desert and Gold Canyon. In Palm Desert most of the residential areas still use a fair bit of grass for landscaping purposes and since many areas are gated communities, the area between the walls and the roads are also grassed and nicely manicured. This requires much needed water, which as you may know is in short supply in California. In Mesa and Gold Canyon, most of the landscaping is done using stones and native plants/grasses. Drip-watering is usually only required about once a week for 20 or 30 minutes.

February 21st – Today we were back at PDCP church for the 10:30 blended worship. The children made a special presentation which was cute given that the little girl who sang one of the verses was very off-key and the voices on stage weren’t always in sync with the voices on the back-up tape. Oh the fun of working with technology!! The speaker today was Mark Labberton, President of Fuller Seminary. His message was based on Daniel 1 -3 and was entitled Strangers in a Strange Land. He spoke well about Americans coming to terms with no longer living in the promised land and learning how to live in exile. It was very timely given the status of American politics these days. You can listen at PDCP Feb 21st. The sermon is about minute 37.

As we enter our last week in Palm Desert we are trying to enjoy each day. It will be back to cold and regular activities soon.

February 16th – It’s been a few days since my last post – a bit of routine has set in and we are feeling very much at home here. On Friday morning we went up to the big outlet mall north of Palm Springs and wandered around for a while. I bought a few items at Chicos and Ann Taylor and the Jockey store did well by us both. We were very intrigued by the Chinese folk on a bus tour since they were also purchasing new luggage to accommodate their purchases. I guess the cost of extra luggage home makes up for the ability to purchase American goods which aren’t available at home.

Since Sunday was Valentine’s Day, and we knew the restaurants would likely be busy, we planned to eat out on Saturday evening. Maybe everyone else had the same idea because we couldn’t get a reservation anywhere. In the end we went early to Olive Garden and were home again by 6:15pm. Are we getting old or what!!

Church on Sunday morning was the 10:30am service at Community Presbyterian. The music was led by a worship team composed of piano, violin, bass and three singers. Two of the singers had` very good voices and the blend was quite nice. The handbell group also played two pieces: Joshua’s March and Song of Love. The latter had a drum accompaniment. They played on three octaves but since there were 12 people my guess is that some only played one note and its accidental. The Director of Music also played in the group.

On Sunday evening we attended a fantastic concert by the Westminster Chorus. This was one of a series of concerts sponsored by the Desert Friends of Music, an arts organization that is part of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. The Westminster Chorus are 3-time Barbershop Harmony Society International Champions, their latest win coming in July 2015. They began the concert with a religious component of two songs sung “in the round” – absolutely stunning, you could have heard a pin drop. The church has beautiful acoustics which only added to the rich sound made by 40 men. Later in the program they did some more traditional barbershop style pieces and two quartets from amongst the group also sang a few pieces. The disciplined approach to entrances, cut-offs, dynamics and chord changes was one of the things that caught our attention – easier obviously when there is no printed music and all eyes are on the conductor. Here’s a sample from their website: Westminster Chorus. Seize the Day is one of the pieces they used for the competition and they repeated it Sunday evening, although with less choreography given the limited space in the church. The next presentation is the afternoon before we leave and will feature Frederick Swann, a well-known organist, in concert. He will be celebrating his 85th birthday this year.

After the concert, we dropped our car at the house and walked to Starbucks on El Paseo. The street is quite pretty at night with strings of white lights wrapped around the palm trees and white icicle lights up in the palm fronds. We arrived just after Starbucks had closed unfortunately, thus forcing us to the Daily Grill, at our corner, for yet another piece of key lime pie. We sat outside and since it was quite warm we didn’t need the patio heaters on. The other night when we were there for dinner they couldn’t get the heaters to work – tonight our waiter couldn’t get the candles to work. It was quite fun.

Monday was golf day at the Dunes course in La Quinta. This is a Pete Dye course with no fewer than six tee boxes. We played on our own behind a father and son of about 10 who could hit it farther than either of us…although maybe not too accurately.  He must have been one tired pup that night since he was constantly running back and forth from the cart to his ball. When he wasn’t hitting he was practicing his swing. We quite enjoyed the course and would play here again.

La Quinta Dunes – 12th hole

We have both been bothered with allergies the last few days and stopped at the pharmacy last evening to get some relief. The pharmacist said it is particularly bad this year because of the heat wave – everything has blossomed at the same time. No guff…we are both like running taps!

Today was a tennis day and we headed out early to avoid the heat. After our workout we took a little tour around the sports complex – watched some senior softball (George calls it lob ball), checked out the aquatic centre and passed by the basketball, beach volleyball, play ground and YMCA. It’s quite a complex sponsored by three of the cities in this area. In both of the baseball games there were some women playing and there were also controversies over the rules. Some things never change – poor umpires!

We filled up with gas today at $0.66 per litre – great price.

Tomorrow we head off to the Phoenix area for a few days with George’s cousin Ted and his wife Sue. They are from the Seattle area but winter in Mesa, AZ. We don’t really know them that well but Ted will be traveling with us in England and France later this spring. This is a good opportunity to make the connection since we are only 4 hours apart.

February 11th – At 82 – 84*, California is definitely having a heat wave. Temperatures are about 10* warmer than normal for this time of year and it is the topic of conversation with most people who live here year-round. The rest of us are just loving it and enjoying the ride.

On Sunday we went to the early (8:30am) service at Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church. It was advertised on their website as a traditional service with organ and choir, whereas the 10:30am service is blended. It actually turned out to be their annual Festival of Hymns Sunday with choir, soloists and a small orchestra. They did about six or seven pieces in all, with the congregation singing portions of the opening and closing hymns. It may have been where we were sitting, the building acoustics, or poor sound system operation, but we found the choir sound quite poor – almost tinny. We plan to go back this Sunday to the later service.

Monday turned out to be a really interesting day out in the desert. We signed up for a Wind Farm tour and were taken by a small coach out to the Coachella Valley where the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Park is located. Ken Huskey, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and still works as a consultant in the industry advising on wind farm projects throughout the world. He had both the science and the technology background and was able to explain things in a way that made them understandable. This is the oldest wind farm in the country and has about 2700 wind turbines, owned and operated by various companies. The older turbines installed in the 1980s stand about 65′ high and make about 600 – 700 rotations per minute. The new turbines, installed recently, are 400′ high and make about 45 rotations per minute. Each turbine generates enough energy to serve 250 – 950 homes depending on their size and the wind velocity. The turbines are set to work when the wind ranges from 8 to 55 mph. They have an automatic shut off system which kicks in if the wind gets too high so they don’t get damaged, or worse yet…have various parts start flying off. One of the interesting facts he gave us is that out of 100,000 birds killed annually, only three are killed by wind turbines. A much greater preponderance of birds are killed by the common house cat. He also indicated that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that wind turbines cause health problems for those located within close proximity and the industry has worked hard to mitigate against some of the concerns raised by the naysayers.

400′ high wind turbine

250′ high wind turbine

Of course, one of the questions asked was what happens when there is no wind. They are currently producing more power on a normal day than is needed so there is margin. They also use solar and a natural gas plant that can be fully functional within seven minutes shutting down the wind farm operations.

Tuesday was golf day and will be memorable. Our tee time was 1:30pm which made for a quiet morning, a quick lunch and then off to the club some 20 minutes away. We arrived to find that my golf shoes were inadvertently left sitting in the front hall. Since the club was completely booked for the afternoon, there was no time to go back home to get them…so I did the next best thing and bought a new pair of golf sandals! Fortunately, they were on sale and the pro shop gave me an additional Canadian discount. We golfed with two women from South Dakota farming country. It was an enjoyable afternoon until it got dark. We got to about the 15th hole as the sun dipped below the mountains. Our golf mates assured us that we could probably get two more holes in. The 16th hole was fine but our tee shots on 17 were completely blind. Fortunately, since we all landed in the fairway we were able to find our balls easily for the next shot. By the time we putted out, it was so dark we had to use the flashlights on our cell phones to light the way back to the club house.

We spent most of yesterday here at the house waiting for the handyman to come and install a new light/fan fixture in the master bedroom. Today we played tennis and did some grocery shopping before trying out the pool. Unfortunately, it’s not heated so only the ankles got wet in the big pool. The hot tub was quite refreshing though!

A few things I’ve noticed about life in the desert:

• there are virtually no bugs because there is no standing water
• because we’re at altitude, some activities such as climbing stairs require more effort
• 84* doesn’t feel as hot as it does at home since there’s no humidity
• sports activity, such as playing tennis, doesn’t make you sweat like it does at home – I assume it evaporates before you feel it
• one’s skin gets dry very quickly – a different type of moisturizer is required

Scrabble update: Nancy – 4 games won; George – 2 games won.

February 6th – It has taken a few days, but I think I’m finally winding down from the busyness of life in Mississauga. The past three days have been quite restful, especially today.

Thursday was our first golf game – at a small par 3 executive course in La Quinta. The price was right at $25 and the distance was walkable at 2200 yards. We played with two women, one of whom hails from Vancouver area. They are both widows and took up golf together last year. We were all fairly well matched in terms of skill level and enjoyed the outing. Lunch was at an American-style restaurant called Eureka!.

Friday, George went for a walk in the morning while I shopped along El Paseo. Chicos and the Black and White Market did quite well by me. I stopped at Williams and Sonoma looking for some sauce for our chicken with reduced sodium…and found a really nice Mediterranean one. The grocery stores here do not cater to people on low salt diets and the best we can do in most cases is to purchase 33% reduced sodium.

Today, George went for a guided walk in the desert while I stayed home to work on some accounting stuff for LPBC. I purposely chose not to go because we’d been advised that the walk was rugged in some spots. I’m trying to keep the arthritis at bay! During the walk he found out about HAT – the various types of vegetation that are hoarders of water, those that avoid water and those that tolerate water. The guide also told them about the Cahuilla tribe and how through the various seasons they moved up and down from the valley to the mountains to make use of the various types of vegetation at different levels. Golf, from Phoenix, took up the rest of the afternoon.

Tonight we headed out for dinner at a restaurant recommended by Fred Pamenter. It was the most unique meal ever! Cafe Italia is a very small restaurant in a local plaza. We went for the early bird special – a four course meal for $20. It was a good home cooked meal but the best part was that during dinner various servers serenaded us with familiar show tunes. We thought it was quite appropriate to be in a musical restaurant while the Mississauga Festival Choir was presenting their Festival of Friends concert at home. All the servers combined to sing together Be Our Guest just before we left. What a fun evening.

We have both continued to work on our French skills, using Duolingo, each evening. George is further along than I am and has moved on to Mango on the Toronto Library website for further practice. We found out the other day that one of his cousins who will be accompanying us to France is bilingual, so that will be helpful.

The good news tech-wise is that I finally figured out how to get Scrabble working on my iPad so the score in the real Scrabble is now one game each.

February 3rd – Our first two days have been taken up with getting our bearings, grocery shopping, and a bit of touring. Yesterday, we found Ralph’s a grocery store not too far from the house and stocked up on veggies, fruit, soup fixins and a bit of meat. As always, there are many deals if one shops at the same store every time – I think I have supermarket cards from most major chains! Ralph’s just has a courtesy scan for Canadians who are only visiting, so that saved us $16 making our first shop only $84 and I don’t have yet another card. The prices don’t seem to be too much different than at home…but then you have to add 30% for the exchange. Our plan is to dine out for lunch some days and eat in at night. You can have really nice lunches at some of the ‘high’ spots in town for a much more reasonable price than in the evening and the portions are smaller.

We found the local public tennis courts in the afternoon and just hit the ball back and forth for a bit. It’s interesting that I never shop at Walmart at home, but that’s the first place I head for some things when I’m in the States (eg – tennis balls). I even bought a few more groceries there! In the US they have smaller Walmarts that are just grocery stores, called Walmart Market, but George says he read that they aren’t profitable and will likely be shut down.

Another common occurrence while on vacation is competitive Scrabble – games won and lost tallied throughout the vacation. We didn’t bring our game hoping that there would be one here, which there isn’t. We thought of playing on our iPads but for some reason I can’t load my Facebook friends in my Scrabble game – a problem that has garnered much anger on various chat sites. Instead we downloaded Words With Friends – similar but a different board. Nancy won the first game of the vacation.

Today we headed off early to Palm Springs to do a walking tour of the downtown area. This is always a good way to find out the history of a city and hear about some of the new development that is taking place. The first white settler to the area was John McCallum in 1884, a lawyer from San Francisco, who saw promise in the valley if only water could be brought down from the mountains. He named the area Palm Valley and recruited members of the nearby Indian village, Agua Caliente, to help construct a 19-mile long ditch. Pioneers began to come to the area and then the railroad. Over the years he acquired more than 1,700 acres of what would become the most desirable land in America. After the death of his sons (from tuberculosis) his youngest daughter took an interest in his work and carried on his legacy after his death. I encourage you to read the article at McCallum History to find out more about this visionary.

Three women significantly impacted the development of Palm Springs over the years: these included Pearl McCallum, Julia Carnell, independently wealthy wife of the CEO of NCR, who wintered in Palm Springs and Nellie Coffman, wife of a doctor who moved to Palm Springs in 1905. They each contributed in some way to creating a vacation paradise that would become a world-class resort.

Eventually movie stars began to frequent the city since it was close to Hollywood but without the paparazzi.  Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, Kirk Douglas, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Liberace, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and many others have owned a home here at one time or another. Others, like Carol Channing, still live here and can be seen around town from time-to-time. As in Hollywood, they run a tour here to visit the homes of the stars!

Downtown Palm Springs today has retained a fair bit of its historical architecture – Spanish adobe buildings with the red tile roofs. It also prides itself on having the largest concentration of mid-century modern architecture (1950s). The downtown core is a bit tired and has lost much of its luster due to the rise of neighbouring communities such as Palm Desert. Residents are hoping that two new hotels and accompanying services will provide a much needed boost to the area attracting back some of the large stores that moved farther down the valley.

John McCallum first home

La Plaza

Sonny Bono

The house at the top left is John McCallum’s first home made of Adobe bricks. Imagine 6 people living in it – no running water, no electricity, in the middle of the desert.

The bottom left is La Plaza, one of America’s first malls built at at cost of $1M by Julia Carnell, using her own funds, in the middle of the depression. It was unique because it included apartments and bungalows for rent as well as a dorm for single girls and another for chauffeurs. You could rent by the day, week, month or season quite reasonably.

The larger picture is Sonny Bono, who of course was mayor of Palm Springs (1988-92) and then the Republican Congressman (1995-98) until his untimely death in a skiing accident. He was instrumental in spearheading the creation of the Palm Springs International Film Festival held annually in January.

Spanish style architechture

Doggy watering dish circa 1935

Left – Condos in downtown area are still being built in the Spanish style.

Right – dog watering station circa 1935.

After all our walking, it was lunch time so we headed off to Spencer’s a very popular restaurant at the famous Palm Springs Tennis Club. We were fortunate to get a table despite not having a reservation.

Now it’s home for soup and salad…and another game of Scrabble!

January 31st – Sunday was a very interesting day given the weather report was for severe storms, high winds and heavy rains. We decided that we would go to church and then plan the rest of our day after that. It was to get worse in the afternoon. We attended the Church of the Nazarene with Mike Miller, a friend of Neil and Carol Randall at LPBC. They had met Mike and Terri on one of their cruises and became instant friends. Mike attends the Nazarene church and Terri attends a much larger church of the Baptist persuasion. The Nazarene church is a relatively small new church plant in a growing area of professionals. Worship was contemporary in style, led by the pastor’s wife. The pastor is on medical leave, so a retired missionary pastor preached.  After service we stopped by the Miller home to pick up Terri and went off to Applebee’s for lunch. The conversation flowed freely and we found we had a lot in common, especially travel. Mike speaks at the worship service every Sunday afternoon at a nearby retirement home, so we joked with him that if he ever comes to Canada we’ll have to introduce him to my dad – who organizes the speakers at Amica.

After lunch we went back to the hotel – it still hadn’t rained much – to wait out the storm. While heavy at times, I have seen worse rain and while the high winds blew a lot of palm fronds down from the trees, they didn’t do any other damage around the hotel. Evidently, Torrey Pines Golf Club didn’t fare quite so well. Once the sun came out, we decided to venture out on a drive to see the Hotel Del Coronado. On the trip over we saw a number of palm trees down and lots of beach sand on the roads.

Hotel Del Coronado on a better day

The Del is one of the oldest wooden hotels of its size in the US and with its distinctive red roof has become the symbol of grandeur and refinement in Southern California. George wanted to visit since some Society of Actuaries meetings were held there, although they were ones he didn’t attend. Wow!! It was unfortunate that it was so windy and cool that we weren’t able to enjoy the surroundings. We had thought of having dinner there…but at $30 – $80 per entree we decided to pass. Back to the hotel for Panera Bread sandwiches and a glass of wine!

February 1st – Monday morning we took highway 101 north from San Diego through all the little coastal towns then headed east over the San Jacinto mountains to Palm Desert. The temperature dipped down to 35* but the sun was still quite warm. At about 4000′ up we came across this sight:

Snow on Mount Rosa

We arrived in Palm Desert at lunchtime and headed to Cafe des Beaux-Arts – the same restaurant we ate at last year, on El Paseo. Our condo is lovely and will be a very comfortable place to stay for the next few weeks. The kitchen is equipped with just about everything we will need, including accouterments for soup-making. The living room is well designed with comfortable furniture and a great view of the pool. Most importantly, the bed is sleep-inducingly comfie. The shops on Paseo Drive are just a half-block from the house –  with Chico’s right at my corner!

Our view from the living room

Breakfast day one

There’s nothing like a fresh grapefruit just picked from the tree for breakfast. The tree is loaded and I get them to myself since George is not allowed to eat them because of interference with his medication.