February 23rd – Having settled into a routine there sometimes isn’t a lot to write about. In the last 10 days we have golfed once, at Woodhaven, and played tennis twice. We also spent another day at Joshua Tree, participating in an interpretive walk, and driving through the remainder of the park that we didn’t see the first time.

We celebrated George’s birthday at the Daily Grill, went to a European-themed buffet at the Woodhaven Clubhouse, and visited the Outlet Mall. Last Sunday we attended the Presbyterian Community Church in the morning and then returned in the evening for a concert by the California Baptist University Men’s Chorus. It was a wonderful presentation and enthusiasm eked out of almost every pore on the stage. With a full range of musical instruments available, just about every type of religious musical genre was presented over the course of the evening.

The weather hasn’t been really warm for swimming but we have managed three dips in the pool.

Yesterday we met up with Elaine and Harry Porter, friends of Ron and Heather Hunter, whom we met at Heather’s birthday party. They have been coming to Palm Desert for many years and stay for two months. Golf arrangements didn’t work out so we just met up for a delightful lunch at Shield’s Date Farm. Begun in 1924, the farm produces about 95%of the dates sold in the US. A fun video called The Romance and Sex Life of the Date tells the story of the laborious method used to produce dates successfully. Lunch was delicious (hamburger with dates and blue cheese) and we found conversation easy with our new desert friends.

Today was probably the most interesting and educational day so far. Every year, Palm Springs celebrates Modernism Week – a celebration of the mid-century architecture found in this area. We haven’t attended before but thought a double-decker bus tour would be the ideal way to be introduced to this major festival. The tour was about 2-1/2 hours long and took us through a number of the well-defined neighbourhoods in Palm Springs.

Burgess House c 1945 – wall took 15 years to build

Example of Butterfly Roof – 3200 sq ft one bedroom

One of Gloria Swanson’s homes – Spanish Revival

Example of Hollywood Regency – pool in front – note large yellow doors

House of Tomorrow c 1960 – master bedroom in front with waterfall underneath

Kaufmann Desert House – Barry Manilow lived here 1971 to 1991

2 acres of Robo Gardens – light show at Christmas is local sensation

Twin Palms (Frank Sinatra) Estate – pool is piano-shaped

After our tour we went to lunch at Spencer’s – our favourite Palm Springs lunch date and then enjoyed an hour at St Theresa’s Parish School. The school has adopted the modernism theme as part of their teaching curriculum and each grade learns something about the local architecture. The grade six class has to research a building and its architect and then build a model to scale. Wow…they were fantastic! We enjoyed talking to the kids about why they chose their building and how they built their model. The grade seven class had an international theme and had to research a building and its architect and then produce an art piece based on their research. The CN Tower, the Sydney Opera House and the church in Tromso, Norway – all of which we have visited – were researched and made into art. It was interesting to hear why they had chosen a particular building and the meaning behind their artwork.

With only a few more days left in the Desert we are down to doing just a few more things that are becoming routine for us – mostly dining out at some of our favourite restaurants, golfing and playing one more game of tennis, and trying to make it into the pool once more before our flight on Tuesday.

Sad to be leaving so soon!

February 12th – It’s been a rather relaxing few days as we settled-in to a routine and began to plan our time in the desert. We’ve had a lot of fun at the house and I suspect our hosts are just a bit frustrated with us, but when you pay good dollars for a place you expect it to be fairly well appointed. In our first four days here we found:

• the waste disposal in the kitchen sink backed up and required a plumber
• there were no pots smaller than 5 qt soup pots and no paring knives in the kitchen
• the inside of the BBQ is all rusty and we have deemed it unusable
• the inside of the dresser drawers have 1″ screws (obviously replacement handles) and I’ve managed to snag my hand and lingerie
• there was only one pool towel
• the lounger on the back patio has seen too much sun and now has a big hole in it.

We’ve kindly sent notes to the hosts so that they can remedy some of these things before the next tenants arrive. My guess is that they haven’t stayed here themselves, having just bought the property in the fall.

During the week we golfed on the course here, went to Joshua Tree National Park and the Moorten Botanical Gardens. We worshiped last Sunday at Southwest – a large campus church in La Quinta – and this Sunday at Hope Lutheran – an older church with a new contemporary service that was started just four months ago by the previous lead pastor and associate from Southwest. In both cases the worship style was contemporary and we recognized how these types of services are done within 60 – 75 minutes. There is very little liturgy, scripture is read as part of the sermon and very brief prayers.

The weather has been good although much cooler than last year. The forecast is for very wet and cool weather next weekend, so we’re planning a number of things for early this week.

Here are a few photos from our fabulous time at Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree National Park covers some 800K acres of the Mohave desert, 558K of which has been protected as wilderness

Legend has it that the Mormons gave the tree its name since it reminded them of the biblical Joshua raising his hands in supplication and leading them westward

The roadside is bounded on both sides by huge piles of boulders in all shapes and sizes.

A short hike took us to this dam which was used in the 1800s as a water source for a cattle ranch, which subsequently went out of business with the effects of climate change

Hieroglyphics show the presence of a long-ago society. Some of these have unfortunately been damaged by “modern-day artists”

From the highest point in the park you can see the Sultan Sea, Palm Springs and the famous San Andreas fault

January 31st – This was a relatively light day which started with a morning walk (George) around town and then into San Luis Obispo for lunch.We toured the lovely Mission San Luis Obispo de Toloso. Founded in 1722 by Spanish priest, Junipero Serra, it is the fifth of 21 missions founded along the California coast. It remains an active Catholic parish today and is found in a beautiful setting with the Mission Plaza, a community gathering spot, in front and the San Luis Creek running through the property.

After touring the Mission, we enjoyed lunch sitting outside by the Creek. When we got back to Morro Bay, we went to see Hidden Figures, a movie that won big at the SAG awards and will likely win at the Oscars. Dinner was leftovers from last night eaten in our hotel room.

February 1st – Today was a driving day as the trip from Morro Bay to Palm Desert takes about six hours. We took a small detour to the town of Solvang – a Danish heritage town in the middle of California!

It’s a cute little town even though it really is a tourist trap. The best part was a Danish bakery at which we dropped a few dollars. Not surprisingly the danish were a hit!

Over breakfast, we chatted with two bikers who had driven the route the day before (in the opposite direction). They told us about an old stagecoach inn up near Cachuma Lake. Dating back to 1886, it hasn’t changed much over the years and maintains an historic menu including Tri-Tip French Baguette sandwiches, which are the house specialty. On the weekends, the place is so busy they barbecue them outside and sell them non-stop all day.

It was only 11:30am when we arrived, but we still enjoyed our lunch and ate every crumb!

We rolled into Palm Desert about 4:30pm and met Paula who provided the keys to our house. She isn’t the owner so really didn’t know too much about the house. We gradually made ourselves at home and decamped. The hardest part was finding the password for the internet!

February 3rd – Yesterday and today were spent reorienting ourselves to Palm Desert, finding the closest grocery store and purchasing needed supplies. We’re farther north and east of where we were last year so that requires a whole new set of stores and restaurants. Some of our favourite spots like the tennis courts and Whole Foods are not too far away and we’ll still be over that way from time to time. This morning we played tennis and did a bit of shopping before returning for lunch on the patio.

Our house is in a gated community and ideally situated on the third tee box. The course doesn’t appear to be really busy this early in the month. We’ve booked a tee time for Monday and will report back.

Scrabble update – George has won three in a row. I need to pull up my socks!