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.

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!