A Desert Oasis

Wow. It's been three weeks since my last post so if by chance you were following my blog, I apologize. But most likely nobody out there is reading this anyway since I haven't done any major PR whatsoever. So it's a mute point anyway. :-)

One of the reasons that I haven't written for a while is because a couple weeks ago, B and I fled the rain-ridden Pacific Northwest to the oasis of Palm Springs. Well, technically Palm Desert. We traded the dreariness of mid-40's temperatures for the inviting heat of 100+ degrees. Three of the five days were spent by the various pools around the Marriott resort, drinking Pina Coladas floating in the water, or playing Scrabble. Sunday was used to explore the desert landscape and round boulder formations at Joshua Tree National Park, and the last day was spent at the airport for 7 hours, only to have our flight get cancelled, and to redo the entire fiasco the following morning. But even then, we were chillaxin' (that's a term B uses) at what could be quite possibly the most laid back airport I have ever been too. And I've been to quite a few.

Since most of you are probably familiar with swimming pools, I'll skip ahead and share a bit about Joshua Tree. The park is about 800K square miles, spread over three ecosystems. It's name sake was named after Mormon visitors saw the tree, and associated with Joshua (in the Bible) for having outreached arms, as if it was praising God.

There are also numerous rock formations around the park, making for some interesting landscapes, hiking, and bouldering. Additionally, rock climbing is very popular in JT.

I could be assuming too much here, but I think the general concencus is that deserts are usually devoid of life... Although this may be true in others locations, Joshua Tree is brimming with vegetation and animal life. In the short day that we were visiting, we saw, cactuses (cacti?), lizards, cottontail rabbits, snakes, and birds. (One of which I accidently transformed to roadkill. Sorry.)

All in all, the weekend was exactly what we needed. B & I were able to recuperate and rejuvenate (as well as reheat). We were able to get tans (and burns), catch up on reading, and enjoying each other's company. And we were able to view a national park that was beautiful in its own right, and enjoy the natural spendor of another little corner of this planet. All in a long weekend!