Life's a beach

I make no apologies for the hokey title. How often do you get to use a 1970's t-shirt slogan?

All of the literature makes a big deal about California State Parks now being teamed up with AT&T to bring WiFi to their campgrounds. Well, this is park #5 on the WiFi list and finally we have internet access. Woohoo!! It's not completely reliable and it's certainly not high-speed, but it's working! Yaaay!



No, nobody's sick, but we had to try the drive-through pharmacy.



Palm Springs was nice. Especially after the nasty surprise of snow in the mountains close by. We've been in the desert so long that our eyes are starving for colour and Palm Springs provided lots of that. Unfortunately, I was so busy drinking in the lush lawns and palm trees that I forgot to take pictures. This is the best I can do.

We stayed a few days at Lake Perris. We loved it because not only was it GREEN, but it was also pretty much deserted. It was like living on our own private golf course.

But as nice as it was, it didn't have the advertised internet and we were ready to see the ocean. This was our first taste of the Pacific - Doheny Beach.

California is proving to be not particularly dog-friendly. Taz isn't allowed on any of the hiking trails or beaches. She isn't allowed to stay in the vehicle by herself either, so whaddya supposed to do? We've managed to find some quiet unpopulated areas and our heads are on a swivel looking for rangers.

Really, these paw prints could belong to any dog...

Shhh, don't tell.

These pictures looked great on the camera display, but they're looking kinda washed out on the laptop. Hopefully, they look better on your screen.

Map-guy is looking for our next destination. Doheny Beach was okay, but not great. Besides, there was no internet.

While he was reading maps, I discovered that we were close enough to spy on the residents of an apartment building across the way. Oh, come on - you would've done the same...

Nothing very exciting to report, but one guy was definitely looking at a girlie magazine. Or does Newsweek or Time have a drop-down centerfold?

The beach towns along the coast all have their own distinct characteristics. Laguna Beach is very up-scale. I've never seen so many Rolls Royces, Jaguars, Porsches and Bentleys before.

This is Newport Beach. We went there specifically to take a picture of the fire-pit that spawned our fire-pit. Lesley, do you remember waiting for the boat to Catalina Island? We sat on a wall at the end of the promenade and on the other side of the wall there was a sunken fire pit in the backyard of the condo. I took a picture to take home to show Dan to see if we could maybe do something like that in our yard. Guess what? We found the wall, but the backyard is under construction and the cool fire-pit is gone.

Oh well, I think ours turned out better than theirs anyway.

The board walk at Newport is kind of fun. Amusement rides, lots of shops and restaurants and the ferry over to Balboa.

Marina Del Rey was a bit disappointing. The place was dead. None of the shops and only a couple of the restaurants were open. Cute place though.

A couple of the residents:

Santa Monica is very family oriented. The pier has amusement rides and there are lots of buskers and stalls selling miniature California license plates with names on them.

This guy had an amazing voice.

This guy was pretty good too.

Taz enjoyed it too.

Until she spotted the ferris wheel. Very scary!!!

Venice Beach had kind of a seedy, spring-break vibe to it.

It was fun though

This guy drew a huge crowd.

Taz meets a Geordie look-alike.

Mugu Point park had a handy underpass to get to the beach from the campground.

Taz was actually allowed on this part of the beach

Finally back in internetland

Grab a coffee, this could take awhile.

Ever wonder where old aircraft go to retire? The Arizona desert of course. There were miles & miles of old airplanes - and we didn't even find the commercial ones, these are just the military ones.

Drove south from Tucson again; this time to Patagonia Lake Park. We might not have bothered, but Charlie, the campground host at Kartchner said “Don’t bother goin’there, ain’t nothin’ there but a lake.” Charlie also advised against going to Mexico “Ain’t nothin’ there but a bunch of Mexicans…” So naturally, we thanked him, said goodbye and immediately headed to Patagonia. With all due respect, Charlie, it’s quite pretty. It’s also a birders paradise with something like 300 different species of birds in the area. We aren’t birders, but even we were impressed with the variety that we saw. I tried taking pictures, but bird photography is a skill that is beyond me. The cardinals really are bright red though, just like the pictures in the books.

The snow along the way kind of justified the night spent in a motel in Tucson. What’s wrong with these pictures??? Snow & cacti just don’t belong together.

This is a very cool bridge at Patagonia. It's got a really steep curve to it.

Taz had to be coaxed across it - 4 times!

Notice anything different about Dan?

Don't worry, the tattoo is just a stick-on.

Okay, I was going to try to be organized and put these photos in chronological order, but there are too many of them so from now on, they could be somewhat random.

A party in the making

Hey Berlie, if you're out there, I want to thank you for the book recommendation. My friend Carl found it for me (http://www.westofedenbooks.com/) and it was waiting for me when we got to Mexico. I especially enjoyed the part where he was going through Arizona because we were going through many of the same places as I was reading it.

This was in Apache Junction. Dan spotted this recycling depot in a parking lot and had to try it:

So, you dump your aluminum cans on the tray, push the button and the machine shuffles them down the chute, crushes the cans and spits out your cash.

Of course, it would be a lot more lucrative if you had more than 6 cans...

Tubac is about an hour out of Tucson. It's a funky little touristy artsy town. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the shops and galleries there.

Yeah, a still photo just doesn't work for this garden sculpture thingy. It was spinning in 2 different directions at once and was quite mesmerizing.

An outdoor gallery with lots of fun bronzes.

Lots of little alleyways with treasures in them.

Unless you have a cast iron stomach, don't look at the next photo. I almost lost my lunch taking it. A Dan specialty - peanut butter and pickles!! Euwww!!!

Taz enjoying the empty peanut butter container. Who knew her tongue was that long??

Out for a walk one day and discovered that not all saguaros are photogenic. This one has seen better days.

Same walk - Taz finds the only snow left on the side of the road.

The Great Baking Experiment: Dave, this series is for you.

We've been hauling this camp oven around for over a year now and have never used it. I found an aluminum baking tray at a supermarket that was complete with paper muffin cups, so we decided to give it a try.

Mmmm Mmmmm - Cranberry/Orange muffins. Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it...

Dan does the honours.

Then we watched and waited...

Guess what?! It worked!! Fresh hot muffins while camping! Yaaay!!!

Dan is tired of getting beat at Scrabble, so he's trying to teach me how to play cribbage. Even with an assistant I'm having trouble getting it.

Picacho Peak

Another amazing Arizona sunset.

This is Lost Dutchman State Park. Another dramatic backdrop for a campground. There was a lot of excitement one day. A couple of brothers were rock-climbing and one of them fell. He survived, but broke both legs and several other bones. The Search & Rescue team passed us on the trail and later we watched the helicopter pick him off the mountain and deliver him to a waiting ambulance.

Our campsite at Lost Dutchman. Very cactus-y.

Taz discovered why this "Teddy Bear" cactus is also known as the "Jumping Cholla"

It drops these little tiny baby pods all around its base. When you walk anywhere near them they seem to jump out at you and attach themselves to your feet/shoes/jeans/fur/ OUCH!!

It's a week or so late, but Happy Valentine's Day!

Somewhere near Phoenix. The GPS system earned its purchase price here. Oh yeah, we saw President Obama's motorcade on this road. What a production that was!

Arriving at Joshua Tree State Park

An Ocotilla plant. (I have no idea how to spell that)

Creosote bush. One of 99 bzillion or so.

Okay U2 fans - this is a Joshua tree. They are to the Mojave desert as Saguaros are to the Sonoran desert.

Windmills outside of Palm Springs, California. I thought there were a lot in Pincher Creek, but Holy Crap - there are miles and miles of them here!

Can you guess which country we're in? Man, they sure love their flag!

Our plan for tonight was to go to Mount San Jacinto State Park, near Palm Springs. I was excited because there's WiFi there!! Unfortunately, when we got there, we discovered that the campground was buried under 3 feet of snow. Taz loved it, but I was somewhat less enthusiastic. We back-tracked to Palm Springs and are now comfortably ensconced in the local Motel 6. Not exactly the lap of luxury, but deliciously warm!