by the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful Salton Sea....

             November 30, 2010....Salton Sea and Dos Palmos Oasis....

Our drive around the north end of the Salton Sea today was a surprise and very informative.  Did you know that it is 33 mi long, 47mi deep and 14 mi wide? That it supports 400 different varieties of birds in their migratory flight patterns? It is part of the Salton Sea Recreation Area, but currently has only one boat ramp at the Salton Sea Campground...that will change by the summer of 2011.

We accidently discovered a museum simply by deciding to turn onto a road that appeared to have access to the lakeshore. The North Shore Yacht and BeachClub – recently restored the main building and surrounding  public grounds and the foundation will be dredging the harbor and restoring the small marina and boat ramp in front of the building.  Back in the heydays of the 50’s and 60’s this place rocked with Hollywood stars, many who kept boats at the marina. Frank Sinatra had a house on the lake, which is now under water due to the 70’s flooding.

SaltonSeaMuseum.org

And then we drove down the street to Dos Palmos Oasis.... in the middle of the desert - the museum volunteer turned us onto this as a side trip about 2 miles from the museum down a gravel road. The State of CA maintains this small park and camping area. No off road vehicles are allowed, a 1/4 mi loop - easy stroll to the oasis.  We discovered that palm trees have underpants, road runners, lizards and egrets use the area and a restroom facility was available in the parking area.

Palm trees have "underwear"... this is what a partially-trimmed palm tree looks like on the left                      ....totally untrimmed on the right.

Until we saw these trees at the oasis we had no idea that the ones we were familiar with, were trimmed.

everyone into the pool - bottoms up!!!!

we are moving onto Yuma, however we will return to the Salton Sea area of CA to see those sights we missed this time. Thank you Oasis Palms RV Park for a great Thanksgiving dinner and for making our stay with you so enjoyable.

Adios...

Christine & Mike

 Joshua Tree National Park - November 26 - 27, 2010

We've spent the last few days in the Coachella Valley, parked at the Oasis Palms RV Park about 33 miles from Palm Springs and 12 miles from the Salton Sea. The weather has been moderate, with most days right around 62, however when the Sun goes down grab your thermal vest, jacket or sweatshirt....the temperature drips dramatically. And it's an early dip...right around 4:45pm, as most of the valley is surrounded by mountains.

Once we got into the park from the south entrance, we were met with this impressive monzogranite hills - part of the Mojave.

Monzogranite hills - Mojave Desert

Within Joshua Tree Park two deserts converge---Mojave and the Colorado - each with distinctive differences.

The Cholla Gardens is a great opportunity to get out and walk the loop...bet it is stunning when in full bloom.

Cholla bush - Cholla gardens



Cholla flower pods (red in bloom)


Rock climbing is one of the activities in the Colorado desert campgrounds.



San Andreas Fault Zone info at Keys View



Fault line runs through the center of this photo













From Keys View, the highest point in the park you an look over the valley, locate the San Andreas fault line.....and in the distance see Mt. Diablo, Santa Rosa Mts and Mt San Jacinto.

We had two days to explore this large and diverse park....oh, have you every seen a Joshua tree.....


Queen's Forest

 "Young sprouts may grow several inches in the first five years, then slow down, averaging one-half inch per year thereafter. The tallest Joshua tree in the park looms a whopping forty feet high, a grand presence in the Queen Valley forest; it is estimated to be about 300 years old! These “trees” do not have growth rings like you would find in an oak or pine." from the park brochure.



Following the sun...sort of.

24 November 2010....

It's taken us a few days, but we believe we have arrived in the land of  Sun.  Although, several nights ago it was in the low 20's and it is expected to be in the 20's tonight here in Oasis, CA. (Near Thermal, south of Coachella). We spent the day in short-sleeves and flip-flops, under a sunny sky and 68 degrees....a slice of heaven for sure. (our sympathies to our friends and family in Oregon and Washington...we are keeping tabs on your early "its beginning to look a lot like Christmas, what with the early snowfall and all)


my very own lemon trees

We are parked in the Oasis Palms RV Park....which has lemon, grapefruit and date trees....and one can pick the fruit you will eat.  I have a grapefruit sitting near a window for a day or two prior to my consuming it...love me some fresh fruit.

There is a tennis court, recreation room, swimming pool, hot tub and a small lake with rowboat - all for our use. We have everything we need and then some...



-

lemons - on the ground, free - amazing.



that's us...isn't it pretty?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we have been invited to dine with Anne the park manager, who is cooking, and the other park guests in a traditional turkey dinner (yippee) and told us today that we could look forward to a chocolate pecan, pumpkin, lemon chiffon and apple pies....we truly feel blessed. (I'll review the festivities afterwards.)  I helped with the pies with a small donation of nutmeg...why I have nutmeg remains a mystery, as I wasn't planning on doing any baking on the road. (According to Mike,apparently " I just knew that it would be needed at some point".)

On Friday we are going to drive up to Joshua Tree National Park, look for a blog on that soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours....

 Christine and Mike

We can't see the trees....

It's Sunday, 21 November 2010 and we are in a small RV park in Tulare, CA. It's about 50 miles from the Sequoia National Park and our goal of seeing the 'biggest trees on the planet'. Sometimes having a low expectation of an event is a good thing, as the day we arrived here the area was alerted to the possiblity of a "major" storm coming over the next few days. And as luck would have it, the storm arrived a day earlier than anticipated. But ever optimistic...we drove to the park prepared to meet the weather head on~!

Along the way we passed groves upon groves of oranges, olives and lemons. Miles of open groves
where you could just pull over and pick oranges off
the ground...or tree.

sorry for the bad photo



So, we got to the park, were informed that chains were required at mile 14.
Mike: "Can we see the big Sequoias before mile 14?"
Park Ranger: "No sir, that would be at mile 19 and beyond. But please do check in at the visitor center and have a nice day."


We didn't get to mile 12 before we determined that the narrow, winding, becoming icy road was not worth the stress of putting chains on. So we turned around and went back the way we came to be.


Now, you might think we would be sad. However, with the wildlife we got to view yesterday more than made up for the disappointment in seeing "the BIG trees."  We can always return....but we did get to see the following:

 

Bear sign warning at visitor center



Black bear in tree



hawk soaring

Video of the camp resident buck (42sec)

You read those signs (above) about bears, but rarely believe it will happen and then...poof - one appears

and so do hawks and deer if you keep an eye out.... 

4 pt buck in Potwisha campground
video to the left







Three Rivers residence deer, and the buck was out of the lens



We had a great drive through the park, even on the one-way portion (due to a landslide under repair)  and on the way back to our RV we finally were able to stop at a LOCAL fruit stand. We got free samples of persimmons (ah thank you, but I don't need another one), plums, pear-apples and fresh dried mango - oh yeah! We got a yam, honey, onions, pear-apples, strawberries, dried mango and the taste of plums from a grower who just happened to stop by....gave us the history of Visalia, the Native American tribe local to the area and how maddening selling his plums to the stores for $2.99/lb, only to receive .20cents/lb. He is retiring.  Gave us pause to consider the American farmers...and to appreciate what they do.

 

Happiness is fresh fruit -



and a happy Augustine (he told us he loved his job) to help us.

 And lastly, know what this is:

This is a California Buckeye...pod and seed from one of the many trees within S.Nat'l Park. I had Mike stop back in at the Visitors Center just so I could ask. This one was the size of a ping-pong ball.

From Wikipedia:

[Local native American tribes, including the Pomo, Yokut, and Luiseño, used the poisonous nuts to stupefy schools of fish in small       streams to make them easier to catch. The bark, leaves, and fruits contain the neurotoxic glycoside aesculin, which causes hemolysis of red blood cells. Buckeye also makes a good fireboard for bowdrill or hand drill.                                                                           

Native groups occasionally used the nuts as a food supply when the acorn supply was sparse; after boiling and leaching the toxin out of the nut meats for several days, they could be ground into a meal similar to that made from acorns. The nectar of the flowers is also toxic, and it can kill honeybees and other insects. When the shoots are small and leaves are new they are lower in toxins and are grazed by livestock and wildlife.
It is sometimes used as an ornamental plant.]

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Your lesson of learning for the day complete...I'll sign off. We are heading to the Palm Desert area for a week and then onto Yuma for a month or so.
 

Adios amigos..... 

I left my heart....in San Francisco - Saturday 13 November 2010

San Francisco

Gary, moi, and Dennis

 

View from Twin Peaks



San Francisco from Twin Peaks vista with friend Gary and his partner (of 37 years) Dennis...I worked with Gary at Deloitte, light years ago.  Mike and I ventured into SF via BART....We were treated to a  wonderful lunch (Italian ) in the Cole Valley neighborhood...near the Haight section of town and then strolled into Golden Gate park.

The following shots are of our stroll through Haight Ashbury....
not to be missed was the heavy aroma of "pot" layered on top of the music, the panhandlers and the double decker buses.

Historic Haight Ashbury

Lingerie Store with legs....

Over-sized napkin ring on a bench

Hookah shop...50% sale

two of several wall space art pieces

we then strolled down to Golden Gate Park 

Exotic Flower Museum in back

towards the end of our stroll we walked through a large group of about 40 individual drummers sitting in a semi-circle right on the path.....(click below...video is all of 13 seconds)



....a few non-drummers dancing and clapping and lots of people sitting on the edges of the gathering  made this one of those 'memorable moments' to be recorded.

We had a great time, thank you Gary & Dennis.

Ciao



Out in Plain Sight

Entrance to Yosemite

We have been in the East Bay area for about 5 days now. Spent a day in Yosemite

 

Deals at the park sign

                                                                                   Check out the repair....definitely male influenced.

DUCT TAPE 'E'



Bridal Veil



Archway entrance just up the road

Spent a bit of time looking at El Captain from various points along the park loop. We did spend about 15 min watching two climbers that had a tent staked to the side of this...it was pretty cool. 

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Issues with the photo upload feature demands that I publish our San Francisco day at another time.
Ciao!