TheBanyanTree: Palm Springs & Coachella Valley

[B Drummond]

Got back recently from the visit to southern California.  We flew into 
Los Angeles (the LAX airport) arriving around noon to light rain and 
clouds abounding. The winds made the landing a little unstable but 
there were no mishaps.  California isn't typically in my travel plans 
but upon each visit I always tell myself that  it should be.

My daughter traveled with me on this trip.  She had never been to 
California before and was looking forward to seeing some of the things 
that she had seen on TV and had heard her friends talk about.

We left the airport and drove over to Santa Monica, saw the pier and 
Pacific and then decided to drive up the Pacific Coast highway 
(California highway 1) to see some of the coastline.  The highway had 
many stops and slow downs on it due to the mudslides that have occurred 
in the area recently.  We stopped off in Malibu, had lunch at a Mexican 
restaurant and continued on up toward Oxnard.  While on the road 
between Malibu and Oxnard we saw two huge rainbows that oddly, on both, 
one end appeared to end only a few hundred yards from the highway some 
of the hundreds of strawberry fields in the area.  The rainbows were 
nothing short of breathtaking and good omens for what turned out to be 
some excellent times in the next few days.

 From Oxnard we traveled east toward the upper suburbs of Los Angeles.  
Even though it was a spur of the moment decision and gave them no time 
to prepare for our visit, Cecil and Lou Talley served as gracious hosts 
for a short visit to see them in La Verne.  Meeting Lou and seeing 
Cecil again was priceless.  Not wanting to wear out our welcome, we 
left La Verne and traveled on to Palm Springs after short time from 
there in hideous, excruciating slow traffic over wet roads.  When it 
snows in Atlanta (a rare occurrence) you do not want to be on the 
highways because people that live in the area do NOT know how to drive 
on the highways with snow on them.  I'm convinced that the similar is 
true in LA in the rain.  People just don't know how to drive on wet 
roads there ;-)

Of course, we stopped at an "In & Out" burger stand, something my 
daughter just had to do while in S. California, having heard about them 
from "People" magazine, MTV, and her friends.  She was not disappointed 
with their fare or service.  They are perpetually busy and very popular 
with Gen X'ers and the younger kids.

Palm Springs was rainy on Saturday and cloudy on Sunday.  The weather 
improved on Monday and was quite sunny.  Tuesday was bright and fair, 
temps in the high 80s.  Snow covered mountains ring the area, and most 
of the lower elevation mountains are tinted a light green now since the 
rains have come with such intensity in the last few months.  The 
typical rainfall for a year in that area is 2 inches per year.   They 
had that in one day several times already this year, plus other lesser 
intensity rainfall days. To put it mildly the desert doesn't look 
anything like it did the other times I have been there.  Some of the 
world's highest sand dunes are located in this area.  The sand dunes do 
not look like sand dunes now.  They look like light green mountains 
blending in with the other mountains in the area.  The thing that 
differentiates them from the other mountains now only is that they are 
not as high and are the only smooth mountains to be seen. (the other 
mountains are also light green but chock-a-block full of rocks jutting 
out at weird angles)  The Palm Springs area is famous for its wind 
turbines. There are more there now than ever.  For windmill aficionados 
it is Mecca.

My daughter got to make a day visit and hike in the Joshua Tree 
National Park area.  She said the desert in bloom was beautiful and 
enjoyed the area immensely.  Just south of Joshua Tree the big fault 
line Y's off with one section named the San Andres fault and the other 
forking off into the San Andreas fault,  both ground zeros of seismic 
activity.

http://www.joshua.tree.national-park.com/

My original plans were to have more of my family with me on this trip 
but it wasn't to be.  Those plans had us staying for almost a week but 
that wasn't to be either.  We were to travel to Joshua Tree, and 
Sequoyah and Yosemite National parks as well if we had the time but it 
all turned out differently.   Well, maybe next time, should next time 
be afforded us.

My daughter definitely wants to go back and see more of S California.  
I'd be very surprised if she doesn't make that happen in the next few 
years. (If nothing else she's gotta' get another In & Out burger ;-)





    bd
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