Hot, hot, hot. The first two weeks have been unbearably hot, and records have been broken for this time of year. Daytime temperatures are as high as 114 degrees, and the lows at night are 85. Our A/C cannot keep up during the day, and it is toasty in the RV. We ventured to the pool for a few hours each day.
Thursday, we played golf but teed off at 7:30 a.m. We played Hawk Landing, about 20 miles away in the foothills. It was a little cooler there. At 7:30, it was 79 degrees (and it felt chilly for a hole or two), but when we finished, it was 99. What we didn’t realize when I booked it was that they overseeded the course, so only holes 1-6 were open. So we played them three times.
I golfed fairly well but on one hole I turned and there was a very healthy coyote about 20 feet from me. It scared the begebies of out of me.
Friday we finally made it into town and checked out a couple of the pubs before heading over to watch the MSU football game.
On Wednesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. What was supposed to be a 2.5-hour drive turned into 3.5 because of traffic. We arrived at 9:30 and spent the day walking the zoo and seeing all the animals including the infamous Panda bears. The temperature was perfect mid 70’s. If the traffic wasn’t horrendous and it wasn’t California I would consider moving to San Diego.
We finished the evening by meeting friends from Michigan for dinner. Phil chose a fabulous Italian restaurant, Bencotto, in Little Italy. We had a great evening and was so fun to see them.
The weather has finally cooled a little, with highs in the mid-90s and very pleasant. We drove over to the Eagles (about 30 miles away) as I found out they had an RV park and we wanted to check it out. It would have been fine for a day or two but not a month. The club is only open on the weekends and the park isn’t close to anything. Stopped at a casino to finish watching the Detroit Lions win and then home to a beautiful sunset.
Yeah, I don’t have to wait 80,000 years to see the comet again, which is good as my calendar didn’t go out that far. After three nights of searching for it, I finally saw it.
Played Terra Lago North golf course and paired with another couple. We had a nice time, scored well, and didn’t die from heat exhaustion, although I did drink about 95 ounces of water.
On Thursdays there is a street fair in downtown Palm Springs and the Art Museum is free. We visited the museum first. It was a good thing it was free because it was all modern art, except for some of the wave, particle, and fractal exhibits, it wasn’t my kind of art. After we walked around the booths in the street and enjoyed a Mexican dinner people-watching. We had commented how safe we felt while walking around and then when we got home we found out there was a shooting right after we left. Yikes.
We went to a cactus botanical garden in downtown Palm Springs, looking for potential plants for our new house. Now, we just need to decide if we are living in Florida or Arizona.
We went to a bar in Palm Springs where Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin hung out and listened to a band playing music from the 40’s. I thought of my mom and how much she would have enjoyed that. Also, the original champagne lady from Lawrence Welk’s show was there.
We drove to Joshua Tree National Park and did the Split Rock Hike. Very cool formations in the rocks. After we drove to Pioneertown and visited the western town built in 1946 to produce movies, good thing it was on the way home from Joshua Park as it took about five minutes to walk through the town.
We went back downtown to have dinner at Kaiser Grille. They have 1/2 off wine on Wednesdays. My meal was delicious and so was the wine. We also ran into a friend of our kids in the restaurant. Definitely a small world.
We golfed one last time in Palm Springs at Tahquitz Golf. We were paired up with another couple and enjoyed the time on the course. I always forget with the mountains the sun goes down about an hour before actual sunset so you need to be done with your round by 5:10 and by 4:10 after daylight savings.
Everyone we talked to said to take the aerial tram to the top of Mt. San Jacinto. We chose Sunday because it was the last very hot day and 20 degrees cooler at the top. Apparently, everyone else in Palm Springs decided to do the same. The tram was packed. We did a short hike at the top and had a drink ($11 for Bud Light and $22 for a chocolate martini). It probably would have been better if it wasn’t so crowded.
We finished our week with a trip to the Cabot Museum, which was very quirky but interesting, followed by a hike at Big Morongo. We ended up turning around after about 1.5 miles because they had posted signs that said mountain lions were recently seen on the trail. I had no interest in that encounter. Also what was up with that car next to our trail (see picture) dod it fall over the cliff 50 years ago? Our final night was heading into town one last time for Halloween. We decided at the last minute to throw a couple of cheesy costumes on and head out.
We had all kinds of weather. It went from record heat to Santa Ana high winds and dust storms, which caused us to pull our slides in to the coolest nights on record. By the way, how do you CA people afford gas with the price per gallon?
