del
Coronado hotel. We took that opportunity to go on inside. Linda had seen it before and new
what to expect, but I hadn’t. The craftsman era woodwork was spectacular.
I got a picture
of a fireplace, but most of it was outside of the reach of the camera. It was too dark in
there, and the woodwork was to far away for the flash to be effective. All together, it was
well worth the little detour. The walk also included walking on the beach, the harbor
shoreline (including the old ferry dock, and some of the residential areas. One of the
interesting things about doing a Volkswalk is that it sometimes leaves Linda too tired to do
any shopping (aw shucks!).
After completing the walk, we went up to the Hillcrest area where Linda was raised. We found the house she lived in, and found that the neighborhood was considerably changed. It appears to be in the process of gentrification.
During the time that we were driving around, we heard two things on the news that were of interest. First was that the zoo had been really crowded because thousands of people had swarmed for the first public viewing of the new baby panda. We were glad we had decided not to go there. We also heard that there was a winter storm warning for 6 to 12 inches of snow in the mountains overnight. At that point, we decided that we had better get over to the Anza-Borrego desert park tonight. We got up to the town of Julian at just about dusk, and since they are supposedly famous for their apples, we stopped and had a piece of apple pie. It was very good, but Linda makes better.
Then we drove down into the desert, and found a camping spot at Tamarisk Grove campground. Unfortunately, we probably missed some pretty scenery coming down the mountains in the dark, but at least we got to the point where we can drive through and look at the rest of the park tomorrow in the daylight.
Saturday, February 12, 2000
We were greeted this morning with another weather disappointment. In a desert that gets
an average of six inches a year, a front moved in overnight and it rained most of the night.
This morning, there were only showers, but then the wind came up and blew something
fierce. Despite the weather we went on up to Borrego Springs and then took the trail up
Palm Canyon. That is a really pretty walk up a canyon to an oasis. The “Palm” in the canyon
name comes from the palms at the oasis.
Leaving there and the visitors center, we drove over to highway 86 that drove along the Salton Sea, and then up to Palm Springs. Linda called one of her ex-colleagues, and when he called back she had a long conversation with him. Other than that we just sat back and watched TV.
Sunday, February 13, 2000
This morning it finally felt like we were starting east on this trip. We left Palm Springs this morning and headed up to Joshua Tree National Park, and then headed east into (just) Arizona. We even changed time zones.
It really looked like you could see the whole world. When we got down from that,
we fixed some lunch, then drove around a little while, including a ride on a long, washboardy
dirt road. Along that, we went to the short Barker Dam interpretive trail. Unfortunately, I
was having trouble with my camera, so I didn’t get any pictures of the rock formations.
Those from Ryan Mtn. will have to suffice, even though that is only one example of what we
have seen.
Leaving Joshua Tree National Park, we headed east on Interstate 10 late in the evening. That was a really beautiful ride. The skies had broken clouds, and the low sun at our back presented us with sunlight shafts hitting the rugged mountains. Then, as the sun continued to set, the deep pink sky silhouetted the deep blue mountains for even more grandeur. Shortly after sunset, we crossed the state line into Arizona, and set our camper up in a KOA campground. I don’t think that I would want to spend a vacation in one of these places, but they sure are great for traveling. For the same price as some of the California State Parks, we also get free showers, a hook up to access the Internet, and laundry services.
