[Click here to read Day 1.]
Day 2
Paul seemed to have no problem adjusting to the three hour difference between the time zones, but my body decided I needed to wake up every day by at least 4:30am — which was 7:30am back home. I dozed in bed or spent time on the internet each morning until Paul woke up.
The good news is that I won’t have any trouble adjusting back to the Eastern time zone when we get back!
On Day 2 (Wednesday), we spent the majority of the day at the Joshua Tree National Park. We left around 8am to drive 45 minutes to the park’s south entrance.
The park features the meeting of two different deserts: the Colorado Desert and the Mohave Desert. Each desert features a unique type of vegetation. It was neat to see the progression of change in the sights as we drove through the park. First, here are the photos of the Colorado Desert.
Close up of a cactus.
At various points during the drive, there are pull-offs, some with hiking trails of 15 minutes to 3 hours.
We saw a lizard. 🙂
This trail featured “Skull Rock.”
At this point, we entered the Mohave Desert, which means we started seeing Joshua Trees!
A desert flower.
This pull-off area, Keys View, featured an elevation of 5185 feet. We could see Palm Springs and the San Andreas Fault in the distance.
My favorite area was Barker Dam. Here, early settlers had built a dam for their cattle.
During the hike to the dam, we also got a view of hieroglyphs on the cliff.
The Joshua Trees are all so unique!
We left the park through the west entrance. Below is a map of our drive through the park (click to enlarge).
We drove an hour to get back into Palm Springs and then made a quick stop at a little sandwich shop called The Sandwich Spot to split a sandwich. We ordered the Djokovich: turkey, bacon, avocado, cheddar, and a garlic vinaigrette on Dutch Crunch bread. It was a fantastic sandwich!
Back at Grandma’s condo, we chatted on the patio for awhile. I decided to go for a short run while Paul decided to squeeze some fresh lemonade. The many fruit trees within Grandma’s country club feature oranges, grapefruit, lemons, kumquat, and clementines — and it’s all free for the taking to anyone in the community.
After a shower and lemonade, we went to Talay Thai-Dim Sum Restaurant to enjoy some Thai food. The Yellow Curry was to die for, but we also enjoyed sharing Pineapple Fried Rice and Drunken Noodles.
Back at the condo, we enjoyed each other’s company in the living room and chatted.
Click here for Day 3.