Shields Date Gardens~Indio CA

Today we headed out for some fun and we stopped at this neat place. I've seen a lot of unique things over the past year, and this had one of the more interesting ones:I never thought about the date having a romantic life, but apparently they do. I watched a bit of this movie and found it interesting that they hand pollinate the trees. I wish I could tell you more, but I was too busy gabbing with my friends to absorb much. I did have a date milkshake and it was very sweet which to me equals very good.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm behind in my blogging again, but for a great reason-I've been busy doing some girl time with some of my incredible friends. On the 8th, I headed to Palm Springs for a yearly retreat time for a non-profit board that I serve on. We stayed at the La Quinta resort and to say it was fabulous is such an understatement. I'll do a separate blog post for it because it is too gorgeous not to share.

I thought last year's birthday was as good as they probably get. I was turning forty and getting to set out on pursuing one of my dreams. I somehow thought this might be as good as it gets as far as birthdays go. I might still be a bit young and naive though because this birthday was probably even better.

I'm still pursuing my dream and my birthday fell on my yearly retreat with some of the strongest, coolest, most beautiful women I know. They threw me a surprise party and everything. This will go down as one of my faves for sure!

Living the life with my girlfriends in Palm Springs CA!

Salvation Mountain

This is one place we wanted to visit while in San Diego and we just never made it over there. So we went today instead.For more information, you can read here: Salvation MountainI truly don't think I can describe this place accurately with words. Unlike anything else we've ever seen. Inspirational. Fascinating. We loved it. Living the life in hot and sunny California!

Slab City

While we were out on our road trip today, I was on the phone with Diana. Her grandmother just had surgery on her hip today so I called to check in and see how she was doing. She is doing great! She asked what we were up to and I told her we were going to Salvation Mountain and to give a point of reference I said it was by Slab City. That didn't mean a thing to her. So I tried again and said Slab City was like Quartzsite. Again, this didn't mean a thing to her. I then laughed because I realized this was full-timers speak and there was no reason she would know about such things since I didn't before going full time on the road. That's ok though because she had to patiently explain to me why her husband had the day off from work on the 3rd of July. I apparently have forgotten such things since we left the corporate world behind. Boy, did I feel like a total social retard by the time she was done. This is why it's important to have friends from all different walks of life!


So, compliments of Wikipedia, here is what Slab City is:

Slab City or The Slabs is a camp in the Colorado Desert in southeastern California, used by recreational vehicle owners and squatters from across North America. It takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II base Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap there. A group of servicemen remained after the base closed, and the place has been inhabited ever since, although the number of residents has declined since the mid 1980s.

Several thousand campers, many of them retired, use the site during the winter months. These "snowbirds" stay only for the winter, before migrating north in the spring to cooler climes. The temperatures during the summer are forbidding; nonetheless, there is a group of around 150 permanent residents, who live in the Slabs all year round. Most of these "Slabbers" subsist on government checks (SSI and Social Security) and have been driven to the Slabs through poverty; some of the "slabbers" also have a strong desire for freedom from the American government.

The site is both decommissioned and uncontrolled, and there is no charge for parking. The camp has no electricity, no running water or other services. Many campers use generators or solar panels to generate electricity. Supplies can be purchased in nearby Niland, California, located about three miles (5 km) to the southwest of Slab City.

Slab City was featured in the book Into the Wild and also in the 2007 movie of the same name. The video for Fourth of July by Shooter Jennings is partially set at Slab City.

Austin thought this was as fascinating as Salvation Mountain and told me he might want to come and live here for a little bit when he is grown, just for the experience of it all. I could see that.

The Salton Sea

This was another one of the neat things we saw today:The creation of the Salton Sea of today started in 1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell and breach an Imperial Valley dike. It took nearly two years to control the Colorado River’s flow into the formerly dry Salton Sink and stop the flooding. As the basin filled, the town of Salton, a Southern Pacific Railroad siding and Torres-Martinez Indian land were submerged. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea.

San Gorgonio Pass Wind Turbines

We saw this while driving to our destination today and it was one of the neatest things to take in while driving. These things are HUGE in person:


San Gorgonio Pass is one of the windiest areas in the world and is home to 3,500 electricity-producing wind turbines. The electricity generated by the wind turbines is used by the customers of Southern California Edison Company. The San Gorgonio wind turbines produce approximately 600 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) every year. This amount of electricity is enough to meet the needs of 100,000 typical homes or about 250,000 people.The wind turbines also provide environmental benefits. By producing electricity cleanly, the state's wind power plants reduce pollutant gases that contribute to smog, acid rain and global warming. Each year San Gorgonio's wind power plants prevent the emission of 3 million pounds of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulates and 600 million pounds of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be produced.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone out there. We hope that all of you had great family and fun time together. We hung out today, trying to avoid the heat by spending time in the air conditioning and the pool, and then did things like pickle ball and talking to our neighbors and eating some yummy pulled pork BBQ. A little fun fact on the neat neighbors: Aubi says the mom is a nurse and was up at the hospital when Octomom gave birth. That had to a be a wild thing to experience. They were so sweet, even sharing their s'mores with us. Austin made friends with a guy named Asa and I thought that was the neatest name. Of course, I'm partial to the "A" names. He lives in WA so maybe we'll see him at another TT's again when we get up there.But the most fun today was probably going to hear people sing karaoke. This was our favorite:

Texas Tech National Anthem

Loved this! Thanks Valerie for sharing it!

It Was Another Ordinary Day....

Today was one of those lovely, lazy days that I said I was going to blog about. Somewhere in the middle of the day I remembered that I said I'd blog more about these kinds of days and smiled big because I took a second to soak up what I do love about them. They are the kinds of days where we have all the time in the world to just spend time doing what we want and most of all, talking to each other-sharing ourselves so to speak.

We lounged around in the morning and some of us played a bit of Wii. Me and Aubs went to get haircuts, then we headed to a few clothing stores to see if we could find any goodies, then we went to Super Target to pick up some ice cream. We ended up picking up ice cream and sherbet, because after all it is really hot here. We came back and went to the pool, ate dinner and got ready to do our nightly pickle ball and bike riding ritual. Ahhhh....yup, this is the kind of day that I just love.

And then Ace apparently thought this would not in fact make for good blogging material and decided to help us out. By eating a fishing line. With a hook attached to the end of it. I have no idea how, why or anything else. I've decided animals are like children, sometimes it is just better not to ponder such things or it will make your brain explode.

One vet visit and $460 later...he's fine. It was in the gray zone, which meant they could go in and cut the hook in half and pull it out. If it had not been in this zone, he'd have to go to someone else to fix the problem. And it would be lots more money.

We are breathing a collective sigh of relief that he is okay because we all love Ace as much as we love all of the other members of our family. I take back what I said a few days ago about us getting a dog when Ace leaves. I'm too old to handle animals and grandkids!

Living the life in California!

California Dreamin'

My friend Becky, who will be coming to California in a few days herself, sent out a link to the song California Dreamin to those of us who are meeting up here. So this is for her and all of my other chick friends, to give just a glimpse of CA:Living the life in California!

Dog Park at Laguna Beach

There is something really wonderful about watching dogs play together. It reminds me of little ones when they play. Full of joy.....Fully present in the moment....
No inhibitions.....
and able to make friends in five seconds while completely unaware of any differences!Living the life in California!