Busy, busy, busy. Closed out the school year May 18th. Flew to Palm Springs with a group of 14 kids (and my own 2) from Kodiak, Alaska for almost 2 weeks. Learned that I could indeed survive 100+ degrees. It is WAY more comfortable than east coast humidity! Studied the desert, learned about the oil business from a guy who has been in it for half a century. Viewed wind farms. Boat tour of San Diego Harbor. Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Laguna Beach. Went to the San Diego Zoo. Hollywood. Disneyland. Learned that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth until a bird poops on a kid's head! And had to stand in line behind a woman for 45 minutes at Disneyland with the most obscene tattoo I have ever seen. Wow. (Yes, I took a picture, no I'm not posting it!) Toured the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. Knott's Soak City water park. Learned that a 30 minute drive can take 3.5 hours when you use GPS. Met Evans Downer, an artist that spends summers in Alaska and the rest of the year in Joshua Tree National Park, where he works in his amazing desert studio. Learned that McDonald's closes at 10 pm in Palm Springs where the median age seems to be upwards of 75. And had a FABULOUS TIME with an unbelievably great group of 14 year olds!
Alyssa has this habit of hugging the first palm tree she sees after landing. You'd think she was from Alaska or something.
We noticed right away that the desert is, well, rather brown.
Entrance to our condo in Palm Desert. A bit of luxury!
Our fearless leader, my brother-in-law.
Desert sculptures in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Taking photos of the monkeys. I mean kids.
Evans Downer. Fabulous artist!
Relaxing at the condo in Palm Desert. Only MY children would sit in this hot tub when it was 103 degrees outside! We had a little discussion about something called "heat stroke".
Craziest place to build a house. Directly on a fault line. With a pile of loose rock about 50 feet directly behind the house. Oh wait, in California they call that a mountain! Either way, some day it is going to fall on that house.
Got back to Fairbanks and enjoyed 70 and 80 degree temperatures while trying to catch up on yard work and do some planting, along with the million other things that need to be done.
Flew out of CA on the coolest plane ever!
One more thing and the car would have exploded on the drive back to Fairbanks from Anchorage.
Aaaaaah! Fresh air once again in Cantwell, Alaska.
A happy hound greeting.
Awwww. Gus can be so sweet! Sometimes.
Now I'm going to prove that I can learn a lesson from some of my favorite blog buddies, and post more often!
TTFN!
4 comments:
Awww! What a happy homecoming. Do they sing when you come home?
They sing for EVERY homecoming. When I get home from work, the grocery store, any excuse at all!
Yeah, Marm does the same thing. Although in the outside world, there are also some people who she thinks are NWH (not worth a howl)... bloodhound logic!
Really enjoyed all the pictures and hearing about everything you did on the trip. Very cool.
Oddly, Bentley doesn't tend to bay at people a lot. He bays at the door when going out or coming in, if we don't open it fast enough. He will bay if he wants a toy off the top of the refrigerator. Sometimes, he'll bay if there is noise outside, or some sort of disturbance, when another breed of dog might bark.
When we are out on a walk, there is one specific friend that, if we see her, he will sometimes bay at. We've never figured that out!
Glad you had a good trip and a chorus of hounds to greet you on your return.
Bentley's "mom"
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