So here's the update and some pictures at the bottom. Enjoy!
We have been so busy. Busy enough that Mike and I have
decided to start staying places on a monthly basis so we can actually relax
once in a while. I’m writing this from our first monthly stay in Palm Springs,
CA but let me write backwards for a bit.
After we left Las
Cruces, NM, we headed to Arizona and first stopped in Tucson. We were expecting
to love it. We didn’t. It was dusty and uninteresting. (Sorry if I’m stepping on anyone’s toes.)
So up to Phoenix we go with no expectations because last we
were there we weren’t crazy about it. But that was many years ago. We did like
it this time. It was a city with a lot going for it. Music, art, shopping (yay!
a Nordstrom Rack!) & Scottsdale & Cave Creek & Mary Kay & Carl!
We had Thanksgiving dinner with Mary
Kay, Mike’s sister, and Carl, her husband. It was very fun with lots of good
talk and laughter. A couple of days
later we went up to their house in Rio Verde and spent the day. We thoroughly
enjoyed ourselves and will definitely go back.
From there we took a drive north to Sedona (on my good old
friend Becky’s advice. Thank you, Becky!) What can I say? Sedona is a place
that was waiting to happen to me. Sound
weird? It wasn’t. The red rock mountains captivated me immediately. I will do a
separate blog page on Sedona…It deserves it. I’ll include the towns of Jerome
& Prescott in that page too.
So on we go to California where we intend to while away the
east coast winter. We are presently in our first city, Palm Springs. Well, actually
just outside of it, 30 minutes north east on the edge of the Joshua Tree National
Park and the Mojave Desert. We’ve done a 60 mile drive through the Joshua Tree
National Park and will do some “hiking” (haha) this coming week when the
weather will be in the 70’s.
This is our first month long stay in one place and we are in
a great home. 4 bedroom, 2 bath, swimming pool, 2, not one, but 2 jacuzzis, an
indoor/outdoor bathtub where one can roll up the roof and bathe under the stars…ou
la la! Truth, the pool isn’t heated and
it’s been cold 40, 50 60, so no swimming & one jacuzzi is attached to the
pool so it’s too cold but the other jacuzzi is in a roofless bathroom and that
is fabulous! The outdoor tub is great too. This week we will roll out the
living room. Yup you heard me right. The whole place is in a compound setting
with fences and adobe walls and comes with an outdoor cat who knocks on our
back door every day at 3 for food. Michael and I are smitten! He’s gray and
very fluffy and his name is Shadow. The following is a URL with pictures of the
house. Enjoy!
when it opens click on the right white arrow
to see pics. (and pay no attention to the $’s noted…I negotiate everything!)
I have been taking watercolor workshops every week and am
learning a lot. I will post some paintings as I finish them.
Also this PC girl needed a new computer so I picked up a new Mac Pro and have been taking classes at the Apple Store. My sister, Lisa and her husband were vacationing in San Diego so they took a ride up and we had lunch together. It was fun to see family.
Michael & I spent a quiet Christmas at the house and had dinner at a Casino in Palm Springs. We run errands, take rides to other towns around, walk the neighborhood, visit museums, catch up on movies, read, paint, do genealogy…just lead a normal life here. The month idea is good. It feels like we have come home for a while. In a week we will pack the car up and be off again.
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| Shadow |
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| Topless bathroom |
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| Wind Turbines in front of The San Jacinto Mountains There's over 5000 of them here. AMAZING! |
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| Dinosaur World |
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| Lisa & Me...Look closely. |
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| National Park of the Thousand Palms |
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| For now the rolling living room is an art space. |
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| Cloudy day from the back yard |
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| Sunset from the backyard |
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| Sunset |
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| Palm Springs from above |
San Diego here we come.
