Good Morning from LA! I write to you today from a corner of Chris’s office before we head to the airport to pick up our lovely friend Rosa who’s in the city for the next week.
We took our first road trip! Last weekend we headed east to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park. Monday 17th February was Presidents Day and therefore a public holiday so we took the opportunity to get out of the city for a few days. After breakfast at Mel’s Drive-In Diner (they had table top jukeboxes at every booth which you could feed with quarters to choose the music for the whole diner! We selected a bit of Billy Joel), we hit the road; first Freeway 101 then Interstate 10. This is when it really hit me how US cities sprawl and merge as it took about 90 minutes before we got away from urban areas and started to see countryside (well, desert would be a more appropriate description).
It did surprise me how many shopping and dining complexes there are here though – once on the Interstate they pass by almost consecutively, with different well-known logos elevated on posts several metres into the air so they can be seen from the Interstate, luring drivers towards them. At one point we went past car dealership after car dealership – I didn’t catch quite where it was geographically, but that’s clearly the place to go if you’re looking for a new car and want to fit all your test drives into one day!
As we got closer to the desert, rows and rows of wind turbines loomed along the horizon. From my research online about what to do in Palm Springs, these seem to be quite the tourist attraction and you can arrange a day-long guided tour of some of the wind turbines. We also spotted a few communication towers which had been disguised as palm trees – painted brown and green with fake foliage added at the top so that they blended in to the scenery rather than being an eyesore. We rolled into Palm Springs around 1pm and headed to the Moorten Botanical Garden – this is a delightful arboretum showcasing many different plants and especially cacti from different regions. They’ve even got an ‘indoor cacterium’, similar to a greenhouse but it looks a bit like an Anderson Shelter from the outside. It was fascinating seeing all the different types of succulent and cactus, some of which have really interesting textures. We didn’t stay long, but it was a nice stop before heading into the town. Then we fancied some refreshments and found a Mexican restaurant which reminded me slightly of the Casa Madrigal in Encanto. As we sat down with a cerveza and some freshly made tortilla chips and salsa, a live band started playing Beatles songs!
The buildings in Palm Springs showcase an interesting fusion of time periods and styles, with restaurants opting for bright colours and pounding music right next to the preserved general store from the 1930s and Cornelia White House which was built in 1893! After a walk through the town, we settled on a French-Belgian restaurant called Pomme-Frite for dinner. A delightful meal as we watched the sun set over the mountains.
Into the National Park
Sunday was truly spectacular. We got up early and headed out from our Airbnb to the Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree is located where two deserts meet – the Colorado desert to the east and the Mojave desert to the west. This results in quite varied terrains, flora and fauna across the park. If you kept driving without stopping to look at anything, it would take around 90 minutes to drive from the Cottonwood Springs Entrance to the south to the Joshua Tree Entrance to the northwest. Naturally, we took things a little slower and started with a loop hike at the southern extent of the park up to the Mastodon Peak and Mastodon Mine (now closed off, but with some of the original mine infrastructure preserved). This really reminded us how much we enjoy hiking and exploring nature, and with Joshua Tree only a couple of hours from Los Angeles, we have vowed to come back often, either as day trips or over night, and we definitely want to camp backcountry style at some point here!
Winding our way north, we explored some of the Washes (large flat open areas which are subject to flash flooding after heavy rain when water running off the many hills and mountains is channelled to slightly lower ground), which have amusing names, like Porcupine Wash and Fried Liver Wash. The Cholla Cactus Garden was particularly interesting, with hundreds and hundreds of Cholla Cacti at different parts of the life cycle scattered across a large flat area. Did you know that some species of cacti have a hard wood-like skeleton? Some of the older specimens had died and dried out, leaving just a hollow, lattice-like tube – bone dry but super strong and sturdy. They reminded me somewhat of 3D printed casts, ‘the future of plaster casts for restraining broken bones’ which I believe we studied briefly in secondary school. Shortly after this we had the only minor mishap of the day, when I dropped the key to our Airbnb near one of the parking areas, but eagle-eyed Chris spotted it glinting in the sun after a couple of panicked minutes search so we were soon on our way again.
As the day went on and we moved further north through the park, we encountered more and more tourists. Most of the rock formations, vistas and lakes which attract crowds are in the northern half of the park, and we spent less time in these areas on this occasion, stopping to get a few pictures of ‘Skull Rock’ but otherwise opting for quieter spots to explore. The Mojave desert region of the park is also home to the park’s namesake, the Joshua trees. These Yucca-like trees are everywhere in this region of the park. According to the information guide we were, Joshua Trees grow at around 1 inch per year, so some of the trees we saw must have been over 100 years old! We stopped for a photoshoot, featuring Guide teddy, who now has a name! Introducing President Goldilocks (known as Goldie to her friends)! The Guides came up with some hilarious name suggestions – one of my other favourites being ‘Bob the Engineer’ – clearly the girls do listen when I talk about my job!
Finally we headed up to Keys View, a very popular spot for sunset overlooking the Coachella Valley. Luckily we spotted a gap in one of the parking pull-ins a few minutes walk away from the viewpoint, so instead of joining the 50 or so cars queuing for a spot in the viewpoints’ car park, we took a nice leisurely stroll up to the top to watch the sun slipping away behind the mountain that Palm Springs is nestled at the base of. It was a wonderful day, and exactly the sort of trip we were looking forward to when the opportunity for an extended stay in Los Angeles came about. Another amazing thing about this country is the variety of landscapes within an easy driving distance. Whilst I can’t complain about England, with the Cotswold Hills, Jurassic Coast and Kent Downs within easy reach of London, there’s a certain novelty about being able to drive from beach to desert and mountains in one day!
To finish off our long weekend, we found a beautiful spa resort in Desert Hot Springs so spent Monday enjoying peace and a little bit of luxury at the spa, before a return visit to Pomme-Frite for dinner in Palm Springs and heading back to the city.
Sewing Part 2
This week, I’ve been enjoying taking things slowly again. We discovered another Trader Joe location within walking distance, I found another nice park to sit in and read and I began reading the next book for my Book Club. At the end of last week, I found an incredible fabric shop just a few minutes away from our apartment so I also bought some new fabric for my sewing projects – there were rows and rows of bolts of fabric so I know where I’ll be going for supplies in future! I picked out one blue floral fabric and another covered in Dory from Finding Nero with the intention of making these into a tote bag next week. For my sewing exploits this week, I made another scrunchie with a different pattern from last week – one that I think is more suitable for teaching to my Guides later in the year – and a couple of hair bows using up some of the fat quarters I brought with me from the UK. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into some larger projects with more machine sewing next week but I think it’s important to take things slowly at first.
We’re due for another sunny weekend ahead. It may be time to return to the beach, and hopefully this time we’ll be able to actually see the sea rather than just fog!
Signing off now from across the pond,
Rachel
Adventures in the USA: Rachel's Travel Diary 
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