Does This Dress Make My Butt Look Big?

February 19                                                                       Palm Springs

    I have been reading about the Marilyn Monroe statue that is in downtown Palm Springs.    It was on our "to see" list", so on Tuesday we drove in to Palm Springs and found a nice parking lot that was right next to Forever Marilyn.   Be sure to click on the link and read all the details of this huge statue.  We approached Marilyn from the back, and could not help but think of the title for this blog.

Pretty toes!

     After viewing Marilyn from all sides, we walked the shopping area of downtown.  Al found "Lucy" sitting on a bench and had a moment with her.

"Lucy, you've got some 'splainin to do!"

     The girls did a little shopping, while the guys waited patiently (?) for us.  Gene was sitting on one of the benches that must be placed on the sidewalks for husbands, when a man came up and asked if he could share his bench.  He said his dad called these "Visa Benches".  They will forever be that for us!

     After lunch, we drove to the bike store to take my old bike in and pick up my new one.  We just donated it to the store.  They said they worked with the homeless and fix up bikes and donated them.

     My new bike is an Electra Townie 7 speed and is soooooo much better than my KMart bike.  (sorry, KMart)   Al talked me into buying it, and I am glad he did.  It is worth every penny.  So much easier to ride. 
    

Joshua Tree National Park

February 26, Tuesday                                                Desert Hot Springs, Cal

     One day last week  a cold front was coming through here with winds and cooler temperatures.  We weren't complaining as  the mid-west was getting blasted with blowing snow and really cold temperatures. 
    We decided it was a good day to take a car ride out to Joshua Tree National Park.   Being a "senior citizen", we used our National Park pass to just zip right in without the park fee.

    The scenery is amazing.  The huge boulders everywhere were so interesting, and we had never seen a Joshua Tree.  It was amazing how they just suddenly started appearing on our way to the park. 

     We drove to one spot that had a lookout over the valley.  We could see the San Andreas Fault.  It was like a line across the valley.  Really amazing, but I don't think any of my pictures shows it very well.  You will just have to come and see it for yourselves.  I did decide we were on the "right" side if Calif. decided to break away at that moment.

There was some snow on the ground up here.

You can see the fault line in the valley below and behind us in the valley.

     And of course, the most important part of the park for Becki and I:

     We saw a couple of trails that we wanted to come back to and walk, so put that on our list.
     On Tuesday, we packed lunches and headed back out to Joshua Tree for our adventure. 
First we went to the Hidden Valley walk. 
     "Hidden Valley is a small granite enclosed valley in the western part of Joshua Tree National Park.  On this side of the park, the landscape is dominated by vast piles and mounds of weathered granite, the result of the intrusion and slow cooling of magma within the earth's crust in this region eons ago.  Piles of boulders occur where weathering of the solid granite took place underground prior to exposure of the rock to the surface.  Above ground, the granite not worn into boulders exhibits great cracks, thought to have formed by expansion as the weight of the overlying rock was removed by erosion.  Subsequent further erosion of the granite smooths and opens these cracks, creating the rounded features and eventually cutting off slabs from the larger body of rock."

Ready to go!

Love the rock formations.

Right after we started the walk, Becki's camera ran out of batteries.  We took pictures for her for awhile, then Gene remembered that he had some batteries in the back pack for his gps.  He was Becki's hero!

Changing batteries in camera.

Our lunch spot.

 After lunch, we found the next walk.

Not a long walk, but amazing scenery.

Ready to start.

A scary corner around that boulder!

    We had two great little "hikes" and we just loved the scenery. 

Rotary and the Oscars

Oscar ballots

February 24
Palm Springs

     Al and Gene having been going to the Tuesday, 7 a.m. meeting of the Palm Springs SunUp Rotary. 

Good Looking Rotarians

At the last meeting they were invited to join the Oscar party they were having at The Falls Restaurant.  It started at 3:30 p.m.  Love this California time.

    Becki and I had signed up for a water color art class here at the Sands.  We were assured that "anyone" could do this.  Luckily, we just trace the object, then paint in the colors.  The subject today was lemons.  Can't say that we are artists, but it was fun learning the water color process.  I came home and hung my picture on the refrigerator.

I do not understand shading, so my lemon was in full sun!

We rushed back from the lesson and put our "glam" clothes on, which meant our good jeans.
  The group had decorated the private dining room with lots of Oscar items.

Of course, we had to have our pictures taken on the Red Carpet.

Next, we had to fill out our ballots.  There was also a trivia question sheet to fill in, and a trivia trophy to award.

Helping Al with his picks.

prizes

We got to look at but did not win the trivia Oscar.

 

 

 

      We tried to stay to the end, but everyone seemed to have the same idea we did.  "Let's go home and watch the end in our jammies".   We decided that anyone who stayed was probably going to win one of the prizes, as there would only be about 3 people left. 
     From our little group, Al had the most correct picks!  He got 5 right.  Considering we only saw one of the movies, he did really well.
    As we were leaving, they gave us a spare trophy.  We decided it was a trophy for coming the farthest. 

We were s humble,

honored,

and surprised!!!!

Guys Go Hiking Again

February 18, 2013
Guys Hike

     On Monday, the guys had signed up for a longer hike with the group.   It was also about a 45 mile trip to get to the trail head, and 45 miles back, so Becki and I figured we had lots of scrapping time.  They were scheduled to come back around 2 pm, le'aving here at 8 am.  By 8:30, we were in Becki's oHome ( we have the iHome, they named their trailer the oHome as their last name is O'Rear) and scrapping.

Becki even brought her Cricut image cutting machine.

Just some of our supplies

Hard at work

Now for the hike.  They drove to around Mecca and had a great hiking day.  Will share just a few of the pictures.

Going up and down ladders and crevices seemed to be involved.

Also had to have a flashlight for cave like areas.

     The hike took longer than they expected and the guys did not get back til about 3pm.  Becki and I could not believe how fast the time went by.  We had quite a day scrapping.

   We let them rest a bit and shower, as we had a trip to Clint Eastwood's Hog's Breath Restaurant planned.  They have a happy hour special and a dinner speccial.  We started off in the bar with happy hour, which starts at 3:00, our kind of place!

I am really not that pale!  It's the flash!

 We had a nice spot on the terrace for dinner in front of one of the fireplaces.

 Our view of the mountains.  Unfortunately, the sunset was not that great.

Hmmmm, maybe I am that pale.

Go ahead, Clint,  and make our day!