Berta and Paul Visit!

Berta and Paul arrived straight from Sligo, Ireland, September 26, and stayed with us for a fun and fleeting 8 days, leaving on October 3.  From here, they headed north on the train to Santa Barbara, where they'll spend a week, head up to San Luis Obispo for a wedding, and then stay with friends in the Seattle area.  We will meet them on the 24th at McMenamins Hotel for 4 days in Troutdale, not far from Portland. Joining us will be Sara, Lorie, Brian, and Nick.

Gail is the place setting Kahuna, and had this ready for Berta's and Paul's mid day arrival.

 After a relaxing evening on Tuesday, we walked around a few places on the coast the next morning. Here we are at Beacons in Leucadia.

 Next stop was Balboa Park for the rest of the day.  Paul and Berta at the San Diego History Museum.

 I love the roots of some of the older trees in the park.

We saw this spider in a cactus garden.

Wednesday morning, we packed up and headed to Joshua Tree for 2 nights of desert fun, as in, "You're not in Ireland anymore!".

 After a stop in Borrego Springs for souvenirs, we drove on the Erosion Road towards the Salton Sea. Gail, Paul, and Berta hiked down an area of eroded sandstone, tilted by movements along the San Jacinto Fault Zone.

 We eventually reached the Salton Sea, a bizarre place.  Berta and Paul wandered out in the stifling heat to observe the rotting fish and bones. The sea is 226 feet below sea level and was formed by water from the Colorado River that broke through a canal in 1905. It is 35 miles long.

It was fun to explain the nature of cholla cactus to Berta and Paul, as in, "The furry, little spines will jump at you, go through your shoes and body, and are impossible to remove."  Cholla Garden, Joshua Tree National Park.

 We stayed at the Mojave Sands Motel, which was kind of a hipster compound, boutique motel.

 There were only 6 rooms.  We loved the use of metal, rock, and concrete to create an artistic environment.

 The reflecting pool.

The yard of the compound was surrounded by steel walls and an electric gate.

 Just one of the many artistic touches around the yard.

After dinner at the Joshua Tree Saloon, we drove back into the park for sunset viewing.

 We climbed to the top of these rocks.

There was a nice glow on the view below.  We then hiked out a ways from a pullout nearby, and placed our trail cam in a promising spot.

The next morning, after breakfast at Crossroads Cafe, we headed back into the park for a day of hiking.

We'll, the trail cam triggered 3 times, but this was the only animal to be seen - a jackrabbit.

 The Desert Trumpet plant has stems that are inflated.

 This is the remainder of a log.

 We hiked along the the bases of the rocky hills. Those are Joshua trees on the right, a kind of yucca.

Panorama view of above. The weather was on the warm side of pleasant, about 83 degrees, with clear blue skies, and a light breeze.

One of many Western Side-blotched Lizards

I haven't been able to ID this bird yet, but possibly a female House Finch.

 Cactus Wren

 Jackrabbit

 A small, yellowish bird was going into the hole near the top of this nest.

 Paul was determined to spot a Bighorn Sheep. He also wisely went high and wide to see if there were animals running away from the rest of us.

 I was very excited to see this Long-nosed Leopard Lizard - a first for me!  It was devouring a grasshopper.

 Beautifully patterned, I think.

 Berta examines a burrow.

 This Joshua tree is down but not out.

 Puzzling rock formation pic by Gail.

 Lunch under a little shade.

Another puzzling rock formation pic by Gail.

 Different barrel cacti that get along.

 We saw a number of Great Basin Whiptail Lizards.

 Do you see what I see?

 Another Great Basin Whiptail.

Do you see what Gail spotted?

 We were all jazzed when Gail spotted this desert tortoise resting in the shade of a Joshua Tree.

We watched the tortoise for a long time. He didn't budge until we turned our attention to a snake for a few minutes that Gail spotted.  When we looked for the tortoise again, it was gone. It seemed to wait for us to leave so as not to give away its burrow location.

What a face!

Gail had spotted a thin, light colored snake go right off a rock ledge.  I'm trying in vain to find it.

What I did find a few feet away was this shed snake skin that measured 6 feet long.  I'm quite sure it was from a Coachwhip Snake (Red Racer).

After returning to the motel, Gail prepared some delicious treats for everyone.

While chatting about the day's hike, we spotted this Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

We went out for a Thai dinner, and then drove to Pioneer Town, which is a historic saloon and the former site of parts in over 50 Hollywood movies in the 40's and 50's.

There was a great bluegrass band playing in the picnic area.  We came to hear Willie Watson, but found the venue inside to be intolerable. We enjoyed seeing his back and hearing him from outside much better. Earlier, we tried to listen to Bedouine, a young woman folk singer.  The problem was that the stage was close to a lot of dinner tables, and those people were very loud and buzzed, and the people standing near the stage, us, were bumping up against the tables and were very squeezed in.  You could not understand a word Bedouine was singing.  I must say, though, when Willie Watson came on stage, the place went wild for him, and he worked the audience masterfully. We wished the venue had been outside, away from the restaurant part.

 On our last morning, Saturday, we drove out to the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Museum of Assemblage Sculpture - 10 acres of works made from found objects, and remnants of the Watts riots.  If you're curious, google his name. His story is remarkable!

Wedding pictures?  Not sure what they were doing.

Part of The Whitehouse.

 As we exited the park for the last time, we spotted this tortoise on the road where cars were whizzing by at 45 m.p.h.  We left Berta and Paul to guard it, while Gail and I went back to the entrance, a couple miles away, to notify park rangers.  We knew you were not supposed to touch or lift tortoises because they often will urinate and possibly become dehydrated.  There was only one ranger at the booth and he said it could be 45 minutes before staff could get there.  We drove back to the tortoise where an interesting situation developed. A young couple had stopped, also. They had just been to a class on desert animals and had learned how to move a tortoise in peril.  He carefully lifted it up and carried it close to the road surface in the direction it was headed. It did not urinate.  Hurray, tortoise saved!

You go, Mr. Tortoise!

Several hours later, as we were getting close to the park's exit, Gail spotted this little bump in the road that she recognized as a tortoise.  She pulled over, and I ran back to it as 3 cars obliviously went right over the top of it, luckily straddling it.  I did the tortoise rescue procedure, but unfortunately, it did urinate.  Gail placed some grapes in front of it in hopes it would get some liquid from them.  This little tortoise seemed small enough to be a recent hatchling.  I read that tortoises are normally active only in the spring, but sometimes after monsoonal rains, which come in late summer.  There had been rains out there in September, explaining our sightings.

We finally made it to Julian around 8:00 PM, and had dinner at a cafe.

Sunday, we had a lazy day around the house, reading, journal writing, etc.

 Paul treated us to a super dinner - vegetarian omelet with seasoned tomatoes.

 Gail brings it to the table.

Gail did a desert theme for the place setting.

On Monday, we all took a leisurely walk at the Batiqitos Lagoon.  In the afternoon, Paul and I took in the Oceanside Surf Museum where there was an exhibit on the Vietnam era.

Tuesday morning came, and it was time to head off to the train station.  The goodbyes were softened by knowing we would see each other soon in Oregon.