Bob Hope's house & a cute carwash sign

The top photo is of Bob Hope's house, he doesn't live there anymore (unless his ghost does). It's high up in the hills over Palm Springs and can only be accessed by a private road. We found out about a hiking trial that goes up and around it, so that's how I got the shot. Weird looking and VERY big. Rumor has it that it has only one bedroom and that he used the place predominately for entertaining after golf games. The next pic is of a really neat carwash sign in Rancho Mirage (home of the Betty Ford Clinic - pink elephants, anyone? - and about 15 minutes away from PS). I literally took the photo on the fly in the truck, so I'm surprised it came out as good as it did.

HAPPY EASTER! HAPPY SPRING!

It looks like Mac has attracted the chicks for some reason. Must be the hat. Or the glasses. In any event, this is the last time Mac will appear "in costume" on this blog. (Sighs of relief are heard.) He just outright refuses to do it anymore. Oh well, what can you do.

We are still in Palm Springs, weather has been hot (mid to high 80's with a very intense desert sun). The condo where we are staying is beginning to get really crowded, with lots of kids around, so most of you know what that means: I'm outta here! Nah, it's really not that bad. But the downtown area IS getting really crowded and busy. This is their high season before the onslaught of summer temps that can go as high as the 120's. Yikes.

We willl be headed out soon, probably to Arizona and then continue east from there.

Stay tuned, more to come.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Well, here we go again with Mac's antics. In the first pic he is posed in the back of his limo on the way to the St. Patrick's Day parade. As you can see, he's holding 2 mugs of beer and those weren't the first 2 that he downed. The result of all this imbibing is obvious in the second pic: he passed out (still clutching those beers, too). Finally, he was able to get himself up and strikes a rather Sinatra-like pose in the third photo. Tragically, he missed the parade altogether, so we faked him out with the plastic palm trees and he thought he was marching along Palm Canyon Drive. He didn't feel so good the next day, by the way. Anyway, a very Happy St. Pat's Day to all!

Please keep on watching cause we have really great weather here and we'll be touring about a lot more and that means more pix!

We discovered some hiking trails (in downtown Palm Springs, no less) that go straight up into the mountains

This trail we hiked is called the Museum Trail (because it begins right behind the PS Art Museum). It was quite steep and rocky and went straight up. I was okay going up, but I was miserable coming down. Luckily, I didn't fall. Which I do a lot.
The first shot is an overview of Palm Springs at a lower point on the trail. The second is of me and the third of Ed, we had probably ascended about 800 feet at that point (and that was quite enough for me.) That large Spanish-style building in the fourth pic is actually the Desert Medical Center. The brown contemporary-style building in the next photo is the PS Convention Center. The next shot is another overview, followed by some wildflowers. After that you can see Ed pointing to the downhill trail (that photo doesn't do it justice, believe me), and then he tries for the summit! Sort of.

The last 3 pix weren't taken on that hike. I took the hummingbird-at-rest shots just outside our condo. It's just too cute. The last shot was taken in North Palm Springs. Those white vertical things are wind turbines and there are hundreds of them in that spot. That area is called the San Gergonio Pass and it is one of the windiest spots in the world. The wind turbines provide energy for the LA area. Nice mountain too.
Please stay tuned, more Mac wackiness is on its way! (We hope that doesn't scare anyone.)

Well, I lied. It's March 2 and we're still here in Palm Springs.....

I little while back I posted on this blog that we were absolutely leaving Palm Springs by the end of February. We're still here. Actually we decided to stay cause it's income tax time and we need to be in one place so that we can go back and forth with paperwork via snail mail. So that's the story. The weather here doesn't hurt either. It's been in the 80's, although today it's a bit cooler with fairly high winds. Will be back soon with more pix!