It has been a very interesting two weeks here in LaQuinta. Man is seriously in love with this place!
We visited Joshua Tree National Park, the Salton Sea (just briefly, hope to bring you more on this area soon), the Palm Springs Tram ride (an experience I know I will never forget!), Indian Canyon (where we hiked and had a wonderful day). Our first week was spent with MOC friends Bob and Mina who unknown to us, booked into the same campground for same days, love when that happens. Man's cousin from Los Angeles came to visit for the day. It sure was great to see Bob and Pat.
We overdosed, or tried, on color, flowers, trees that are green and even green grass (most of which was real, but, mmm, some astro turf was noted here and there, an extension of "go green", I suppose). The weather was quite pleasant and mild, EXCEPT for our last 24 hours, there was a dust wind storm and it got a bit spicy for a while. Tana rocked and rolled, one gust was so strong it tipped one of the slides in a bit and a blast of dust blew in. I had to check the next AM to see if we were still IN LaQuinta. We were.
They grow dates here, LOTS AND LOTS of dates. Information varies, of course, but, we were told at the Visitor's Center in Palm Springs, that the only area/country that exports more dates that this area is Iran.
Date Palm farm:
Ladders used to harvest the dates. You can see they are not low to the ground,
nope, won't find me climbing around up there.
Closer view of a ladder, does not look all that substantial either, does it?
The majority of the neighborhoods here are gated and walled (all you can see when driving by are roofs and flora growing taller than the walls). The main roads are highly groomed with flora, it is beautiful, stunningly so. Me thinks the number of landscapers and gardeners here is very high. There are flowers, trees, shrubs, more flowers, trees, and more shrubs, the amount of upkeep that is required is staggering to me. For the most part, everywhere you look it is clean and neat and trimmed. Yep, lots of golf courses too, all gated and walled.
There are horses here, riding horses, jumping horses, polo horses. There is even an equestrian camping area here. I would have liked to grab an opportunity to photograph the polo horses, but, somehow the opportunity just did not happen.
We found it quite interesting to discover we are camped at sea level, no sea in sight, there is however that nice lake/pond/water thingy going on.
We have enjoyed the 2 weeks we spent here in La Quinta California, will remember it for a long time, memories like this photo are hard to forget:
4 comments:
Ah, love that "reflections" photo! You are really bringing out some of California's natural beauty - stuff that I didn't notice or took for granted when I lived there.
an echo on Greta's comment on your photo. Sounds heavenly. So where are we off to next?
Did you have a date shake? Bob and I shared one and glad I had the experience, but one is enough. It was rather sweet. We sat through a film on the love life of a date!!
Your last photo is extra special.
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