California Adventures

Monday night, after a long hard day of driving, we arrived at the Worldmark Resort in Indio, California. This place is incredible. Our “room” is actually a furnished apartment with a front door and a back patio door that opens into a lush eden-like garden courtyard. Every unit surrounds this courtyard which is several acres of flowers, paths, and duck ponds. The courtyard includes several large swimming pools of all shapes, a lazy river circuit with inner tubes, half a dozen hot tubs, game rooms, a market, tennis courts, etc., etc. This is luxury I have never experienced before.

We came hoping to find dry, warm weather and we got it! Every day is sunny and in the 80-90's. There is a little breeze in the late afternoon which makes sitting out on the back patio so pleasant as the sun is going down. Little bunnies hop around in the landscaping, birds are singing their courting songs, and every night is a chorus of frogs which had us confused at first because it sounded kind of like mountain lion calls. Weird!

We've done some local exploring. Yesterday we went to Paseo to explore the art galleries, which I loved! Ken got a little tired, and it was HOT, but he was game to go into every one. This morning, early, we drove outside of Palm Springs to some local Indian Canyons to hike some of the trails in the palm forests. How amazing those were! We were in the desert, but with the creek running through the canyon, and shaded by palm trees, it was almost a tropical experience. Or maybe it's just because we worked up a sweat in the heat. :)

Tomorrow we have more exploring to do, and Friday we will head out to Las Vegas for a quick visit. During our “down time” I have done a couple pastels. Check out my art blog to see them.