A Day To Take It Easy And Swim In The Pool

It was a no driving, no hiking and no golfing day for me yesterday as I just took it easy outside on a lounger in the warm sunshine with an occasional bike up to the pool for a swim and to relax in the hot tub.  It was a good day to do nothing for me as it was Paulette’s Quilting Club day at the clubhouse. 

Photos in today’s post are more from our visit to Thousand Palms

Unfortunately, that kind of a day doesn’t contribute much to write about for my blog post.  There’s always the weather I suppose which changed dramatically the moment Claire’s WestJet flight left the runway headed home to Victoria yesterday.  We awoke to much warmer temperatures, clear blue skies and absolutely zero wind on Wednesday morning.  Claire will just have to take our word for it.

It’s amazing how upbeat folks here at the park are once the weather returns to normal  which is usually sunny and hot.  First thing this morning, folks were out walking around the park, the dog park was full and golfers were streaming up to the golf course in their battery powered golf carts.  There were even some early birds heading up to the pool to make sure they got the best loungers for the day.

Each morning, I meet up with about a dozen regulars at the dog park to talk about pretty much everything under the sun.  It’s mostly a mixture of guys from B.C. and Alberta and even a few Americans thrown in for good measure.  We always have an interesting discussion about what we did the day before and our plans for the current day while our dogs all run around and play for about 30 minutes.

The dog park, which I go to twice a day, is where I do most of my socializing here at the Sands.  Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 6 there is a Happy Hour up at the main clubhouse but in our 6 years here at the Sands, we’ve yet to ever attend one of these.  I gather it draws a pretty large crowd each week judging from friends of ours who do go each week.  Happy Hours just aren’t my thing.

Last night, Paulette was on Face Time with our daughter Erin in Calgary and, horror of horrors, she has taken up quilting!  Erin’s also a schoolteacher so she’s definitely following in her Mom’s footsteps. I told Erin there was still time to get inoculated to protect her from the dreaded disease of Quilting but I think my pleas fell on deaf ears.

Just a reminder to any of you who may be considering an upgrade to Windows 8 that January 31st is the last day for the $39 Windows 8 Pro download deal.  After that Windows 8 will revert to the normal price which I’m guessing will be somewhere in excess of $100.  You can go to a computer store and buy a Windows 8 Pro DVD for $69 until 12 midnight on January 31st.  I’m not pushing this – just passing on the information in case anyone happens to be interested.

Have a great Thursday, and thanks again for visiting!

Claire Flies Home And I’m Back On The Golf Course

After driving Claire to the airport for her noon WestJet flight home to Victoria, Paulette and I returned to the Sands to take care of some chores we’ve been putting off.  But, first, I changed and carefully hung up my chauffeur’s uniform until the next time it is needed.

We were sad to see Claire head towards the airline gate with her bulging suitcase full of quilting fabrics and patterns as it was a lot of fun having her visit with us.  I’m sure all the local quilt shops from Palm Springs to San Diego will be sad as well as Paulette and Claire sure helped their January sales.

Claire heading home with a suitcases full of quilting treasures

Paulette had about a week’s laundry she wanted to take care of and I needed to empty and treat our holding tanks as well as a few other odd jobs and clean-ups.  I got an email from my friend Mel saying he had a 2:20pm tee time up at our golf course so I jumped at that and that took care of the rest of my afternoon.  I hit some good shots and some bad ones but enough good ones to keep me playing.

Looking at the Sherman’s Desserts trying to decide what to order! 

In my last blog, I mentioned we took Claire to Sherman’s Deli for dinner but I couldn’t bring myself to post the photos as I was so full just looking at food pics might have made me ill.  So, if you don’t want to see pics of Sherman’s great dinners and desserts, you better hit page up and exit right now!

Sherman’s Early Bird Special – Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy

We got to Sherman’s a little before 6pm just in time for their Early Bird Specials.  Paulette’s not big on the huge Corned Beef, Pastrami or Salami sandwiches and the Chopped Liver is a definite non-starter so she figured ordering a simple Roast Beef and Mashed Potato with gravy dinner would be a good idea.  Little did she know that they’d bring half a Texas Longhorn on a plate!  Molly and Rylie loved it!!

The Grilled Reuben was so good last time, I ordered it again

Claire was the most sensible ordering the Sesame Chicken Salad but it was huge as well and she couldn’t finish it.  As for me, I’m a bit of a creature of habit and went with the same Grilled Reuben with sauerkraut I ordered last time.  It was every bit as good and is a pretty hard sandwich to beat at Sherman’s – probably their most popular.

This Chocolate Cheesecake was about double normal size

Ordering dessert after dinner at Sherman’s is almost automatic for us as once you see the choices in the display case when you walk in the deli it’s almost impossible to resist.  And, they give you cartons to take home what you can’t finish – good thing too!  For the first time ever, I opted not to order Sherman’s famous Carrot Cake as it was just too big and I was already full from dinner.  I figured I’d just go with a modest little piece of Chocolate Cheese Cake.

Deep Dish Apple Strudel and Ice Cream

There was nothing modest or little about this Chocolate Cheesecake as it was twice the size of any Cheesecake I’ve ever had in any other restaurant.  I ended up taking half of it home.  Paulette went with an Apple Strudel with Ice Cream and Claire ordered a piece of Chocolate Dome cake that looked awesome.  It was a great dinner and now Claire knows why we are so fond of Sherman’s.

We had a spectacular sunset here at the Sands a few nights ago

After a week of dinners out with too many decadent desserts, we’ll be eating much more lightly for the next few weeks.  Chef Joe is probably angry we’ve been ignoring him but not to worry as some of his lighter meals are well in order for the next little while.

Have a great Wednesday, and thanks again for visiting!

Thousand Palms Hike To The McCallum Oasis

Since it was Claire’s last day here in Palm Springs, Paulette and I decided to save the best for the last – a hike across the desert from Thousand Palms to the McCallum Oasis in the morning and then we simply had to take her to Sherman’s Deli for dinner and one of their special desserts.  The photos from Sherman’s will have to wait until my next blog because I’m so full I couldn’t bear to see pics of food!

McCallum Oasis

We headed out pretty early for the Thousand Palms Preserve and both Paulette and Claire were dressed like we were going to the North Pole!  It was nice and sunny but there was a cold wind blowing down off Mt. San Jacinto and Mt. Gorgonio. 

The San Andreas Fault Line is the high ridge in the background

Looking at the high ridge that forms the San Andreas Fault line in this part of California shows just how powerful previous earthquakes have been.  I don’t know much about this stuff except if these are what are called ‘shifting plates’ then they shifted mightily eons ago.

Claire tempting fate on the San Andreas Fault

The San Andreas Fault line happens to run right through this park so getting a picture taken by the sign, just to tempt fate, is almost a tradition with us.

The long desert trail

After taking the small loop trail around the Thousand Palms park amidst all the giant Palm Trees, we found the sandy trail that heads out across the desert towards the McCallum Oasis.  It was mostly level but the sand was kind of deep in spots so it was heavy walking for the 30 minutes or so it took us to get there.

Walking out  of the desert into the Oasis and McCallum Pond was quite an experience.  One would never know that even a small pond like this existed in the middle of this barren area.

At the McCallum Oasis, there was a nice trail that took us all around the pond and it included some wooden bridges to take us over a few swampy areas.  After exploring the oasis for a while, we found the trail that would take us back across the dry desert to the main park at Thousand Palms.

We enjoyed visiting Thousand Palms again and Claire managed to get her first desert hike even if it was a relatively short one.  But, Paulette and her had other plans for the afternoon so we headed back to the Sands to rescue Molly and Rylie who had to stay home because there are no dogs allowed at Thousand Palms.

After a quick bite to eat, Paulette took Claire to JoAnn’s Fabrics for one final foray.  That took about 3 hours so I don’t really know what else they got up to.  Later, as I said earlier, we went out for dinner at Sherman’s but that will have to wait for another blog.

Have a great Tuesday, and thanks again for visiting! 

A Great Day Touring Palm Springs And Las Casuela’s

We awoke to clear blue skies with the sun shining brightly Sunday morning and my first thought was “yahoo, our perfect weather is back”!  In order to let the quilter’s Visa cards cool down some we decided to take Claire on a sight-seeing tour of Palm Springs before she has to fly back north to Victoria on Tuesday.  The first place we headed for was downtown Palm Springs to see Marilyn!

Just who are those two under this sculpture?

Paulette and Claire just had to pose for a picture with Marilyn.  It seems this is the thing to do with this sculpture as there were folks standing around waiting for their turn.  I’m sure glad I was simply the photographer!

After our visit with Marilyn, we drove around the Las Palmas area up behind Palm Canyon Drive.  This is where all the homes of famous and infamous Hollywood types are located.  There are some pretty fancy digs up there including homes once lived in by Elvis, Liberace, Great Garbo, Dean Martin, Lana Turner and all sorts of big stars.  Claire really enjoyed this celebrity tour.

‘Old Blue Eyes’ – Frank Sinatra’s modest gravesite

Leaving Palm Springs we turned onto Frank Sinatra Drive and drove past his bungalow compound located on a golf course.  Sinatra’s home is now owned by Vancouver billionaire Jimmy Pattison.  Since we were in the area we stopped at the Desert Memorial Cemetery to view Frank Sinatra’s extremely modest gravesite.  He is buried alongside his Father(Anthony), Mother(Dolly) and his Uncle(Vincent).  His epitaph just read “The Best Is Yet To Come”.

After leaving the cemetery, we drove all the way out to La Quinta and along the way passed by many of the beautiful gated golf course communities dotted all over Palm Springs.  At La Quinta, we stopped to visit the Sunday Marketplace which is always interesting.

This marketplace features mostly organic food, shops, restaurants and live entertainment.  The weather was nice so it was fun just wandering around looking at all the nice buildings in La Quinta’s Old Town.  One of the restaurants was the Hog’s Breath Inn.  I’ve been told, like the Hog’s Breath in Carmel, CA, this one too is owned by Clint Eastwood of “talking to an empty chair” fame!

We got back to the park in time to sit out back and enjoy the sunshine for a few hours.  To top off a pretty nice day, we went to our favourite Palm Springs Mexican Restaurant for dinner – Las Casuelas.  As usual, it was excellent.

Have a great Monday, and thanks again for visiting!

San Diego Quilt Shops And A Visit To Old Town

After a rainy Friday, the first thing I did Saturday morning was to look out our  bedroom window at the sky to see what the weather held in store for us.  It looked good even though there were still lots of clouds hovering about as there seemed to be just as much blue sky.  Then, I remembered we were off to San Diego anyway.

The morning sky looked much, much better Saturday  morning

San Diego is renowned for its tremendous climate of mostly sunshine and warm weather.  That hasn’t been our experience with San Diego though.  In fact, over the last six years we’ve made 4 day trips to the city and 2 have been picture perfect while the other 2 were just awful as we hit torrential rains.  So, Saturday was going to be the tie breaker – would we get sunshine or rain?

Sun or rain didn’t matter to the Mad Quilters – inside was fine!

We left the Sands just before 9am and by the time we made the turn onto I-15 heading south to San Diego we hit our first bout of rain.  My immediate thought was “oh, oh, here we go again”!  It rained off and on all the way to our first stop the Country Loft Quilt Shop in La Mesa a San Diego suburb.  The quilters wanted 90 minutes at this shop so I quickly  took off with Molly and Rylie and headed for San Diego’s Old Town District just 15 minutes away.

San Diego’s Old Town has too many stores like this, and ……

I was lucky because by the time I parked in Old Town, the rain had stopped and the skies started to clear.  As far as Old Town goes it is kind of tacky but there are some great old original buildings still standing and there does seem to be a lot of good restaurants too.  Still, it is a bit of a tourist trap with lots of the usual attractions that I think detract from the overall ambience of Old Town.

Not enough beautiful original structures like this Catholic Church

Still, there are enough old buildings and examples of Spanish architecture to make a visit to Old Town worthwhile – and, it’s free!  I walked around the Old Town area for about an hour and really enjoyed it especially the warm sunshine. 

With my time at Old Town all used up, I headed back to The Country Loft to pick up Paulette, Claire and Judy.  The timing was perfect as they were just leaving the store with shopping bags and packages under their arms.  We had one more favourite quilt shop to visit and it was in Vista which was just off of I-15 on the way back to Desert Hot Springs.

Arriving at the Fat Quarters Quilt Shop in Vista, Paulette ran inside and came back out saying this was a good one – another 90 minute stop.  I decided to put the seat back for a while and have a bit of a siesta with the muttzo’s.  That worked for about 30 minutes and then I took Molly and Rylie for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Once again, the quilt shoppers had a bit of a bonanza as they said this store was fantastic.  With that, I put my chauffeur’s hat back on and headed north on I-15.  That is when the weather turned a bit ugly with heavy rain, dark gloomy clouds and even fog.  I’d have to say my rating for San Diego yesterday was 50-50 so the weather score is still a tie – 2 good, 2 bad plus a tie.

We arrived back at the Sands a little after 4pm just in time to take Molly and Rylie to the dog park for a well-deserved run with their friends.  Again, last night after dinner, we watched another movie on Netflix.  It was another busy day Saturday but I think we’re going to be slowing things down for Claire’s last 2 days here in Palm Springs.  We plan to do some local sight-seeing on Sunday.

Have a great Sunday, and thanks again for visiting!

A Very Rare Day Of Rain Here In Palm Springs

Into each holiday a little rain must fall and we got our first taste of rain here in Palm Springs yesterday.  It was still a good day for me though as our planned sight-seeing trip to show Claire around was postponed so I didn’t have to get into my chauffeur’s uniform.  The rain didn’t stop Paulette and Claire though as they headed off west on I-10 for the Cabazon Premium Outlet Mall.  Amazing!!

The highlight of our laying-low day yesterday was going out for dinner with Garry and Sandy, Tom and Jennifer and Claire.  We didn’t feel like driving into Palm Springs to one of the many nice restaurants so we just picked our favourite little Mexican joint down the road on Dillon.  In the picture above, you can see Paulette sampling my Chicken Enchiladas while I’m busy taking photos.

All the quilters with their bags waiting for the bus to go home!

Looking at Paulette’s blog from yesterday, I noticed she had taken quite a few pictures.  Since I didn’t do much of anything Friday, I thought I’d just show you a bit of the big trip they took to the quilt show.  The Road to California Quilt Show in Los Angeles is to quilters what Quartzsite is to RVers.  It’s the Holy Grail and then some.

Potted plants?  The women take over most of the washrooms

To say that the women attending this show take over the entire, huge Ontario Convention Center is an understatement.  They even commandeered several Men’s Washrooms for their own and just look what they did to them.  Sure hope they take those plants out when this big quilt show is over this weekend!

Recession what recession?  We’re saving money by making stuff!

Judging by the hordes of RVers at Quartzsite and the huge crowd at the Road to California Road Show, folks don’t seem to be suffering much from the effects of the recent recession. Being between both of these locations here in Palm Springs I can almost here the constant ka-ching, ka-ching of the cash registers (if anyone actually had cash registers anymore).

There’s Claire at the cash register contributing to the US economy

It’s back to work on Saturday.  The Mad Quilters have informed me we’re off to San Diego first thing in the morning.  The main goal is to visit the Country Loft Quilt Shop in La Mesa.  The quilters will want at least an hour there so that will give me and the muttzo’s time to take the big bridge over to Coronado Island and check out some of the sights.  It’s a 2 hour drive to San Diego from here.

Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting!

A Quiet Day At The Sands While Quilters Fly Away

After my first full day of Quilt Shop Chauffeuring on Wednesday, I figured it was time for a day off so that’s exactly what I did.  It turned out o.k. because I wasn’t needed yesterday anyway as the Quilting Group here at the Sands had rented a bus to take all the women to the big Road to California Quilt Show in Los Angeles. 

Paulette and Claire were off at 7:15am to walk up to the clubhouse as they were told the bus was pulling out at 7:30am sharp.

Paul Dahl requested a photo of me in my chauffeur’s uniform – the one I washed, dried and ironed all by myself.  Not wanting to disappoint Paul, I arranged for the above portrait. 

After my day off, it’s back to work on Friday.  The original schedule is under serious revision, I understand, and as an employee now I won’t be privy to the changes until we’re ready to roll.  I did happen to overhear talk about maybe doing some sightseeing in and around the Palm Springs area but nothing’s etched in stone – ever!

While the quilters were off spending their heart’s out to support the state of California, I was back at the park with Molly and Rylie for the morning.  Our friend Jennifer, from Williams Lake, dropped over to request help with setting up a few different apps on her brand new iPad.  That kept me busy for a while and also gave me a chance to catch up on what Jennifer and Tom have been up to since last year.

A good chauffeur has to make sure his vehicle is clean and in tip-top condition at all times.  Accordingly, after lunch, I loaded Molly and Rylie into the truck and drove over to Jessup GM for an oil and filter change.  They also washed my truck afterwards so I left Jessup after an hour with my truck all serviced and clean as a whistle.

The quilters returned to the Sands just before 5pm, tired, worn out but still strong enough to carry all their bags of loot from the bus down to our site.  This was Claire’s first foray to this huge quilt show, one she has been wanting to go to for at least 5 years.  She said it was everything she expected and more.

Sunrise at the Sands

Last night Paulette and Claire watched another Netflix movie using our Apple TV device.  It was Legends of the Fall.  We’re sure liking Netflix especially since we now have Time Warner’s high-speed broadband.  The movies start as soon as we select them and run uninterrupted right through to the end.  With everyone tired, it was another early night.

Have a great Friday, and thanks again for visiting!

Whirlwind Tour Of Southern California Quilt Shops

My first day as Quilt Shop Chauffeur was a long one covering 265 miles and taking a little over 9 hours.  We left the Sands just before 9am and it was 6:30pm and already dark by the time we got back.  I figure I should be getting overtime for all this driving so it might turn out to be more dough for gizmos and gadgets, right??

The last stop of the day in Corona at 4:30 and still going strong!!

It seemed to me like we had stopped at about a dozen different quilt stores but I’m told it was only four.  The stops ranged from a low of 30 minutes to a high of 90.  We drove through the desert, over hills and out to the Pacific Ocean.  We passed wind turbines generating power in the desert and a nuclear power station at San Onofreo on the California coast – a very strange place for a nuclear power plant if you ask me (but, nobody did)!

Here was yesterday’s route – we got to see desert and the ocean!

It was a pleasant day for a drive as it was mid-70’s for most of the time which meant we didn’t have to use the A/C nor the heater.  The trip must have been a huge success because at each stop Claire, Judy and Paulette came out with lots of bags thus bolstering the economy of California.  I forgot to mention, we added one quilter to the tour from here at the park, Judy, who lives in Seattle, WA.

Shopping takes energy – so that called for lunch at In-N-Out

All of this shopping and being driven around makes a girl hungry so around lunchtime we ran across an In-N-Out burger place while we were in San Marcos so we stopped for lunch.  Even Molly and Rylie were hungry from all the work so they shared their very own cheeseburger patty.  Then, it was back on the road.

Our first stop, and the longest was in Temecula.  Paulette,  Claire and Judy flew out of the truck and headed for the front door of The Wool Lady Shop and I never saw them again for 90 minutes.  To pass the time, I took a walk with Molly and Rylie along the main street boardwalk.  Temecula has free town Wifi and since I brought my iPad with me I was able to pass some time browsing the web.

This is for Rod – he bought us lunch in Temecula – my turn next!

Temecula always brings back good memories for Paulette and I as we took a day trip here with Rod and Loyce a few years back when they were staying at the Sands.  Rod kindly bought us lunch at a great burger place – Mad Madeline’s Grill.  I promised to repay Rod one day by buying him lunch but so far have managed to avoid him.

Leaving Corona, we got stuck for a bit in the southern California freeway madness.  Luckily, I was able to manoeuvre over to the HOV lane and after that we sailed right along without much trouble.

When we got back to the Sands, we had some visitors come over to say hello – Sandy and Gary from back home in Duncan had arrived for a 2 month stay as well as our friends Tom and Jennifer from Williams Lake, B.C. – so our whole gang is here now. 

I’m tired and I still have to wash, dry and iron my Chauffeur’s uniform so I’m off to bed now and it’s only 9pm!

Have a great Thursday, and thanks again for visiting!