9 Jan 2012 - Drive from CA to AZ

Much of my drive home, from the Salton Sea, back to Mesa, Arizona, was along the Chocolate Mountains, which I love, along a route I'd never taken before. At times it looks like God was cooking, and spilled huge mounds of cocoa on the earth.

Then I drove through, and stopped at, the Imperial Sand Dunes, which I had never seen before, and didn't even know were here. For awhile I watched some ATV-ers enjoying the dunes. But, looking the other direction, there was an almost other-worldly view.

Finally, I spent some time at the Cibola Refuge, which I had heard about from other WINs. I can see why they like this spot. There were only a couple other campers here, and it was an inviting spot. I saw my first ever redhead (duck) here, who happened to be "keeping company" with a female ring-necked duck! It was comical to watch the drama, as a coot tried to "horn in" on the redhead's girlfriend. The bridge construction happening here right now made it too noisy for me, but I will come back here some other time.

That night the moon was spectacular. It was orange-tinted as it first rose into the sky, then became a hazy silver as it got higher. All in all, a lovely day, and lovely drive. A lovely trip, overall. But, as always, it felt good to be back home.

8 Jan - Finney Lake & Salton Sea

I went by the Slabs, which I'd heard about for years and was curious about, but it wasn't worth the drive out there. I was expecting a community of RVers, and found instead a number of scattered individuals, with "Jesus Saves" and such signs. I moved on.

On the advice of a couple of WINs, who said it was a great birding place, I drove up to Finney Lake. It's part of the Imperial Wildlife Area. I drove around the lake and saw lots of cormorants, egrets, grebes, and gulls. I loved it that there was almost no one there, and Joey and I had the lake and the birds to ourselves. But the stink from the cattle across the road, drove me away. Maybe the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, but it was too much for me.

Nearby, however, is the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, which was a real treat. I saw 5000 snow geese in an alfalfa field that evening, which is a sight I won't ever forget. And the experience of snow geese flying in kaleidoscopic patterns overhead, which kept happening all along the Rock Hill Trail, was amazing. The best part of the trip home, however, was the evening I spent on the beach at the Salton Sea and all the pictures on this post are from there. Although it looks like a sandy beach, in reality all the white is a salty crust. Feels more like a crust of snow when you walk on it, than sand. This lake has a very high salinity level, and it gets higher with each year. But the salt doesn't seem to bother the birds. And something about the salinity of the water makes the sun sparkle on it in an almost magical way.

Joey loved running up and down the beach, and in circles in the "sand". More than any of my previous dogs, she is a runner. One of her greatest joys is to run full-tilt, and I am making it a point to try to find places where she can be off-leash and do that on a regular basis. This evening it was just me and Joey and thousands of birds on the shore and on the water and in the air over the sea, and a beautiful sunset over the sparkling water. "sigh" And then, as I headed for home, the moon rose over the snow geese on the water. Perfect ending to a perfect evening. "sigh"

7 Jan 2012 - Escondido

I drove to Escondido and spent a couple days with my cousin and his wife. It was a good visit. We all got to know each other a little better, and we had time to spend talking about family history and looking at old photos and old movies. They took me to the Safari Park nearby one day. Arlene hadn't ever fed the lorikeets before, which was fun. And we got a good look at a six-month-old baby gorilla, his scary-looking silverback daddy, and the lions, and lots of beautiful birds.

3 Jan 2012 - Showcase of Floats and Long Beach

Sharon, Rosalind, and I took the shuttle from San Gabriel to Pasadena to see the Showcase of Floats, and arrived around 9 AM, which worked well. It was a hot day, though! The highs were supposed to be in the 80s, and it felt like the 80s in mid-morning, walking around on the concrete to view the floats. I'm glad I got to see them all up close. Unfortunately, some of the flowers had deteriorated pretty badly, due to two factors: the temps we've had - in the 80s - since Saturday morning, when the floats were finished, and the fact that the Rose Parade was on Monday this year, instead of Sunday, which meant the floats had sat around an extra day before the parade. I looked at every one of the floats, but spent an especially long time with my two favorites; the thousands of beautiful details on the China Airlines float and the Indonesia float were really impressive. The float that was a tribute to Roy Rogers actually had Trigger on it - stuffed! - and his dog too!! No kidding. A couple of the float actually had action going on. The float that included a surfing tank, had dogs surfing in the tank. That was a hit with the crowd. And one of the floats had a couple of skateboarders showing their stuff on the back of the float. I loved seeing the many creative ways organic materials were used to create the different colors and textures that the designers wanted in the floats, including kidney beans, bananas, cranberries, pineapples, silverleaf (to look like metal), and many other different kinds of seeds, leaves, berries, and beans. And, of course, lots and lots of beautiful flowers.

After I left Rosalind's house, I wandered down to Long Beach, where I spent an afternoon at the off-leash dog beach, which Joey loved. She ran around and around in the sand,and obviously enjoyed her first experience of the ocean. She chased the waves, but never let any of them catch her. She found a couple friends to play tag with. It was fun watching her have the time of her life. Someone I met on a walk recently mentioned that poodles are very athletic dogs, and I've thought of that many times as I watch her run and jump and dance on her hind legs. It's why they so often use poodles in circus acts.

Tuesday night I stayed at a nice campground in Long Beach. It turned out to be right next to Golden Shore marine preserve, so our walk the next morning along the water, was a real treat.

2 Jan 2012 - Tournament of Roses Parade

This was another beautiful day in southern California - 80 degrees!! :-) The parade started out with a flyover by a stealth bomber - impressive! I've seen pictures, but, in person, they are amazing. Seems like something out of science fiction. The parade was all so beautiful. The bands were terrific - each of them - and strikingly costumed, though the girls' band from Japan was the most impressive. I never appreciated, watching on TV, how beautiful the horses and decorated cars are. I was disappointed none of "my" floats won any awards. :-( The City of Glendale float is the one I spent the most time on (an elephant pulling a carriage), and I thought it was gorgeous. In my unbiased opinion, the attention to detail, the little touches - like the cranberries and plumes - were definitely worth an award!! But the judges didn't agree with me. :-(

The skywriting (financed by Geico) was impressive - never seen any like it before.

My favorite floats were those by China Airlines (this is the Year of the Dragon) and Indonesia, as well as the Glendale float. :-) I'm so glad I got to do this, finally, as it's been on my bucket list for years. I wasn't disappointed. (And I have a very long bucket list).

1 Jan 2012 - New Year's Day at the Beach

Sharon and I drove to the beach today. We ate lunch at the Duke's (Hawaiian-themed) oceanside restaurant in Malibu, sitting outside in the sun (and shade). (I had the Shrimp and Crab Louis Salad, which was excellent!) What a beautiful day! The sun was shining, the Pacific ocean was smooth and blue and beautiful, there was a slight breeze. Perfect. What a marvelous way to spend New Year's Day! This is the life!

There is plenty of money in this part of California. There were four Lamborghini's parked next to Sharon's rent car in the parking lot!! Then we drove down to Manhattan Beach, and walked the Strand. Joey got to see lots of other dogs. She wanted to play with most of them, but they were too busy walking their owners. :-( We drove through Long Beach, Santa Monica, and Culver City, and are not far from Beverly Hills or Hollywood. One of the good things was that there wasn't much traffic, since it's Sunday, and a holiday. A good day for a trip to the beach...