Around and About...Palm Springs revisited

We have spent a couple of days relaxing and trying hard NOT to go much of anywhere...as you can see from these photos of me and Molly at the campground. The photo of me holding a book is a reference to my close attachment to the long running Australian series "A Country Practice". Most of you will know about that addiction and my close friendship with one of the lead actors.

One morning this week Rick took this early shot of the mountains in behind the campground, and I think it caught the general ambiance of the area...

On the weekend we heard a great racket of loud music start up around the little lake from our campground...and after awhile we decided to investigate, so we walked around and saw a huge gathering of people in the day use area, all very colourful and a master of ceremonies whipping them into some kind of frenzy. On closer examination we were informed that it was a Colorvibe 5K Run for charity. I had never witnessed one of these before hence it was a real culture shock for me. The chap on the microphone was building them up to a great climax when huge swaths of some kind of scented coloured powder were ejected all over them and then they were released to run around the campground and then around the lake on their run...I hope I have given them justice in explaining this. Here are a few photos taken from our camper as they went "running" through. Although called a 5K run, we did notice that most folks were more ambling than running.

Yesterday was a day spent getting to the Moorten Botanical Gardens in Palm Springs. Here a little explanation is in order. The desert floor and oasis that makes up the Palm Springs area is about 25 miles long and Palm Springs is only the northernmost population centre. South from Palm Springs are arranged  the other centres: Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta and Indio. These are all connected by the main strip of highway 111, which is really a suburban 4 lane boulevard with lights every mile or so. It takes FOREVER to travel from Indio (where we are) up to Palm Springs. This time, to avoid the hassle and bustle and general clutter of 111, we tried a backway that joined up with the freeway and yet it still took forever to get the gardens.

Here are a few explanatory shots to show you what the long boulevards look like around Palm Springs proper. The other communities have similar Boulevards, with similar stunning landscaping and huge investment in palms, greenery coupled with natural desert landscaping.

After cruising through a section of Palm Springs to the base of the mountain, we finally arrived at the little gem called the Moorten Botanical Gardens. It is quite small, just a generous city lot with the original 1938 Mexican mission style house set into it. Here is a selection of photos from our time there.