Had fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast. Then off to the Living Desert Zoo and Plant Center in Palm Desert. This was much nicer than we expected. We got in on the tail end of an animal show where we saw a wild cat with large pointed ears, a coyote, a wild parrot, a cockatoo, and a big-horned sheep.

We walked by the most extensive model train set-up I’ve ever seen, and then enjoyed the beautiful (and well-labeled) desert gardens. My favorite was the graceful and dainty butterfly bush, but the desert marigold was also gorgeous, and, of course, the California poppies were super.

Leonard & Kerstin Trawick, Arthur Luehrmann, Butterfly Bush

Living Desert Zoo and Plant Ctr, Palm Desert They had two zoos — one for native desert animals and one for European and African animals. We ignored the latter and went to the former. It was nice to see the mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, and all in their native habitat.

We also walked through 2 aviaries. One of them held (among others) a California raven who was desperately trying to get out. He had a colleague on the outside who was trying to help him escape, and they would cry to each other and meet at corners of the netting top to try to make a hole. It was really very sad.

We had lunch at the café at the Center and then onto the Palm Desert Aerial Tramway which took us up San Jacinto Mountain. At the base it was 75°F. At the top it was 25°F and there was 2 feet of snow on the ground! The tramway was interesting. Each gondola is round and holds 80 people — and it rotates! It makes 2 full rotations on ascent, and 2 full rotations on descent. It is just the floor that rotates; the top shell and windows do not, which is a bit peculiar, but because of the rotation, everyone gets all views, which is great.

Up on the top we saw many horizontal “icicles” or “snowcicles” which were more opaque and white than icicles, but much harder than packed snow. Clearly their “growth” direction was caused by the wind, but it is hard to see how they formed in the first place and grew. They were on almost any surface — even the slick surfaces of the windows. They looked like this: Really weird. I took a picture, but the focus wan’t very good.

Kerstin Trawick, Arthur Luehrmann, Leonard Trawick, Palm Desert Aerial Tramway which took us up San Jacinto Mountain. Coming down there was an old guy standing next to Leonard who just didn’t get the rotation idea, and pushed Leonard away by holding on to the window bars and staying with the window instead of rotating with the floor. Ever sweet and polite Leonard just backed off, but I moved in — not wanting anyone to push a friend of mine around — and when the old guy started pushing in my direction said mildly, “Excuse me sir, but I think you’re falling over.” He got very huffy and said, “Madam, I haven’t moved!” and continued to try to push me over. I continued to stand still. He fussed and said, “Look! I haven’t moved!” His wife tried to tell him he had moved, but he wouldn’t listen. Very grumpy. Ah well. After we got off she gave me an apologetic smile and shrug.

Back to our hotel, the Palm Court Inn in Palm Springs. The desk clerk suggested we might like to go to the Left Bank for dinner, so we did. The food was great, but the place was unbearably noisy. However, one highlight: they had a rather good live pianist who tried to pick up Arthur when Arthur was walking around admiring some of the artwork. Kerstin got upset about a note on the menu, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone,” but I told her that was very common, and in fact, was on the menu in the Korean restaurant we went to the other night. To Kerstin it reeks of Jim Crow rules meant to exclude negroes, but to me it’s an excuse to get rid of undesirably drunk or noisy “patrons.”

A quick breakfast at the motel, a stop at a 7-11 to pick up lunch sandwiches, sushi, and salad, and off to Twenty-Nine Palms and entry into Joshua Tree National Park. A gorgeous place. We climbed and hiked.

Joshua Tree National Park specimen cacti

Had a wonderful sushi and sandwich and salad and wine lunch at Jumbo Rocks.

Saw the cholla garden and the ocotillo place. Saw the wonderful piles of rounded rocks that turn out to be the uncovered spine of the hills, exposed by sudden washes of water washing away the looser dirt and sand.

We saw a coyote up close and personal. I think she? he? Wanted us to give food — but we were good and heeded the ranger warnings. We also saw lizards, a Coates Hummingbird, a raven (of course), ground squirrels, a Gambels quail, and many different birds.

We saw Joshua trees (of course) and lots of different chollas and ocotillos and paper bag bushes and mesquite and cottonwoods and creosote bushes (which were called Little-Bad-Smellers by the Indians.) And I got another junior ranger badge for Joshua Tree! I am so proud!

“Home” to the motel for a dip in the hot tub, and then out to a great little Mexican restaurant, JJ’s, to give Kerstin her Mexican food fix. It was great, and within two blocks of our motel.