FAREWELL TO PALM SPRINGS

This statute of Marilyn Monroe is leaving Palm Springs the end of this month and going to New Jersey. We had to go and see her before she took off.

The Follies are also closing after 23 years in Palm Springs. We saw them the last time we were here so we didn't go again, but it is sad to see it end.

Every Wednesday there are free golf lessons at the First Tee. Amy and Jeff are the instructors and really do a nice job.

Larry working on his chipping which is what the lesson was on that week.

On Thursday Sunnyland gives free guided tours of their gardens.

Sunnyland was built by the Annenbergs.They lived outside of Philadelphia and published the Inquirer.

This is where President Obama stayed when he was here a few weeks ago.

This guide told us about Sunnyland and the fact that when it started they thought they would only have 8 or so people tour the gardens once a week. Today they have 1000 people a day visit it.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but catching a monarch butterfly in flight is not easy. This was California milkweed and the monarch can eat it where to other birds and  animals it smells terrible and is deadly, so they learn to stay away from the butterfly or die.

Another beautiful part of the gardens.

A pool of water which was flowing over all its sides and made a delightful cooling sound as you walked by.

Larry walking through it. You were to meditate as you walked around, so you would be more at peace when you were done.

Larry wanted to take a windmill tour the last time we were out here, so this time we went on a bus tour.

Our guide was Ken Huskey. He was excellent and told us a lot of information. We learned is that it is called a wind farm and several wind farms make a park. The turbines have gotten as big as they can on land because longer blades can't be transported on the road. They are starting to put windmills in the ocean. It takes a lot of research before building a wind farm. There has to be at least an 8 mile wind for them to work. We bought his video that tells a lot more. We are glad to lend it to anyone who would like to see it.

This acre of solar panels doesn't produce as much electricity as that one windmill.

On Monday we spent the day near Joshua Tree. There is a Marine Corp air ground combat center close by in Twentynine Palms.

We went to Landers to Gubler Orchids.

She gave us a tour of the six green houses. All different kinds of orchids and in different stages of growth. One thing we learned is that the roots like air and not a lot of water. They grow best in bark not soil.

Of course I had to get one. The hard part was choosing one.

Just up the road from the garden was the Integratron.

It was built by George Van Tassel. It is made out of wood and not a nail was used. It is an acoustically perfect structure. the owners of it now give tours and "Sound Baths"they describe as meditaion -like sessions. It wasn't open when we were there so we didn't get to go inside.

I haven't been hiking since we arrived, so today Larry and I went to big Morango Canyon and took a few mile hike.

There were a lot of lizards.

We hiked along the ridge, so we had a great view looking over the canyon.

We went up and then we went down.

The Canyon trail was a 9 mile loop we decided to stay on the west canyon loop and head back to the car. It was a great day for a hike, not to hot.

Our final stop of the day was at Pioneertown.

It was a movie and television set in the late 1940's and 50's.Many of the buildings stand almost as the did decades ago. They were genuine buildings, not just movie fronts. Each building served a duel purpose such as editing, dark room, store props or wardrobe. Today many of them are private residences.
 The Crisco Kid movies and TV show was filmed here. The Gene Autry TV series was also filmed here.

The post office is functional today.

The OK Corral.

This bowling alley has been in operation since 1947. Roy Rogers threw the first ball. Most of the things are only open on weekends.

This is the place to eat in town!

They didn't open till 5 and we had reservations for 6:30 (there is music at 7). We had gotten here at 4:45 and there wasn't a car in the parking lot. After we walked around the town it was about 5:30 and we thought we would see if we could eat earlier and not wait for the music. The parking lot was full but we did get a table.

We enjoyed a steak sandwich.

The lady's bathroom.

I was going to end this post with this sign but wanted to share these friends with you.

 

We were going to golf again with Judy and Bob but they had gone to San Diego for the basketball play offs this weekend  (They live in Oklahoma and are big Tulsa fans.), so they were too tired to play golf on Tuesday.  We met them for dinner instead. They had tickets to Driving Miss Daisy at the McCallum theater that night and felt they were still to tired even to go to that and asked if we would use them instead. What a nice surprise.

 It is a beautiful building and it was fun seeing the theatre. It was a good show and the seats were great. The amazing thing was it was the traveling company from the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia that put on the production.

 We have met Laurie and Mark for several years now in different Thousand Trail parks all over the US. It is nice getting together with friends on the road. They are great pickle ball players and like to golf. They went with us to The First Tee for the Wednesday free clinic and then we played 9 holes of golf --- in a wind storm! Of course lunch at the Elephant Bar followed.

If you are in Palm Springs next season you may be greeted by Laurie for she  is now working here. But is time for us to be on the move.