California Dreaming

We are on vacation out in California and I have to tell you that I have been very pleasantly surprised. I really was not all that hot on the idea of going to California, especially to the desert, but it has been an awesome trip. I had no idea that the Palm Springs area is completely surrounded by mountains. It is just beautiful. We spent the first three days in San Diego and was surprised to find that it was very cool (temperature wise) there and the water in the Pacific ocean is down right COLD! I'll take the beach in Florida any day. We've talked to people here who told us that the ocean water only warms up two months of the year. But these nuts out here were swimming in this water, and it was so cold that it literally hurt our feet and your legs went numb. Didn't stay there long!

We've been in Rancho Mirage (a few miles from Palm Springs) for the last few days, and while the temperature out here in the desert is over 100, the humidity is low and it has been nice. We've had an awesome time, and still have until Tuesday night before we head home. We might go hike one of the canyons tomorrow morning. Depends on if I can get the kids out of bed and moving.

While in San Diego, we went to the zoo and got to see the giant pandas. They were so cool.


The picture below was taken from the street in the resort we are staying in. Every direction you look, we are surrounded by mountains. We are sitting in a "bowl" in the middle of these mountains, called the Chocolate mountains.