The Hills Are Alivefew

... with desert flowers.

I think this might be my favorite shot.

Aren't these white blooms cute?

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Recently, Mom and I finished watching the 80 zillion episodes of West Wing (2001) on Netflix.  We enjoyed it immensely and didn't miss shootings, explosions, graphic sex, or bad language one bit.

But what we did enjoy was the almost Girl Scout wide-eyed commitment to the ideals of truth, justice, and the American way. (Seems to me I have heard that somewhere else ... ) The writing is excellent, including page after page of witty dialogue. Consequently, the actors are great at delivering compound sentences with many polysyllabic words. 

And how can you go wrong with Martin Sheen portraying President Bartlett? He is written as a Kennedy type but much more intellectual. No, no touch football here -- he would be reading up on his Bible, mentally formulating ripostes utilizing chapter and Bible verse. 

Obviously, I really liked the series. After watching it nightly for a few weeks, when we came to the end, I was bereft. But no more! I have discovered Boston Legal on Amazon Prime. Wahoo!

The series began in 2008 -- when James Shrader still had hair and William Shatner was considerably slimmer -- when George W. Bush was President. In the second (or maybe third) episode, they made reference to trying to take environmental protections off a river with wild salmon. "The Administration" wanted to count farmed salmon the same as wild salmon to increase the numbers, thereby justifying removing the wild salmon endangered species status. I thought that was a pretty direct slam at George W., but I have no idea if that was a true issue. It does sound eerily current.

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We just got a video phone call from Emily while she brushed J's hair. He has not had a hair cut in over 6 months; needless to say, he has a BIG afro. Emily was using de-tangler (who knows if there's a hyphen there, it just seemed right) and he was very patient. Besides his evening half bottle of milk, we were his distractions. I love seeing his nightly routine. The next step is he gets to pick a book or two. Emily says she sings to him, but we have not been privy to that. Then it's off to bed for the little tyke. He's a happy kid even when he's tired and he brings us lots of smiles.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

It's up to 85 degrees (4:35 p.m.) and, naturally, we cannot use the pool. Bah, humbug! Today through Thursday, they are painting the deck surrounding the pool. Sheesh, why couldn't they do that when it was 60 degrees? We had some unusually cool weather for a couple of days when it was only about 40 F. in the a.m. You should have seen the landscapers! I looked out and thought it was some kind of burglar. Big hoodie, face mask (against the 'cold'), gloves, another jacket ... 

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Happy hour at Bernie's yesterday was great. Boy, do they make a good hamburger! Most everyone else ordered the prime rib sliders, which looked good. They brought 4 different sauces, including au juice to dip, for those people. They bring complimentary homemade potato chips with very spicy dipping sauce for the table. I didn't mind the heat, but they went very heavy on the taco seasoning which I thought was overdone. I ordered club soda with a lime wedge because I would rather eat my calories than drink them. Can you believe they charged $4.50 for that? If it's not happy hour, I assume it would be $12.

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21 days until I return to Massachusetts. I am told there are no daffodils yet. My friend in Connecticut posted a picture of crocus in bloom, so spring is coming, Friends! Cheers!

Traipsing through the Desert in Search of Desert X

Yesterday LeeAnne drove me and Mom to two more Desert X installations. The first:

This installation is made of bricks, each about 10 inches by 6 inches. Seen from above, this would be like a giant butterfly maze. There was a path lined in rocks leading to a fenced in backyard where the wooden door was propped open by a big rock. 

We did not take the path, but LeeAnne looked it up and it was just a closed backyard -- another path to nowhere.

Along the way to the installation I admired the desert verbena.

After wandering around a nice neighborhood near the first installation, we finally reached the second one. This one didn't have a real address, but they gave us the intersection of two streets.

It was a bit of a hike to the Ghost Palm.

This is a really really long shot.

The Ghost Palm by K. Ryan is really impressive. The really good photos are by LeeAnne. I decided to take a different path (literally) so I did not get as close as she.

Photo courtesy of LeeAnne Wilson

LeeAnne Wilson photo.

Yeah, yeah, that's me. We both had to hike a bit in the desert sun. There were lots of painted butterflies and dragon flies buzzing about. I was really happy to not see any snakes.

As I said, my photos are not as good. I think of them as impressionistic.

Desert Cactus

Galley Tour and the Drive Home

After a long day on the water -- glass bottom boat adventure -- we decided to treat ourselves to dessert at dinner.

Above is the sugar free dessert that I had. It was the only sugar free dessert on the menu besides the brie and other cheese plate.

Mom said the tiramisu was good.

At night, they had Movies Under the Stars up on the top deck. The first night was great and they even bring you a red plaid blanket while you lounge on chaise lounges. Waiters came around offering you pizza slices. But the second night in port, the temperature dropped and the wind came up. I needed two blankets! I took a picture of the pool because there were white caps due to the wind! I don't know if you can see them or not. Some young people came to use the hot tub -- the girls had bikinis. I was shivering on their behalf when they got out of the hot tub.

The next day there was a cooking demo with the head chef and head maitre d. The demo was nothing much -- pasta and a caesar salad. The galley tour was really short, but they had put fruit carvings on display so I snapped them for you to see.

This man is working with bread. All of the bread is baked on board ship.

Cakes stacked, waiting to be frosted.

The chocolate in the lucite case was labeled "For demonstration only." I have no idea what the thing in the foreground is, but it looks like a meringue.

"Wine in Jail"  I'm pretty sure this is cooking wine because there wasn't enough of it to be served.

At the end of the tour. They were selling $16 bottles of EVOO. The normal price is $25 in the US, they said.

After 2 days at sea, 2 days in Cabo, and 2 days at sea to get to the dock, it was time to drive home. Since it was Sunday, the traffic was fairly light.

The pass with the windmills means that Palm Springs is very close.

We ended up at the Manhattan of the Desert Deli because there was no food at the house. And I knew my deconstructed reuben would be good enough for lunch and dinner. Mom's corned beef sandwich is on the right.

I hope you had as much fun looking at these pictures as I had taking them. Cheers!

Cheery Cabo Cruise Compendium

[Editor's note: I am so sorry that you could not see the Desert X pictures until I sent you a link to the album. I had copied them from the google photos in my Chromebook and then pasted them into this blog. It did not work. So today, I have gone through the tedious procedure of emailing the picture to me -- from my phone -- and downloading them onto to Mom's desk top. After that, I open them in Irfanview, mainly to cut down the size for faster uploading here, but also to crop out other tourists and flaws with the picture framing.]

By the way, I googled my blog and my trip to Chicago came up as a headline (Oh, the Places We Will Go) -- which was the last long Amtrak train I'll ever take -- and it was September of 2017. How time flies!

Here we are humming Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" on the way to San Pedro where the Ruby Princess ship is docked.

We were amazed at all of the yellow wildflowers here. The trip was about 2 hours (3 different freeways).

And then we arrived. Luckily, we found a porter at the edge of the parking lot. He grabbed out bags and told us that we didn't have to wait in line at the door with the others, so we were able to go to another entrance and zip right in. I say "zip" sardonically because we had to wait in line for an elevator and go through security twice.

Mom had dropped me off with the bags (and her walker) and she parked the car. She was gone so long (there were a lot of cars there already), that I was thinking maybe she should have taken the walker. But she was o.k. It was just a long walk!

On Board at last!

Here's the cabin. We did have a window (behind me). No, it's not a porthole! We had just come into the cabin, hence the purses on the desk/table/counter. The closet and bathroom is on the other side of this mirror.

This is the view from the Lido deck.

Naturally, after getting up early and driving for a couple of hours, we were hungry for lunch. So we went to the Lido Deck, aka "the buffet." We had collected our cruise cards which is coded with personal info. They took our picture which displays to the crew when the card is swiped entering or leaving the ship, but it's not right on the card. Anytime you need to pay for something, you hand them your cruise card and they swipe it. For instance, specialty coffees such as lattes or wine are not included. The card is also the key to your cabin. 

We spent two days cruising at sea and we arrived at Cabo San Lucas to a wonderfully sunny day. It was about 80 degrees and lovely. On the first day in port, we took a glass bottom boat tour. We laughed because the "glass bottom" was about 2 feet wide and 4 feet long with sides so you could lean on it. The better view was just off the side of the boat since the mate was tossing hunks of bread to the fish.

But the sightseeing around the peninsula was the best part. The mate kept up a running patter but between his accent, the spray, hopping other boats' wakes, I don't remember a lot of the names. Hence, 'the hole in the rock' is about the extent of my memory ...

This is the captain of the glass bottomed boat as we puttered out of the harbor.

This boat was also a water taxi, so before we started our tour, they drove right up to a beach and the young man next to Mom got off. He was only wearing a bathing suit and carrying his wallet and passport in his hand. He was annoyed when the mate hit him up for a tip and then he hopped into the water and waded ashore. I asked how he would get back to the ship and the mate told me he was staying at the hotel which was separated from this beach by a lot of rock.

Ruby Princess

Bird

Lovers' Beach

See that little dot on the left? That is the last bit of rock that is Mexico -- Cabo San Lucas.

After the lovely tour, we walked around, had a taco and a cerveza. I did not buy one of the tee shirts that said, "Keep calm. You are on the FUN side of Trump's wall." 

More later, but right now I'm going to the gym for the first time in a week!