Mountains and Joshua Trees

I had 2 Thursdays last week! I left Auckland at 7.15pm on Thursday 7th May and arrive in Los Angeles after a 12 hour flight at about 12pm – on Thursday 7th May! Crossing the International Dateline always makes life a bit more interesting :-)

I finally arrived in Palm Springs on Thursday evening. I am staying with my very good friend from Liverpool Polytechnic days, Christopher, and his partner, Srinu. They live in a beautiful house in Palm Springs. Palm Springs is a desert town surrounded on 3 sides by mountains. It’s really hot here with the daytime temperature reaching about 100 degrees F / 38 degrees C – phew!

I spent Friday getting over my jetlag and on Friday evening, we went out to dinner and then went to see ‘Evita’ at a theatre in Palm Springs – a belated birthday present from Christopher. It was a lovely evening and we enjoyed the play very much.

On Saturday, we headed to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway which is cable car up into the mountains. It takes about 10 mins to get to the top and the views are spectacular. There are plenty of paths up there and we spent about an hour walking about and taking in the scenery. It was much cooler up there too, much to my delight. In the evening, we went out for a Mexican meal in downtown Palm Springs and then we headed to a gay bar called Hunters. I have been to gay bars and nightclubs before with Christopher and this one was great fun! There was a guest appearance by an actor who had been on a US soap opera called ‘Days of Our Lives’ and had also been a Playgirl centerfold. Unfortunately, he looks better in his photo that in real life – isn’t that always the way ;-)

On Sunday, we headed out to Joshua Tree National park which is about a 45 min drive from Palm Springs. The area is the only place where Joshua Trees grow and the scenery was spectacular. As well as the Joshua Trees (which are part of the Yucca plant family), there were big red rock formations. We went for a walk to an old disused mill which had been built in 1930 and used until 1966 to process gold ore from mines in the area. When we got back to Palm Springs, we had tea at the International House of Pancakes aka IHOP. I had never been to this particular chain of fast food restaurants before but the food was quite good. We spent last night slobbing in front of the television, which we all enjoyed thoroughly!

Today, I have done nothing!! Christopher and Srinu are working so I have been pottering about in the house, playing on the internet and watching lots of television. I've quite enjoyed it!