We arrived in Ontario,CA, picked up the rental car and proceeded out of the airport to the I10 to make our way out into the desert. The directions I had, unfortunately, did not include which direction to go on the I10...east or west. Using deductive reasoning I decided that if I went east I would soon hit the ocean, so I had to go west to get to the desert. It was a couple exits down the highway before I realized the fault in my reasoning... I was on the west coast now and my thinking was backwards! Mom and I had a good laugh over that one! Thank goodness for U-turns.
I am fascinated by the mountains out here. They are very different from the lush green mountains of Tennessee. They are huge rocky formations jutting out of flat sandy/rocky ground and as the sun moves across the sky they change in color and shape as the shadows cast by the sun's position changes. I caught a sunrise one morning and my pictures just don't do it justice.
It has been 90-110 degrees out here, but the heat is very different from Tennessee. It is so very dry I feel like I'm shriveling up like a prune. I am never without a glass or bottle of water nearby.
My uncle has made arrangements for us to stay at the Marriot Palm Desert Villas. First class all the way! The buildings weave in and around the golf course, so every room as a gorgeous view! Mom's room has a small kitchenette and private bath and is really a small single suite. Through the adjoining door, our suite has a full kitchen, dining area, living room with pullout couch for Matthew and a bedroom suite for me that includes a jacuzzi tub! There are 3! TVs for us to watch... although we usually end up on the couch watching the one together...old habits die hard!
Uncle Tom and Aunt Polly live in one of the many gated communities here, where the houses all look the same to me... cream colored adobe with rust-colored tile roof or a peachy colored adobe with green roof. We can walk out his back door onto the patio and then step onto the golf course fairway. The lush green fairways are a stark comparison to the surrounding sandy/rocky ground not watered by sprinkler systems.
There is little room for a vegetable garden like ours at home, but they do have an orange, grapefruit, lemon and apricot tree as well as potted roses and ornamental cactus plants surrounding the house. Everything is kept lush and green by sprinkler systems... you must be careful to heed the warning click and get out of the way as the sprinklers pop up and turn on automatically at undetermined times, spraying their life-giving water everywhere!
It is considered winter here now (at 110 degrees!!??) and there will be little to no rain until Spring when I'm told the wild flowers bloom out of the sandy ground and make an awesome display. I may have to arrange a visit next year to see for myself!
