Palm Springs, CA 4/10-4/19 2009

After 2 years of not seeing our friends, Will and Ella Tatham, we were finally reunited in Palm Springs. They have been touring the West for the last two years. We were able to go to church together and to spend Easter together. The picture below is the church we attended for the last 2 weeks. It is called Southwest Community Church and I would highly recommend it to those looking for a church in that area. At the Good Friday service Will and Ella introduced us to new friends they had made, Arlo and Vern Mallory. We really enjoyed them and look forward to seeing them sometime in the future. The above picture is Will and Ella taken on a day trip to Idllywild.

This is Southwest church and the picture below I took of a little girl on Easter morning. I told her I didn't have any granddaughters here to take a picture of so could I take a picture of her and she was thrilled to do it. You could tell she felt like a princess in her new Easter outfit.

Below are Vern and Arlo, smooching as usual! We were also able to celebrate Vern's 68th with him.

We toured the desert oasis. It was fascinating. In the middle of dry desert there appears out of nowhere a grove of Palm trees and ponds of water. We were told that the water bubbles up along the fault line. We girls are showing out girl power by holding up this Palm. From left to right: Ella, Diane, Arlow, Judy, and Jann.

This is the path we took going out to the Palm grove. It really was very interesting.

Below is the lovely pond nestled among the Palm grove. It was a very bright green color. What a beautiful spot to just sit and meditate.

This is the group that went that morning on the Oasis walk. From left to right top: Wayne and Diane(friends of Vern and Arlo's), Will and Ella, Bart (his wife Jann is taking the picture) and on the bottom is Lee and Judy, Vern and Arlo. After our tour of the Oasis we all had a lovely breakfast together.

The picture below was taken during our day trip to Idllywild with Will and Ella. While there we toured the Thousand Trails campground and decided we did not think it was wise to bring our big rigs up the windy, narrow mountain road. There was, of course, still snow up there and it was in the comfortable high 60's unlike the 90's in the valley. We also toured some of the stores in the town and had a very yummy lunch.

As you can imagine the scenery was beautiful and the flowers are just beginning to blossom.

What a wind tunnel exits here. The windmills here supply 10% of the electricity for all of California. I was fascinated watching them. There were places where as far as you could see it was rows and rows of windmills.

You can tell this was a windy day! Look at the visibility.

We spent a lot of time here just visiting with friends. Pot lucks, good conversation and great church services. There is a spectacular view of the mountains no matter which way you turn. One day the girls (Ella, Brenda, Arlow, Jann and myself went thrift shop shopping. Palm Springs gift stores are like an upgraded department store. I got 3 lovely new church outfits. While in Palm Springs we drove around some of the more famous homes and then we had a lovely lunch together.

On Thursday night we went to the Palm Springs street fair. Lots of good food, all kinds of shopping and music. Had a lovely dinner with Arlo and Vern.

While at the thousand trails park we met up with Judy and Brian Arnold. You all remember them from pickle ball in Florida. It was good to see them again. We did not play pickle ball there because Lee's elbow has not recovered from the last time he re injured it which was in Verde Valley.

We've had a great but very busy 10 days here. I think in Soledad Canyon we plan to relax a little around the pool.