Finally, the Rest of the SW Trip

I know I'm slow but I do get 'round to it eventually!
The last two weeks of our trip were internet connection-less so I have quite a bit of territory to cover. I'll let photos do most of the talking. . . . you're welcome.


This is a date ranch in Yuma, AZ. We were both expecting dry dusty spaghetti western-type area but, instead, found an agricultural area covered with these ranches and citrus orchards. I wouldn't mind a few date ranches around here as long as they grow 'em tall, dark and handsome with lots of money!

Our RV park in Yuma. Quite nice, actually. Who knew?

Lots of various crops throughout. They are irrigated by the canals running from the Colorado River.

We traveled along I-8 through huge sand dune and on in to the San Diego area of Southern California. We spent a few nights in Oceanside, on, well, the ocean. Lovely but quite a lot a people compacted. A bit of a culture shock from the wide open spaces of Arizona.

We spent a bit of time in traffic on I-5 but we got to watch a beautiful sunset so it wasn't too bad.

This is a field of drying hardshell gourds at the Welburn Gourd Farm in Fallbrook, CA, where Mom took a class. The class was held under huge shade trees. It was quite lovely.


Her creation.

We drove to Twentynine Palms just north of the Joshua Tree National Park to visit Mom's Aunt Gladys and family. It was a wonderful visit.


Mom presents one of her decorated gourds to Gladys.

This is one of the Joshue Tree cacti for which the park is named. They are majestic especially in large numbers.

We returned to La Jolla area so Mom could attend a weaving workshop at the Jasmin Gallery. Beautiful area and she created a beautiful work of art.


I was lucky enough to get in a visit with some long missed friends - the Larky's. Here are Alexis, Noah, & Josh. We spent the day together, the highlight of which was cleaning out and restocking the refrigerator so the remodeling guys could move it out of the way. Never a dull moment with the Larky's!! But really folks, we had a lovely lunch and walk in Del Mar and I'm so glad I got to spend some time with them. Sadly, Steven was working and I didn't get to see him this time around.

We drove home via I-10 because we wanted to see Quartzite, AZ. Look it up if you're interested. We weren't enchanted seeing how their were THOUSANDS of people there and I still don't know why. We came through Phoenix and Mesa then on home through El Paso (that is one big city!) and back to San Marcos. Aaaah.

Don't you love how it takes me literally months to get my last post on after each get-a-way? We have big plans coming up beginning in May. Stay tuned.