Down the hill to Palm Desert

It was a bit painful leaving the pleasant temps of Idyllwild to greet the 100 degree heat of Palm Desert, I mean we do like that 80 degree isotherm, but when it comes to family we all make certain sacrifices. Luckily for us the Palm Desert Thousand Trails park (our second free 4 night stay) had plenty of 50amp sites so we just cranked up the A/C and made ourselves comfortable. This campground is a bit stark and more like a parking lot, but we weren't there for the ambiance and it was only a couple of miles from my parents home, so it was perfect. It was going to be a busy and emotional four night stay.

Mom doing what she does best, cooking up a fabulous family meal!

The first night was awesome! My brother came over for dinner with his kids, Eliot and Izak, who are almost 16 and 13 and a surprise guest, my ever-loving cousin, Cher with her cute pooch. My nephews are getting so big and busy with their own lives - they are great kids. My cousin, Cher, and I are 3 years and a day apart and we've always been close. I stayed with her in Los Angeles when I flew in for my mom's birthday a few months ago and we always have the best of times - something about us Aquarians!

Cousins!

This is a scene I remember well from my childhood -
my brother, Richard, always standing in front of the fridge with the door open!

We ran around the next day doing errands in the 100 degree heat, Bill got a shingles shot, but the insurance company wouldn't cover mine until age 60 - so I passed on that. And my mom and I geared up for our drive into Orange County to pick up my daughter who was flying in from the bay area to take care of some legal matters. The three of us had a great time that night, so wish I had a picture of us! We dined at Seasons 52, where Bill and I had eaten in Naples, FL with his cousin, Karen. Their menu is seasonally-inspired and nothing on it is over 475 calories - beautiful presentation and quite delicious! It was easy to find something to fit my plant-based, whole foods diet here.

We needed another day in Palm Desert but the Thousand Trails membership we had only allowed for a maximum four night stay. If you didn't go to another TT campground for a week you can stay a maximum of two weeks in each park. We were headed to the Sedona, Arizona area to another TT campground two days hence so even though there were probably over 300 empty sites in this campground they wouldn't even let us pay full-price to stay one more night! It actually worked out just fine as we went and spent a night at the campground where we workamped last fall and it was great fun to see our old co-workers.

Our visit was short and sweet but we will be coming back in January for my nephew, Izak's, bar mitzvah - flying from Florida, though, our first trip away from Bebe in a couple of years.