Palm Desert, California Travels...

We've been home over a week now - I think it's actually taken me that long to recover! Trips to see family are always exhausting, everyone knows this, and I will never call them "vacations". Actually, our life right now, is the closest thing I'd call to a vacation for us! Of course I can say this as it's the end of January and I have only received tax info from one client, so far.

My brother's youngest son was being Bar Mitzvahed in Palm Desert, CA and it was a command performance for me. We had decided earlier in the year to not stay on the west coast and make the trek across country in late January (like we had done the prior year), it was too cold and we were really anxious to get back to Cedar Key. So this meant we would be flying back to California for the event. We were going for a week, though, so it wasn't going to be that difficult.

A perfect martini at Trio after a
grueling 3 hour mammogram!

As most of you know, I am a bit of a "planner" and I was going to put our time in the desert to good use, meaning, doctor appointments, lab work and of course hair and nail appointments as well. All of this really reduced the time we had to spend with family, but I wasn't able to get my doctor appointments taken care of when we were in South Lake Tahoe in October, so I had to do it now. Getting one's medical and dental care taken care of while on the road is a common topic among full-time rvers. We've been quite creative with some of it - our last dental appointments were with Bill's friend, whom we've recently connected with, (from the 80's in the Philippine's) in Hamlin, Texas - and I think the time before that was when we crossed the border in Yuma, AZ and had our teeth cleaned in Mexico! But there are some things that you shouldn't compromise on and one of those for me is a good radiologist to read your mammogram. I happen to have a fabulous one in Palm Desert, where my parents live, and lately I have had to go every 3-4 months so this was a perfect opportunity. (They're just watching some particular spots closely, nothing more than that.) I also went for my annual women's check-up with a new doctor down there - I figured we go to visit my parents at least once or twice a year and in a retirement community, like they live in, the doctors are really superb, so I'm going to try and set everything up there.

A stop was in order to visit our favorite tequila
Clase Azul

Along with my personal agenda we were really there for a celebration! And celebrate we did - my nephew Izak is the cutest kid with a huge personality. He's smart, confident, athletic and has style - what can I say, I'm a little biased. He did an awesome job and my brother and his wife know how to throw a party. He even made sure we had plenty to eat, plant-based.

My brother and sister-in-law with their friend, Eric the chef (center).

The best thing we did on this trip was, after five days with my parents, all the running around and celebrating, we booked a couples massage at our favorite little hideaway in Desert Hot Springs where we could unwind and relax. From there we drove into Ontario, CA where I had a tax class the following day before we flew back "home".  Needless to say we were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to Tampa and the 2+ hour drive to Cedar Key. We were both anxious for our own bed and specifically, our own pillows!