Palm Springs--date farm and Greek fair

Just a short distance from the campground is a lovely dog park.  We usually take Nicky over in the morning and the evening.  After all, it is his vacation too-- he should have some fun. They people we've met there are very friendly and all the dogs get along really well.  The one day there was a total of 8 standard poodles.  It was great!!!

This is Dillon, isn't  he gorgeous?

That chocolate poodle is not Nicky though it looks a lot like him.

We finally went to a date farm here. Shields date farm.  What an experience.  We had a lovely date shake for starters and then sampled all kinds of dates.  I thought a date is an date. No, there are many different kinds of dates.  All I can tell you is when they are fresh they are so good. I got what's called date crystals to put in my smoothies.  It is awesome. They also have a full restaurant there that overlooks the gardens they have at the rear of the facility. The gardens have statues throughout depicting the entire life of Christ. It was gorgeous. At the time we were there they were having an art show in the gardens.

The day after we went to the date farm we went to a local Greek festival.

Lots of good Greek food.  A tour of their beautiful church and its history. Lots of vendors with all kinds of things. Then we sat and watched the Greeks doing their dance.

Today was a work day.  I did the wash, Lee washed the RV and car.  Then I caught the blog up. I hope to go either hiking or biking tomorrow.

Back in Palm Springs

We are back in Palm Springs for 2 weeks and during that time we are doing some things we did not get around to last time.

We finally rode the tram yesterday to the top of Mt.San Jacinto. It was a beautiful day about 81 degrees in the valley and about 48-52 on the mountain top.  Nice new snow up there which is badly needed. The sights were breath-taking.

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is one of the most unique attractions on earth. It is an engineering marvel featuring the world's largest rotating tram cars on a 2 1/2 mile trip.  We move from an elevation of 2, 643 to 8,516 in a little over 10 minutes.  Once at the top there are shops, a restaurant, museum and many other things to look at and do. You are located in Mt. San Jacinto State park that has 54 miles of hiking trails. There are winter sports like cross country skiing and sledding. Lee and I did a 4 mile trails with beautiful overlooks to the valley below.

Lee is smelling a Jefferey's pine here. The bark smells like a mixture of vanilla and butterscotch.

Lee soaking in the view.

Boy, that is one big tree.

Doesn't this piece of wood look like a centipede?

 Always beautiful on the way home going past the windmills.

On the way home gazing at those mountains.

Next time I will tell you about the Greek fair we went to and the Fig farm we visited.

Stay well and happy.

Jojoba Hills resort

One of the things we did while staying here was drive to the town of Julian.  Evidently it is an escape place for the San Diego crowd.  Sits up in the mountains and is very artsy. Nice restaurants and specialty shops.
The winding road to the town was beautiful but exhausting for the driver.

On the way to Julian the first stop was the Julian pie factory where Lee had a piece of boysenberry/apple pie that was awesome.

This store was called Boots and Petticoats

Hotel built in 1807.

Very unique and interesting shops.

Where ever we go half the fun is getting there and the views we encounter on the way.

Nicky knew this fellow was near by long before we did. That's a big coyote.

Our next trip was to Borrego Springs -- we did not spend any time in the town but we did spend time in the land surrounding the fields where artist, Ricardo Breceda, has his artwork on display. Really cool stuff!!!!

This was certainly unlike anything we have seen before.
A lot of the time at this park was spent visiting with the residents there.  We attended their Valentine's dinner which was very nice.

Now it is back to Palm Springs. We have continued to have weather that is gorgeous--- sunshine every day and temps running between 74-84 .  It's been a great place to winter this year. 

More in another week. 

Take care of one another and stay warm.

Jojoba Hills SKP park Feb. 11-18, 2014

What a phenomenal experience this was. We had just joined Escapees and found out that they had a park about an hour from  Wilderness Lakes and we decided to go there for our week out.  What a pleasant surprise that turned out to be.  It was by far the best campground we have ever been in.
Let me start by listing for you the amenities in the park: a complete woodworking shop with vacuum system, a complete mechanics shop, a pottery barn with kiln, a quilting room complete with any equipment you may need, a craft room, a painting room, a sewing room, a billiards room, mini golf, pickle ball and tennis courts, shuffle board, horse shoes, a state of the art kitchen, huge community building, all kinds of activities, a sauna, 2 hot tubs and a lap pool and an exercise room.


This facility was built and is maintained. by volunteers.  It was built 25 years ago.  There are 283 sites and it is now a co-op.
To buy into a site is $30,000 and a $263/mt. maintenance fee.The amazing part is that when you are done with using this site and you want out, the park buys the lot back from you for the amount you paid. There are waiting lists to get these sites.

The park it immaculate and the best maintained I have ever seen. Each lot is about 3 times the size of what all of us are used to and the landscaping around the park is awesome. Each lot has a shed and the laundry rooms are all over with lines behind the building for those who would like to hang clothes out.  Should you choose to use their restrooms for showers it's like hotel room showers.

There are 6 ponds on the property and water falls throughout the park plus 2 off lead dog parks.
It is worth googling and if you are in the area stop by you will be amazed.

This is the entrance to the park.

One of the ponds on the property.

Sit in one of these rockers at night and watch the sunset.

This was our campsite for the first 5 days.  Just lovely with a shade tree and portico and so much space.  Everything you see in this picture is part of this lot.

Nicky loved the amenities.

This is the campsite we were in the last 2 days.

This is the entrance into pool and community rooms and multi purpose room.

Quite a view from the pool and hot tubs.

Just think of waking up to that view everyday.

 Now that is a library!!

 

   Here is the campground nestled in the mountains.
 

The heather was just coming into bloom.

I will do another post telling you some of the things we did during that week for now I just wanted to show you this fantastic park.  If you get out this way you must make visiting a priority. This park is located about 17 miles east of Temecula, CA