Borrego Springs

 It seems like Borrego Springs, Christmas and New Years was a long time ago!   We're home now, we arrived here on January 2, and we've both finally recovered from the holiday crud.    I slept for two days, Dave sneezed and coughed and blew his nose.       The left-over Christmas decorations are down, both in Beluga and in the house.  (full disclosure - they're actually all in the garage,...I'll put them away next week).  

   Except for this beauty.    It finally bloomed just as we got home, and it's been going ever since!

Taos had his inevitable surgery this week.    He's handling it as he handles everything else.   He's calm and accepting of the "appliances" he needs to wear so as to not lick his incision.    He wonders why we think he would do such a thing if we've told him not to, but his is not to question.    You want me to wear this t-shirt or this inflatable collar?    Alrighty then.     What a guy he is.

zzzzz

zzzzz

So, when I last wrote, we were on our way to Borrego Springs, California for a week.      We arrived just as they turned the power back on, but we were on notice that there may be more Public Safety interruptions if high winds started up again.  Evidently the power company tries to turn power off to areas that may be in fire danger to try and mitigate some risk.        After what has been happening in LA, I can really understand this strategy.   

The Springs at Borrego Resort was very empty at that time of year, as we expected.   So nice and quiet. 

  The only problem was that there was no cable tv available and no over the air reception (nearest towers are 100 miles away), so I had to become proficient in streaming and casting and whatever.     I don't like it, not one bit, but I figured out enough to keep us busy after dinner.     During the day we sat in the sun and read, explored the area and ate dinners out.    At the very beginning of this holiday rambling trip Pam said she wasn't bringing food, we were going to eat out every night.     I thought that sounded like a fantastic idea, a fantastic way to end the year, so we followed her lead for the rest of our trip!     I made our traditional Christmas Eve/day meal but that's all!    Fun!  

We even saw Santa!     We revisited some of our favorite spots, off road, and showed Taos the huge metal sculptures scattered throughout the area.   He wasn't impressed.     What's the big deal sitting under a huge scorpion, or in front of one, or under a mega grasshopper?    Ah well, they ask, I do.

ho hum

We took lunches and wandered the desert.     It's what we love to do.

  

always a delight to come across water in the desert

lunch on a rock

We went over the mountain to Julian, CA. a couple of times to fill our freezer with Julian Pies.    We stopped at Dudley's in Santa Ysabel (twice!) for other goodies and ate linner at a sweet little spot called Jeremys on the Hill.   Taos loved it there too!

I think Santa was following us.....

We followed a flock of Snow Geese to Lake Henshaw but couldn't get close enough for a picture.    Entry to the lake appeared to be closed and we had a cooler full of pie, so we decided not to work too hard to get to the shore.     It's so nice to be able to just wander, turn here, turn there, stop here, lets move on.....no schedule.

Next stop - Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs for a week - or two!

Here's Annie!

everyone loves puddles, right?

 

  

Holiday wanderings

 We started to get ready for the holidays at home.    I ordered a live Christmas tree and Dave put up his favorite Christmas decorations.....I did a little cooking (but no cookies....) attended a car show where Tam was the star, and received a text from Pam that led to some fun holiday wanderings.   

French Pizza (JoAnn's recipe)

Pam and John were heading to Lake Havasu State Park for a quick, two day vacation to see the lights, did we want to join them?    DUH......of course we did!

site 2, seen from the water's edge

I quickly got online and was able to snag a waterfront site for three nights instead of two!     Yay.     Thus began our holiday wanderings.

Three days of visiting with dear friends, eating out each night, exploring the desert and walking amongst the Christmas lights.    It turned out to be a perfect time to visit, most people were home, getting ready for the big day.    We almost had the place to ourselves.

London Bridge by day

Dinners beside the London Bridge.   At night it was lit up beautifully!

We took a few desert drives, one looking for the infamous Desert Bar.....an off grid, middle of the desert bar with live music, dancing, and.....    We discovered it was only open on weekends, but we enjoyed the journey, nonetheless.

Another time we drove along the Bill Williams River, looking for what we could see.    The road ended rather unceremoniously, and we headed back the way we came.

We drove across the Parker Dam (after taking a few photos), discovered a whole family of wild Burros, complete with cute little foals and a memory rock wall where people had left small tokens and painted stones in clefts of the rock.

ahem.....

Someone wanted an unobstructed picture of the whole dam and found a "way" to do that.       Dave and John turned their backs so as not to be complicit in the guard rail breach.

 

love those fuzzy ears!

On our last evening, after dinner, we walked along under the beautiful Christmas light displays, along the river.    It was magical and a perfect start to our holiday.    There was even one spot where a machine was shooting out "snow" for kids and they were having a snowball fight!

Thanks, Pam, for a wonderful idea and for including us in it!   

We had such a good time, and this was just the beginning.     The next morning, we turned Beluga toward one of our favorite places - Borrego Springs - to continue our fun and impromptu holiday celebration.

I'll end this post right here.   Dave is a little under the weather today and I'm going to join him for a nap.    Stay tuned for the rest of our holiday.

Here's Annie!

Catch up

 

The weather has been beautiful this fall, with Christmas fast approaching one couldn't ask for bluer skies, more perfect temperatures.   I feel for all our friends back east, they're dealing with wind and lots of snow and the attendant grey skies.    That kind of weather is what made Dave crabby at this time of year.     He's a happy camper now that he doesn't have to deal with it anymore.      He's loving the fireplace on these coolish mornings and evenings, and loving being able to wear a t shirt and no socks in the afternoons.

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Steve and MonaLiza this year - Honey Baked Ham!     Before dinner we sat outside and enjoyed happy hour until the sun went down and it got chilly.

Steve made sure Taos had plenty of his favorite ice cubes....

We're continuing with Taos training and exposures as he nears his first-year birthday at the end of December.    It's hard to believe that sweet little chubby puppy is almost a year old.

He was a good boy at our annual doctor's appointment.    She is a big dog lover, so we spent more time than normal in her office.     He found it difficult to pay attention after 45 minutes or so, and finally just rolled over onto his back and went to sleep.   He was the hit of the office!

practicing "leave it"

he helps vacuum and even allows us to vacuum him!

practicing "stay" while Dave works

he's a grocery shopping pro

safety inspector - hard hat passes muster

no barking at the other dog.....

Taos had a welcome and exciting surprise a few weeks ago!   Jerry send a big box of Benebones for us to share with our Guide Dog group and Taos got first choice!  He made several selections and proceeded to race around the house with each of them.   FUN!

Dave has been helping Steve reroute Tam's garage door opener.   A-1 Garage Specialists came, looked at the job and said it couldn't be done.    Don't say that to Dave!

the team

All done, the opener works like a dream, Steve is happy.   They do love to figure out "interesting" projects together.

We're getting ready for Christmas, as you all are.    The Palm Springs Christmas tree came out of storage and Dave put up Flat Stanley.   

This year we decided to forgo putting up the fresh cut tree, donating it to someone who needs it, and do something a little different.   Stay tuned.

Happy Holidays from our big sweetie

And.....here's Annie!