Monday, February 23, 2009

VISIT TO PALM SPRINGS

Last Thursday we traveled to Palm Springs (Palm Desert to be precise), to see a very dear friend of ours who lives in a retirement home there. Her husband was the long-time pastor of the Palm Springs Presbyterian Church. After he retired, he came to our church in Carlsbad where he was Pastor to Senior Citizens for about ten years. Jim passed away a good number of years ago now and we try to visit Jean when ever possible. Palm Springs is a good 2 and 1/2 hours journey from us. To get there and back and spend some time visiting makes for a long day.


This was our first view of the desert landscape, somewhere just beyond Hemet. Sorry, had to take this photo from the car window. The desert on this side of the mountains looks like the Badlands but in actual fact there is a wide stretch of farm land between our foothills and the San Jacinto range. Palm Springs sits on the desert floor behind this mountain range.


This was our first view of San Gorgonio and the mountains that are set behind Palm Springs. .Yes, they had plenty of snow there -- at 14,000 feet, I believe it is.

We could have taken Hwy 79, which would have taken us up and over the mountains and down the other side to Palm Desert, but that is a long and windy road, 'tho very pretty. We didn't have time to do that today, and we didn't know how much snow was still on the road up there. Instead we went a little further north and cut through the pass at Banning. That route took us around these mountains. We arrived just in time for lunch.



Jean was looking well for 95 years old. Here she is listening intently to what Barry was saying as he sat just to her right. She has some short term memory problems but still knows us and remembers all her friends at the church in Carlsbad. We were able to stay for about 3 hours and it was good to see her so well cared for.


This was a plant in the beautiful grounds in which the retirement home is situated. I was fascinated by its perfectly symmetrical shape, so I snapped this photo.

We arrived safely home about 6:30 p.m. for which we were exceedingly thankful. We had just one scare when someone almost rear-ended us with a great screech of brakes! But we always pray for safety when we take these kinds of trips that involve long hours and much traffic.

Thanks to the Lord from us, and blessings on Jean.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad you made the trip and made the lady happy. It must be nice to see Palm Springs. I was there in 1952 and got a cup of coffee in a drugstore right smack dab across from a mountain. I was astonished that the coffee cost 50 cents when I was only paying 5 and 10 cents back home in Ohio. Welcome to Palm Springs and places like Hotel Desert Air Parkway. More than a golf course. A place for pretty school teachers from Massachusetts to come and make more money in tips than they did teaching all year back home.

Those were the days of rum and coconuts and wild jaunts through the open air post office looking for a general delivery letter from my day with enough money to get me a bus ticket back home.

LOL

Brookville Ohio

Greg C said...

She looks like a sweet woman and you are wonderful for continuing to visit her.

Anonymous said...

Such varied scenery for your trip - a bit of everything really. Sounds like a nice day.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Thanks for taking us along. I really wanted to visit Palm Springs but didn't get the time. The plant picture is very cool (Agave or Yucca, maybe)

Jose said...

Thanks to our little escapade last October mi chica and I got to see some of that area. As you may remember we went to Palm Springs for our anniversary and we also took a drive up to Idylwild.

I have a plant like the one you pictured in my front yard, except mine is against the wall and it's constantly being trimmed down so it does not look as pretty as the one in your picture.

Sounds like you had an awesome turn around trip.

Wanda said...

What a great trip...and photo's and what a treat for Jean to have you and Barry visit...

She looks wonderful for 95!!

Shammickite said...

I've never visited palm Springs and I probably never will, so it's nice to see what it looks like. Love the snow on the mountains.