Idyllwild and the BackYard

View from the road

The tendency here is to get up early and do things before the day heats up. I slept until 7:30, Had coffee and went to the gym. World Gym is a short drive from Bob and Doug's house. It felt really good to work out after a week away from it.

Main Street, Idyllwild

After the gym we got n the car and headed for Idyllwild, CA, a small town in the San Jacinto mountains of San Bernadino County, about an hour from Palm Springs. The drive there is a study in mountain terrain. You go through harsh desert, hillsides covered in boulders, alpine meadows, and evergreen forests. Idyllwild itself is a touristy mountain town that has moved beyond picturesque toward caricature.

View of the mountains from Idyllwild

We had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant that was pretty good, but not what I had come to expect in New Mexico. We walked around the tiny town stopping is a store that sold Tibetan treasures mostly from Nepal and India. We headed back to Palm Springs down the other side of the mountain through Banning and past acres of windmill farms, outlet malls, and casinos.

We got back to the house and into the pool where we swam and soaked and talked about stuff until Sunset.

I am experiencing Palm Springs in a new way on this trip, seeing it from the perspective of living here. The summer heat is oppressive, but you compensate for it. A pool is a necessity. It becomes another room in the house during the heat of the day. The mountains frame the valley and provide backdrop everywhere. The mid-century architecture, real and faux, is charming. The demographic spread is broader than just seniors and retirees.

Doug and Bob's backyard

It is a California manifestation of the same energy that you find in Ft. Lauderdale,  Florida. Substitute desert for ocean. What makes it special for me, is the variety of landscape within two hours in any direction. It is like the Bay Area in that way.  You can be at the Ocean, the Colorado River, the mountains, or any of several cities. And they have Trader Joe's.

Tomorrow I want to take the tram up the mountain and drive around looking at mid-century homes.