With only a few weeks of our journey
left in California, we really focused on experiencing the few
remaining adventures on our to-do list. The bulk of those remaining
weeks were spent in Menifee, the water-fowl wonderland. The open
field next to the RV park was bustling with life of all kinds:
wildflowers every color of the rainbow, insects galore, lizards
scurrying among all the wood piles, bunny rabbits grazing in the
sunshine, and that one beautiful white egret. As I mentioned before,
on our last trip to Menifee, this egret happened to be very skittish
and wouldn't allow this little 'ol photographer to get very close. I
thought about bringing some lizard snacks with me to bribe him, but
that wasn't necessary this trip! One afternoon, John and I spotted
him in the field, surprisingly close to the edge of the RV park. So,
using all our sneaky hunting skills, we crept through a ditch to a
position where I knew I could get some great shots—if he stayed
put, that is. Well, when I popped up over that ditch bank with my big
telephoto lens, that beautiful egret stayed put and let me take all
kinds of photos of him! He even caught another lizard while I was watching, a score for both of us!
In addition to wildlife viewing and
sunny afternoon walks in the field, we went to explore a nearby
reservoir, Diamond Valley Lake. This reservoir was completed in 2003
and holds 800,000 acre feet of water for the peak summer, drought,
and emergency needs of those living in southern California. It was an
impressive sight, with its earthen dams being the 7th
largest in the world. Many locals use the area for recreational
boating and fishing; however, swimming is prohibited because the lake
is to be used for human consumption. It was fascinating learning
about the reservoir's construction and purpose, but viewing it with
all the spring wildflowers in bloom was most interesting to me!
The most unique adventure that we have
been on recently was our day trip into the big city of Los Angles. We
woke up very early, drove north to the Riverside area, and hopped on
a Metrolink train that took us to the heart of downtown LA.
From there, we took subways and buses
all over town, with major destinations being Hollywood and Santa
Monica. The city was large, bustling, and to be completely honest,
nothing what I expected. To me, it seemed just like every other city,
but huge. I even remember saying to John when we were walking around
downtown, “This looks just like every other large city's downtown
we've been to.” Skyscrapers, multilevel shopping malls, and
Starbucks. Because we chose to take public transportation, we had
lots of time to people watch. As I'm sure you can imagine, there were
people from all walks of life. Tourists, like us, walking around with
big eyes, homeless weaving through crowds asking for spare change,
business men and women wearing designer suits, daily commuters who
seemed desensitized to the chaos of public transport, and average
middle class families. We experienced a pretty solid cross-section of
American culture.
Our main reason for venturing into the
city was to watch my step-grandpa, Sam, run the LA marathon. The race
started at Dodger Stadium and went through Hollywood, 26.2 miles to
the Santa Monica pier. The pier was the most beautiful scene we saw
all day, in my opinion, and I'm sure the 25,000 marathoners were just
as pleased to finally see the view as I was. The cool ocean breeze
blew a soft mist over the coast, graciously welcomed by the runners
and their families. It was an incredibly inspiring event, watching
the thousands of people, young and old, so determined to complete the
grueling feat. Additionally, it was wonderful to see all the
spectators standing course-side cheering on their friends and family
as well as the sea of strangers moving past them.
We met up with Sam at the conclusion of
the race, and had a fantastic time catching up and chatting about the
day. Then we retraced our steps through public transport, watched the
sun set on the Metrolink just as we had watched it rise only hours
earlier, and made our way back to our home-on-wheels.
As our days in southern California
started to dwindle, we chose to give Joshua Tree NP one last
“hurrah!” Only this time, we took our camper with us to one of
the campgrounds in the park. Because our home base was so close, we
had the opportunity to get off the main roads and away from the busy
tourist attractions and hike a few of the park's trails. On a few of
our longer hikes, I decided to ditch my heavy digital camera and go
ultra-light with my plastic film camera. Unfortunately, we will all
have to wait to see those images until I get a chance to have the
film developed and scanned. I like to think of them as future gifts
to myself. By the time I get them all processed, I will have
forgotten all the photos I took, and it will be a surprise looking at
each negative! I did, however, have a chance to make some digital images on a
few of the shorter hikes we did, and I'm more than happy to share
them with you.
Over the last few months, California
has shown and taught us a lot. We've learned the value of defensive
driving on crowded interstates, seen an incredible array of exotic
and native animals, experienced warm, sunny afternoons and spring
blooms before much of the rest of the country, and have enjoyed its
varied landscapes, from the urban metropolis to pristine wilderness.
We have a lot to be thankful for!
So on our final morning in Joshua Tree
National Park, we packed up our belongings, put California in our
rear view mirror, and headed east towards the promise of new adventures—Arizona
bound!
