Desert time

So, in the past, I have blogged daily from vacations, or even started a whole separate blog just dedicated to a particular vacation. For this winter holiday getaway to Sunny California, not so much, eh?

I recently came across this article, and while it's not top shelf, it did resonate with me:

Click the image to read the article - and be sure to click through to his GeoCities site!

Since I have abandoned Facebook and I guess still have the urge to post about my life online, another outlet would be welcome. I have been on the Twitters a bunch, and have ruminated on that recently, but when it comes down to it, I agree with the main thrust of this fellow's argument: that the heyday of social media was that time when there was a vibrant ecosystem of personal blogs, each unique, each demonstrating style and personality and positioning in ways far beyond simply choosing your own header on your Facebook page or your own handle on Twitter.

Okay.

So here's some vacation tidbits on day five of our eleven-day excursion to Pam Springs, Hollywood's Waiting Room for Heaven.*

This is less an adventure and more of a relaxication, and we found a tiny nine-unit "resort" that fits the bill perfectly.

We did make a trip out to Coachella Valley Nature Reserve to experience the Thousand Palms Oasis - right on the San Andreas fault line in the middle of the desert. Pretty amazing to walk through what was essentially a palm forest with pools of water.

Despite intervening years of increasingly intrusive human habitation, the sense of what the oasis must have felt like way back when was still palpable.

But it hasn't all been spiritual-connection-to-nature stuff, of course. We have gone to a big band show, checked out the art museum, have tickets for a Brian Setzer concert tonight and a drag show brunch on Sunday, and went to the Wild Lights at the zoo and the downtown street fair last night.

Wild Lights is the name for the zoo's holiday lights extravaganza, which would have been way cooler if we hadn't been thinking all the time about how annoyed the animals must be with all the distracting lights and music while they were trying to sleep, and if the crowds had been a tiny bit more respectful of them. (Zoos are problematical.) Anyway, the lights were fun.

The downtown street fair was an elaborate affair, with several blocks closed off for food vendors, entertainment, activity stations, craft booths, public agencies, and suchlike. There was even some merchandise that we actually wanted to buy, and Coco did get a t-shirt.

We stated off the visit with art, though - our first stop was a create-your-own-acrylic-painting booth run by a sweet young woman who wrangled the (mostly) kids through the process with aplomb.

Coco in her element:

She always brings it:

As for me, well, I didn't go too far out of my comfort zone with this study of Arthur Curry:

More to come, I promise. We're restoring the ecosystem.

*Because old and ailing stars came here to die.