David's Birthday Weekend

Today is David's 63rd birthday and we've been celebrating. I took a vacation day on Thursday so we could head to the desert for a golf getaway, since that's what David really loves to do. It was so gorgeous there, and we discovered a biking/walking trail and a resort to explore near where we stayed in La Quinta. Let me show you a few pictures...

 We left home at 7:00 in the morning on Thursday and went straight to the course for a 10:00 start time and I rode along in the cart. It was interesting to see that most of the course was brown and dormant, but they kept the fairways and greens in beautiful green condition. The course wound all through various neighborhoods and we went across busy streets (push the walk button from your cart), through a tunnel under the main road and down residential streets to get to all the holes.

David had a good time! 

We hooked up with a group of three other golfers, all from Canada. The couple was from Saskatoon. We noticed that the Palm Springs area is really packed with Canadian "snow birds" this time of year.

Here's my golfer...

The next day David went by himself to another course and golfed with a couple from Manitoba, but it started to rain, so they stopped after 9 holes. While he was gone I had fun making some recipes for the booklets I'm working on for No More Crohns .com. Above is a great dip to eat with the cold asparagus and below is a lovely salad of asparagus, radishes, tarragon, lemon zest and almonds that Heidi told me about that she says has addictive qualities! Yes, it's good!

The following morning I made a delicious egg dish and served it up with a Middle Eastern country salad.

 We walked down a little ways from where we were staying, toward the mountains, to see what was down there, and we found this wonderful trail! We walked on it three different days.

Behind us you can see the big wash at the base of the mountain, which I'm sure fills up sometimes! We met people who were walking or running who had been given little maps of the trail from a resort nearby, so we set out to find the resort. Wow! It was a treat to drive in, up this driveway, and then to walk around and buy a coffee. It's a Waldorf Astoria owned property where Frank Capra wrote all his big movie scripts, such as "It's a Wonderful Life," back in the 30's or 40's.

More cooking...

David read me some sections out of the book he's really really enjoying right now by Larry Crabb. It's called "66 Love Letters From God," and is full of honest thoughts and insights from each book of the Bible. The book has been a blessing to both of us, in various ways.

Coming home, the mountains around Palm Springs were topped with snow and the sight was beautiful. I tried to capture it, but you can use your imagination to fill in more mountains in all directions.

Leaving the desert you pass between more mountains. The wind often really blows through this area and that's why they have strategically placed these wind mills that generate electricity.

I wanted to stop at the Crate & Barrel outlet in Cabezon to look around but first we were hungry so we stopped at the nearby Rubi's (you can see Hadley's sign in the background). This Rubi's is decorated in a great new style! It has wood on the walls and all the trim and upholstery are copies from the style of an old trailer! It was just darling and so well done in every detail. I can't wait until they bring that style to our Whittier store... I never like the stark white walls in there - it just feels cold. After our late lunch we drove all through all the outlets trying to find Crate & Barrel but that store is now closed, so we headed on home. That's okay... I didn't need anything anyway, I'm just a sucker for little dishes and plates!

On the way home we drove through some other lovely hills and valleys and all the clouds were dramatic, especially when the sun was shinning down through them, with rays going out like a huge skirt!

At home we discovered that the tree trimmers had come while we were gone and had trimmed out the oak tree, so we're good for another 2 or 3 years now. We're hoping that our allergies will be helped by getting rid of a lot of the pollen producing new growth for this season! David is having one more birthday treat tonight... he is able to go to the Regal theatre free on his birthday so he headed out to see a guy movie that would be too scary for me, and will be home late.

And that's about it from us! Have a good week.