cali vacation, part II

[swingchickie]

Day 3

again, up at the crack. breakfast at the 101 again, then we packed up and headed out into the desert to palm springs. the first hour or so was uneventful... but as we got farther into the desert, it was CRAZY how the climate changed! besides being blazing hot and dry, there were these desert winds whipping us around, rocking the car and blowing baby-powder-fine sand up all around us. i guess that's the reason for the hundreds and hundreds of windmills that suddenly appeared before us... according to jack, these windmills supply a lot of california's power. it was really freaky to see these beautiful, ginat things turning in the wind for miles and miles in the middle of nowhere... it looked like something alien, and kind of reminded me of the giant hammers in the movie "the wall".



palm springs turned out to be soooooo awesome. the place is basically one giant Shag painting, with all of the mid-century modern architecture and funky retro hotel signs... and it's not so much a city as a big town in the middle of nowhere. we absolutely loved it. our hotel, while cheapo, was PERFECT -- a tiki-themed joint with a giant pool, tikis everywhere, torches by the hot tub, and a big lawn with cabanas and a grill.

lobby!



entrance to the property



the hot tub at night



our arrival in palm springs was on the perfect day -- turns out thursdays are their weekly "VillageFest", a sort of arts fair in town where vendors sell handmade jewelry and artwork and you can wander around and listen to live music... we had dinner outside on the balcony of a restaurant, and got to see a performance of native american dance that was really wild.

hard to see in this photo... but all the shops and restaurants have these misters, that spray a fine mist of cold water into the air to cool everyone off as they walk past.



Day Four

beautiful view of the mountains from our balcony:



a nice morning soak in the hot tub...



and then out even farther into the desert, to SEE OUR MEERKATS!!!!

even though we had already done so many amazing fun things, this was the part of the trip i was most excited about. this was the whole reason for coming to california, to spend time alone at a meerkat preserve after jack "adopted" one for me for valentine's day. we were so excited, we got into town 3 hours early. hee! we had lunch at a local harley-themed diner, then sodas at a little smoothie joint, and then finally we drove down the bumpy dirt road towards the Fellow Earthlings Wildlife Center.

the dirt road leading to the center:



entrance (you have to wait at the gate for them to open it for you... all visits to the center are by appointment only, and you get the run of the palce for 2 hours):



lucky for us, our guide for the afternoon was the owner of the center, Pam Bennett-Wallberg. she spends a lot of her time traveling, consulting with zoos across the country... she's also one of the cambridge center researchers who studies the meerkats on "meerkat manor", so she's in africa for at least 2 months every year. she was such a peach, she showed as around the property and then let us spend time with each of the 3 groups of meerkats, feeding them and letting them climb all over us. she had some amazing stories about her work, and really took a genuine interest in me and jack. i just loved her to pieces.

meerkats!







the one on the left in the photo below kept standing behind pam and looking up at her. i'm not sure why, but it was funny as hell. (this is an awful photo of her, she's a gorgeous woman.)



someone donated several cat beds that are shaped like easy chairs... the meerkats LOVE them.







the one on the right in the photo below, Remi, was a riot... after lunch, the combination of sunbeam, snuggly cat bed, and belly full of worms made her very, very sleepy... she kept dozing off while sitting upright in the chair, like a little old man at the theater. her head would sloooowly tilt back, and then she'd startle awake... then she'd start to doze again, her chin tilting toards her chest, and start awake again. i laughed until i had tears pouring down my cheeks.



it truly was an experience of a lifetime. not only did we have a great time with these adorable little creatures (pam kept calling us "the meerkat whisperers", because they're very skittish and tend to run from other people, but were very comfortable with us), but we got EXTRA time with them (our time was 2 hours, but when we left we realized pam had given us an extra hour). it's something i will never, ever forget.

Comments

[dhpdesign.livejournal.com]

WORD on whispering to dozing meerkats!

WORD, as well, on the windmills! If you saw road signs for Indio, you probably took the same route out from LA that I took for Coachella. The first time I saw them I damn near drove off the road, wondrous as they are to stare at.

I can't believe you got to play with meerkats...

[occhi-cinesi.livejournal.com]

They are so cute! I thought your adoption meant you'd get to see yours through a thick glass window and point. This is so much more cool!

What a great vacation!