Day 13 - Lake Forest CA to Palm Springs CA

Today's blog is from Angela-- it's Mike's birthday so he gets the day off.  I'm flying home tomorrow from Palm Springs and Mike will be driving back all by himself (let's all keep an eye out for him). We've had a wonderful time on the trip and it's a little sad to see it end (at least for me). As Mike likes to say, he is a very good driver and he really is even with the Ghia which is a challenge.  I drove a bit on the trip as well-- the Ghia is like going to the gym (so I hear)-- it's a workout with no power steering, no power brakes, shifting that is reluctant, engine that is reluctant and so by the end of the day you know you've put some effort in. For all it's faults, the Ghia has been a blast, and our appreciation of it has grown over the past two weeks.  The fact that we made it to CA with just the starting issue has been amazing to both of us.

Today started out in Lake Forest with my dear friend Gus, who was the perfect host.  It was so nice staying in someone's home as opposed to another hotel room and Gus made us feel more than welcome.  We enjoyed the super bowl with him (and for those of you that know Gus this in itself is a small miracle-- Gus does NOT share football).  We relaxed all morning and didn't want to leave. We finally pulled ourselves away close to noon. Via a route outlined by Gus, we took a marvelous back road from Lake Forest to the highways. I have been to this part of the country about a dozen times and the weather always seems to be perfect; today was no exception.  Simply gorgeous!  Blue skies, low humidity and sun and more sun.  Remove the traffic and high taxes and we would move here. Then again, Amelia Island is pretty sweet and I'm looking forward to being home soon.

Angela and Gus

We made our way to Palm Springs to check it out.  Mike had ridden through here but didn't spend much time so we came back today to see what makes it so popular.  The views of the mountain and desert are stunning and visible from almost any location.  There is a very artsy and beautiful downtown. Mike is a big fan of an artist known as Shag and he has a gallery here so, of course, we checked that out.  We escaped without buying anything but there may be an online order sometime in the future. Here in PS it was downright hot and I didn't bring the right clothes for today's 80 degree weather.  I can't imagine July here-- I'd end up as a dry roasted peanut but you know, without the flavor-- not a pretty picture.  We're off to a light dinner.  I'll be worried about Mike but know he'll be fine-- he promised he would after all.  Thanks to everyone who's followed the blog- we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.