Joshua Tree National Park, December 2009

This is the Key View point in Joshua Tree, overlooking Palm Springs, about 50 miles away and the Cochella Valley. It is a little hazy view there.

Christmas Celebrations 2009

These are some of my favorite photos from all the fun. We had such a good time, wish we lived closer so we could do this more often and without so much effort on all our parts! I love you guys.

Aloft in Tempe ~ Neat place

Signage along the Tempe Town Lake walking/biking trail.

Ed on the trail around Tempe Town Lake, AZ



View of a pretty sunset from our 4th floor room.

View of the In N Out Burger too! Yummy smells!

On our way to Christmas in Tempe 2009

We stopped for lunch on our drive at Pea Soup Andersen's where we enjoyed their Dutch art decorations and, of course, the famous on Food TV, their Pea Soup! It is really good.

This is our first glimpse of the beautiful snow covered mountains in the distance, as we drive through the Los Angeles basin along I-10, southern California.

I think the car knows the way to Tempe!

Harris Ranch, Coalinga, CA Dec 2009

Happy Anniversary Ed, its 38 years today!

We went for dinner here at the Cork Tree in Palm Desert, CA. We had a really nice waiter and the food was great. I had the roasted chicken breast, Ed had the Chef's 36 hour pork shank. We shared a bottle of Sonoma Patz and Hall chardonnay. The featured California wines exclusively, which we really enjoyed.




This is the Westin Mission Hills, in Rancho Mirage, CA. Confused yet about these towns? We are! Palm Springs seems to be the oldest one, and as it spread out they call it different things, like Palm Desert, and Rancho Mirage. It is beauiful here, for sure. Temps have been in the high 50's or low 60's most of the time.
We are learning to use our camera timer! It worked!



We snagged a bellman to get this shot. This place is quite large, with golf course out the back door. It is pretty breathtaking though.



This shot is on our patio, using our timer again. We have a "lagoon" view. Since we used points to pay, guess we didn't get the AAA view, but this is lovely, no compaints here.



The ducks from the lagoon joined us right afer this shot and nearly got into our room before we saw them. They are little beggars! They actually flew out of our patio through the open roof, because a dog approached from a neighboring person walking her dog.
Westin's are dog friendly.
We had dog biscuits from the Aloft but forgot to give them to Buddy and Lilly. 8-|

Sunday in No. California

This is a cute Mexican restaurant in Napa. We were lucky to stop when we did. Although it has been pretty warm, it is now raining as we eat our lunch here.



The didn't really pay us to drink their top shelf margaritas..but it was a good thought.



I don't think you can see the cow over those tables, but it was cute. iPhones are not the best cameras.
Rain stopped after our lunch. We can stop at Target then head home. We are only about 10 or 15 miles from home, we are taking it pretty easy. At Target we will buy a lamp or two for Ed's condo. These newly constructed homes have no overhead lighting in the bedroom or living room, need lamps. (He has lived here since last March/April without any though.)

Sunday Holiday Show at the Kennedy Center

The last of the fun Holiday things I had arranged to do with Ed occurred on Sunday evening. Ed didn't get to come home for it though.
The National Symphony Orchestra was doing a Holiday Pops Concert. I had heard this orchestra before and the conductor has a wonderful personality.
I bought tickets online, and since it was just the two of us, I splurged for great seats. Online you can view all available seats and select the one you want. So, I went for a box seat, thinking it would be very comfortable and a bit more generous seat. I saw two together on a front and center box, so I picked that one. It was Box 2.
Guess who was Box 1?

It was the Presidential Box! I sat elbow to elbow with some White House Staffers! They had the "Presidential Fridge" in the little ante room for their box, but my little ante room was bare. Other than that, the view was the same. They mostly looked like young staff people, except for one older couple. It was fun to talk to them.

The show was wonderful, very fun. There were young people performing with the orchestra, one flute player, age 9 I think. Dancers that were age 10 and 14 - amazing talents. Santa came and there were children on his lap and talking...it was really a good show.

I had dinner at the "KC Cafe" - Kennedy Center Cafe. It is nice but way overpriced, naturally. I had a glass of wine since I was doing Metro and didn't have to drive...dinner for one = $37.00 Oh well, it is the Holidays! And, it was fun. I really missed you Ed.
And you missed a good show.