Day 4 – The Living Desert
The phrase “Living Desert” really has a couple of meanings. Generically, I use it to refer to the amount of activity and life is going on here in the Palm Desert Cities (Mojave Desert). It’s tough to understand what the Israelites complained about in the desert when you see all the things that are here. It’s just like Los Angeles or Chicago suburbs, only most of the people seem to be retirees. There are almost 100 golf courses, and who knows how many hotel rooms and restaurants. About 42,000 people live in the city of Palm Springs, but about 250,000 live in the Palm Valley area. And yet anywhere you are at, you can see the desert mountains all around. There are bridges over dry river beds, full of sand. Amazingly they don’t have a water shortage. Everyone’s yard looks dark green, and there are “mist-ers” everywhere that cool you down at restaurants or other attractions. In the middle of the desert, there is life everywhere.
But specifically, today was the day we visited the Living Desert Zoo and Garden It had some of the same animals you see in a zoo in artificial environments, only here they are in more hospitable environments. The heat does bother the animals when it is above 100 degrees, so in the summer they shut the place down at 1:30 p.m. We got there bright and early about 8:45 am and spent about 3:30 exploring. It was hot and tiring, but definitely worth it. Anna and Alex got to feed a giraffe.
Adam wanted nothing to do with it. He seemed a little disturbed when he heard that they have 18” long tongues. By the way, did you know that a giraffe can grow to be 19 feet tall (this one was 15 feet) and weigh 3,000 pounds? I’ve never been so close to one before. They claimed she was very gentle.
They had a mock-up of an African village, with huts and a petting zoo. The kids all enjoyed brushing the goats there.
We saw some predators put on a show. This cat was very impressive.
They told us this creature could leap five times its height from a standing start, and the same distance horizontally.
The lady running it (with the microphone) gave very clear instructions for parents to keep their children seated at all times, because the predators would be disturbed by small children walking around. Unbelievably, there were about a half-dozen kids up and walking around, even though she kept telling the parents to control their kids. Maybe the parents were hoping to see their children learn to behave the hard way. Or they wanted an excuse to sue the zoo. We were proud that our kids weren’t among the wild ones there.
This isn’t a real lizard, but it does show you what most of the park looks like.
This was in a very neat playground area, which the kids enjoyed climbing around in.
Then we saw an animal hospital where they work on injured animals. I had been hoping to see a rattlesnake all week. Here I am sitting beside one (kind of).
It had been injured somehow and they had done surgery and were nursing it back to health. Don’t I look brave?
They had a discovery room to give kids chances to look at animal bones and feathers and stuff. That was probably the part the kids liked best, because it was air-conditioned.
After a quick trip through the gift shops, we were hungry and ready for lunch. We went to Hometown Buffet (same chain as Old Country Buffet). The verdict was five thumbs up. We all ate too much (except for Sandy), but we were famished after walking at least 3 miles through the Living Desert.
We promised the kids that if they would let us pick the lunch place, we would let them play for a little while at Chuck E. Cheese’s next door. They were happy with that option, so they went and had some more air-conditioned fun. For some reason, C.E.C. is much more fun for mom and dad when we don’t eat there.
Adam and Anna shooting hoops.
Alex riding some contraption.
We had decided this would be our shopping day, so we dropped off Sandy at a scrapbooking store while I went to get gas. $2.49 per gallon (I’ve seen it as high as $2.69 for regular unleaded) meant that I spent more than she did. However, she came close.
Next was the 99 Cents Only Store It was like the chain in Missouri called Deals, where they have one price products plus groceries (even frozen food and refrigerated). There are some different brands and flavors of stuff here that I haven’t seen at home, so I bought some different-flavored Life Savers for my candy dish at work, plus more bottles of water. Every place carries water, and it’s a good idea to buy it any chance you can get. It isn’t that running water is hard to find or bad to drink. It’s just that you’re so thirsty in the heat, you can’t always stay by a water fountain. And it’s not a good idea to wait until the next one you see. I told someone I have drank more water in the last few days, and yet spent hardly any time in the restroom. Even the kids haven’t needed to find a restroom. Our bodies just need lots of water out here, because it is so dry.
Finally, we headed to the Westfield Shopping Town, a cool mall. I like malls that are multiple stories, because it seems like much less walking. It probably isn’t, but you can get where you want more quickly. I found that 90% of this mall looked just like anything you would see in Columbia or St. Louis’s malls. But here are a few interesting twists:
The “Christian” retail store C28. It’s a Christian bookstore without the books.
Instead, it’s full of music, clothing, jewelry, bumper stickers, and some other holy merchandise. I’m confident my Bible college students would go wild in a place like this. I asked the gal working there what the store was about and she started quoting Colossians 2.8 to me. According to her, this store is for any person who loves Jesus, and it’s owned by Christians who want to provide the kind of “Witness Wear” that the on-fire Christian needs. There are apparently a chain of them throughout Southern California. I didn’t spend much time there, but it looked interesting.
How about the oriental acupuncture team?
$12 for a 15 minute massage. The lady offered me a massage, right in front of my wife. I have this rule that I won’t get massages unless it’s a $3 massage in Taiwan from a blind lady. Then I’ll make an exception.
Next there’s the West Coast version of a popular restaurant in the Midwest.
Note the close proximity to Perfume Gallery.
My final shot from the mall.
I didn’t check to see if this was a walk-up dentist place or if it’s just to serve the people who work in the mall. I think “Dentistry on the Mall” has a nice ring to it. And that tooth logo is quite impressive.
We finished the day swimming at the pool. Sandy did laundry and I jumped out to start the blog, but got to chat with Jon Ralls and Tyler some. So now I have to run up to the lounge and post this to the Internet. I’ve been crossing my legs back and forth hoping to get Internet in the room, but no luck. And then while Sandy was proofreading it, the Internet came on in my room. Isn’t technology strange?
Tomorrow – Day 5: Too many choices, not enough time
But specifically, today was the day we visited the Living Desert Zoo and Garden It had some of the same animals you see in a zoo in artificial environments, only here they are in more hospitable environments. The heat does bother the animals when it is above 100 degrees, so in the summer they shut the place down at 1:30 p.m. We got there bright and early about 8:45 am and spent about 3:30 exploring. It was hot and tiring, but definitely worth it. Anna and Alex got to feed a giraffe.
Adam wanted nothing to do with it. He seemed a little disturbed when he heard that they have 18” long tongues. By the way, did you know that a giraffe can grow to be 19 feet tall (this one was 15 feet) and weigh 3,000 pounds? I’ve never been so close to one before. They claimed she was very gentle.
They had a mock-up of an African village, with huts and a petting zoo. The kids all enjoyed brushing the goats there.
We saw some predators put on a show. This cat was very impressive.
They told us this creature could leap five times its height from a standing start, and the same distance horizontally.
The lady running it (with the microphone) gave very clear instructions for parents to keep their children seated at all times, because the predators would be disturbed by small children walking around. Unbelievably, there were about a half-dozen kids up and walking around, even though she kept telling the parents to control their kids. Maybe the parents were hoping to see their children learn to behave the hard way. Or they wanted an excuse to sue the zoo. We were proud that our kids weren’t among the wild ones there.
This isn’t a real lizard, but it does show you what most of the park looks like.
This was in a very neat playground area, which the kids enjoyed climbing around in.
Then we saw an animal hospital where they work on injured animals. I had been hoping to see a rattlesnake all week. Here I am sitting beside one (kind of).
It had been injured somehow and they had done surgery and were nursing it back to health. Don’t I look brave?
They had a discovery room to give kids chances to look at animal bones and feathers and stuff. That was probably the part the kids liked best, because it was air-conditioned.
After a quick trip through the gift shops, we were hungry and ready for lunch. We went to Hometown Buffet (same chain as Old Country Buffet). The verdict was five thumbs up. We all ate too much (except for Sandy), but we were famished after walking at least 3 miles through the Living Desert.
We promised the kids that if they would let us pick the lunch place, we would let them play for a little while at Chuck E. Cheese’s next door. They were happy with that option, so they went and had some more air-conditioned fun. For some reason, C.E.C. is much more fun for mom and dad when we don’t eat there.
Adam and Anna shooting hoops.
Alex riding some contraption.
We had decided this would be our shopping day, so we dropped off Sandy at a scrapbooking store while I went to get gas. $2.49 per gallon (I’ve seen it as high as $2.69 for regular unleaded) meant that I spent more than she did. However, she came close.
Next was the 99 Cents Only Store It was like the chain in Missouri called Deals, where they have one price products plus groceries (even frozen food and refrigerated). There are some different brands and flavors of stuff here that I haven’t seen at home, so I bought some different-flavored Life Savers for my candy dish at work, plus more bottles of water. Every place carries water, and it’s a good idea to buy it any chance you can get. It isn’t that running water is hard to find or bad to drink. It’s just that you’re so thirsty in the heat, you can’t always stay by a water fountain. And it’s not a good idea to wait until the next one you see. I told someone I have drank more water in the last few days, and yet spent hardly any time in the restroom. Even the kids haven’t needed to find a restroom. Our bodies just need lots of water out here, because it is so dry.
Finally, we headed to the Westfield Shopping Town, a cool mall. I like malls that are multiple stories, because it seems like much less walking. It probably isn’t, but you can get where you want more quickly. I found that 90% of this mall looked just like anything you would see in Columbia or St. Louis’s malls. But here are a few interesting twists:
The “Christian” retail store C28. It’s a Christian bookstore without the books.
Instead, it’s full of music, clothing, jewelry, bumper stickers, and some other holy merchandise. I’m confident my Bible college students would go wild in a place like this. I asked the gal working there what the store was about and she started quoting Colossians 2.8 to me. According to her, this store is for any person who loves Jesus, and it’s owned by Christians who want to provide the kind of “Witness Wear” that the on-fire Christian needs. There are apparently a chain of them throughout Southern California. I didn’t spend much time there, but it looked interesting.
How about the oriental acupuncture team?
$12 for a 15 minute massage. The lady offered me a massage, right in front of my wife. I have this rule that I won’t get massages unless it’s a $3 massage in Taiwan from a blind lady. Then I’ll make an exception.
Next there’s the West Coast version of a popular restaurant in the Midwest.
Note the close proximity to Perfume Gallery.
My final shot from the mall.
I didn’t check to see if this was a walk-up dentist place or if it’s just to serve the people who work in the mall. I think “Dentistry on the Mall” has a nice ring to it. And that tooth logo is quite impressive.
We finished the day swimming at the pool. Sandy did laundry and I jumped out to start the blog, but got to chat with Jon Ralls and Tyler some. So now I have to run up to the lounge and post this to the Internet. I’ve been crossing my legs back and forth hoping to get Internet in the room, but no luck. And then while Sandy was proofreading it, the Internet came on in my room. Isn’t technology strange?
Tomorrow – Day 5: Too many choices, not enough time
posted by Central Christian College of the Bible at
11:37 PM
