"East/west. Well, we are traveling west," answered Taite.
"How do you know?"
"Because even numbered interstates are east/west. Ten is even. When we were on Interstate 35 we were going south, or north/south. Thirty-five is odd," clarified Taite. Impressive. I didn't know that until I was in college. (However I'm sure my dad tried to teach me that a hundred times as I got lost and called him in a panic for directions.)
Taite navigated us toward Palm Springs. My job was to arrange a place to park for the night. I Googled Palm Springs RV parks. I found a few with high ratings and made some calls. The first five parks I called had space available but wouldn't let us enter the park. We weren't old enough. In fact, of the ten parks listed on this RV park review website, only three allowed children in their park...only two of those allowed people under 55 years of age to stay overnight. With a rating of 8 out of 10, we stayed at Sam's Family Spa in Desert Hot Springs. They had clean facilities, kind staff, fabulous residents and visitors, and six pools. Count 'em! Six! Two of the pools were regular, heated, chlorine pools. The other four were natural spring mineral water pools that were all warmer than the heated pools. All six of us tried the mineral pools Saturday night.
We learned a little about these mineral baths. The Palm Springs area is located right along the San Andreas Fault line. The natural underground waters on one side of the fault line are cold. The other side has hot water. Desert Hot Springs has naturally hot water under the surface filled with the minerals of the earth.
These mineral baths were fabulously warm and nobody complained of stinging eyes or dry skin at the end of our swim (I'm usually the one to complain of those things ;-)). Unfortunately there was a long list of rules posted on the wall.
"No swimming, diving, or splashing.
No toys, balls, or floating objects."
That put the kebosh on most everything Lincoln would want to do. He lasted about 5 minutes in the mineral pool and begged to go to the bigger, splash-approved pool. We promised big-pool swimming for the next day. So right away the next morning we finished breakfast and headed for the pools. I was surprised to see more than a dozen people already enjoying all six of the pools by 9am. Lincoln was so excited he jumped in with his tennis shoes on. (Thankfully we had another pair he could use until they dried.) The kids swam while Travis and I chatted with some of the residents who were swimming. Eventually our time was up and we wanted to get on to Newport Beach. As we packed up, Taite commented again on the extremely tall, numerous palm trees.
"Wow! There are a lot of palm trees here!! Mom, I think I know why they call this Palm Springs. Because there are a lot of palm trees and they have hot springs of water." Probably true. And I had never thought of it before. We were in Desert Hot Springs, though. The area looked like a desert. Dry. Dusty. There were even signs warning about dust storm along the highway. There were hot springs, of course. Desert Hot Springs makes sense too. Thank you, Taite, for your logic.
Newport Beach was a surprise to me. I didn't know it was so...extravagant. I was fascinated by the cars and boats in the area. We needed to get groceries. The nearest grocery store happened to be a Whole Foods - perfect for us. We drove our monster into the extremely full Whole Foods parking lot. BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, Jaguar, Bentley...there weren't any cheap cars in the parking lot. Our 1999 Itasca Sunflyer seemed a little out of place here - a little Cousin Eddie-ish? From Newport Dunes (our RV park) you can walk to the Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Maserati, Porsche, and Ferrari dealerships.
Instead of walking to car dealerships, we walked to the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) bridge. It went right over the lagoon where there was a boat parade Sunday night! We have a boat parade in Prior Lake on the 4th of July. It's always fun to watch people dress their boats, and maybe add some music. Since this was a nighttime Christmas parade, the boats were decorated with lights and lots of music. I use the term "boats" loosely. We saw a couple of lit speed boats, some tug boats, one paddle boat, and a jet ski with a person wearing a water-based jet pack. Other than that, these were yachts...I think one was a cruise ship! This plethora of yachts dwarfed the Grand Lake and Lake Minnetonka spectacles of boats! Our little Prior Lake boats would be like ants next to some of these yachts. I just need to point out...it would be hard to waterski behind one of giants!
The boat parade was over and everyone was getting tired (we still seem to be on Central Standard Time). We walked home and I was reminded of a walk I took that afternoon with the kids to explore Newport Dunes. Taite, Calla, and Lincoln ran ahead while Parker stayed close by, holding my hand as she walked with me. "Mommy, I wish I could fwy (translate = fly)," she revealed.
"You do? Why do you want to fly," I wondered.
"Because then I could be faster. Walking and running is too slow. I can't stay close to the other kids. So I want to fwy," Parker responded.
"Oh, yes. I understand. They are all really fast, aren't they? I know if you want to, Parker, you will be as fast as them one day. No worries," I tried to comfort her.
"I know...when I fwy." Why is she so darn cute?!
Monday my mom and sister arrived here in California. We had to get our rental vehicle so we could pick them up. Because of a snafu with Enterprise, we had to close up the RV and all of us drove to the rental car store. Along our drive Taite asked me if he could please listen to an Adventures in Odyssey episode on his iPod. We couldn't get to his iPod so he asked if he could listen to one on my phone. I just got a new phone and I didn't even have music on there. We looked and the only thing stored in my iTunes was a book by Dale Carnegie called How to Win Friends and Influence People. Taite jumped at the chance to listen to something. Off he went to the back bed to concentrate on his new audiobook.
The other kids saw him and wanted to listen to something too. Travis and I had just gotten new phones and kept the old ones so the kids could use them as iTouches. I told them what they were, turned the old phones on, and let them sit down to look and listen. It was about five minutes later when the whining and fighting started. Warnings were given and things calmed down for another minute or so. Less than eight minutes into it I was taking all the iPhones back. Immediately I heard, "Awww! There's nothing to do!" Mind you, this is the first time I've heard that phrase during our entire trip and we've been on the road for over a week. It was as if the little entertaining screen sucked away all their creativity. Taite sat in the chair smiling. Calla huffed, "Why are you smiling, Taite?!"
"Because I just learned smiling is good for you," Taite informed Calla. He was actually listening to Dale Carnegie! Calla folded her arms, gave her best mad face, and huffed back onto the couch. "Nothing is actually bad or good. It's all how you think it is, Calla," Taite enlightened his sister. Within 30 seconds the kids had found UNO and they were all playing a game together. This is where I press the "Like" button.
Mimi (Mindy) and Grammy (my mom) arrived at lunchtime and everyone loved it! They settled into the cute little cottage across the way from our RV spot. We swam for much of the afternoon in the warm sunshine. Then we met an old school friend of Travis' for a fondue dinner at The Melting Pot. The kids loved it! Taite said it's his new favorite restaurant. Everyone enjoyed meeting Kyle and Carolina.
With the time difference, the kids were very tired at dinner. Parker actually fell asleep halfway through the meal. Lincoln wanted to, but Kyle coached him through staying awake until dessert. Finally it was time to pay the bill and get going. Lincoln was sitting on Grammy's lap, "Can we go back to the RV?"
"Oh, are you so tired, Lincoln," my mom asked.
"I'm so tired! Let's...oooh! Chocolate!!" Shiny red ball.
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