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"Tastes good to be back home again!" That's what my sweet little boy Jason at age 4 would belt out as we barreled down the backroads of America in our motorhoming days. We'd slap in a John Denver 8 track tape and do some harmonizing while traveling between KOAs and state roadside rest stops on our cross-country vacations. He had that lyric wrong but he had all the words to Grandma's Feather Bed down cold! We just knew that proved he was a Mensa candidate.
Nowadays, I rarely get to vacation with my little boy and his sister & brothers being that they are all grown up and have busy lives of their own. I sure do miss those days. Sniff, sniff.
So anywho, I'm home at last after 5 weeks spent in warmer climates. I thought maybe a little trip report would be in order for the one or two regular forum members who may have noticed I've been absent of late.(Hi, to the G's
)
We loaded up our little Subaru, Suzie, with suitcases, the ice chest full of frozen potential meal makings, our "camp" box with various needed supplies like the waffle iron and paper plates, the staples box with canned goods and spices, our golf clubs, tennis rackets, bags of books, quilting paraphernalia and my dear Baby Bernie (portable sewing machine) and headed out at dawn in a light snowfall up here in the Sierra Mountains of California. Our first stop was Merced to pick up Dear Mom. She had already escaped the snow & chilly temps a few weeks earlier when she went to pay an extended visit to my brother Jon in Watsonville. Mom was waiting at the motel where Jon had dropped her off the night before, saving us all the extra time & mileage to get together for this trip. After some major reshuffling of stuff, we managed to cram Mom into the 3 foot space left in the back seat and continued on due south for our first week at Desert Breezes in Palm Desert, Ca.
The entire 5 weeks was booked using our timeshares. I've mentioned on my blog Through the Barn Door how much we like timesharing. Large, nicely furnished condos with fully equipped kitchens, heated swimming pools, tennis courts, often on a golf course and when you leave someone else does the cleaning...what's not to like? Sure beats a cramped motel room, eh? Of course I'm preaching to the choir here, I'm sure.
Our first week was spent at our absolutely favorite place, Desert Breezes in Palm Desert. It's an older resort, lacking in many of the much lauded bells & whistles so favored by many timeshare affictionados but it suits us to a T.
This is the view across the little pond at sunset. Isn't it serene? And to make it even better, there are ducks and geese on the pond during the day. And resident turtles in the pond. Although, Diane (the lovely lady who is newly fianced to Mr. Barn's brother Dave) may not be so fond of said turtles. She got a nip on the finger from an attack by a jealous turtle as she was offering a bit of bologna to another pond resident. Her wound wasn't bad enough to warrant medical attention, thank God, so our miniature golf tournament, scheduled later during their visit, went forward as planned. With the beautiful weather, lovely visit with brother and his new love, a bit of golf and lots of good food, our first week was a delight. We never made it to the Thursday Street Fest or the Air Museum or the Tram Ride. We just lazed around and read books and drank several bottles of very nice wine while visiting with Dear Brother and getting acquainted with our soon to be new sister-in-law.
You'd think after 7 days our provisions would have diminished but instead we seemed to have acquired even more stuff. Somehow, we managed to cram it all into little Suzie Subaru once again, although I'm pretty sure Mom lost a few square inches of space. We headed over the mountains toward the Calif. coast for our next week. The drive is easy and the views are breathtaking.
This is the view back over the Cochella Valley from the lookout spot. It was a fairly clear day so we could see all the way to the Salton Sea to the south. Someday we plan to drive down there and have a proper look. I guess the place was a real tourist destination back in the 1930's but has lost it's allure in the ensuing years. So onward we went up and over the Santa Rosa Mountains. We stopped off at a little local eatery for some brunch.
There were several pick-up trucks in the parking lot, always a good sign when assessing a local restaurant. We weren't disappointed. The food was good, the service excellent and the price was reasonable. The portions were generous, too.
I'm afraid I'd already eaten a good bit before I thought to take a photo. Sorry.
Fortified with plenty of artery clogging calories we journeyed on to Carlsbad for the second week of our snowbird vacation with anticipation of being pampered like the rich and famous at the Four Seasons Resort. As an added bonus, we have a lunch date with Emmy & Peter at their timeshare in Laguna and a possible meet up with Odaddy at 4 Seasons to look forward to.
Nowadays, I rarely get to vacation with my little boy and his sister & brothers being that they are all grown up and have busy lives of their own. I sure do miss those days. Sniff, sniff.
So anywho, I'm home at last after 5 weeks spent in warmer climates. I thought maybe a little trip report would be in order for the one or two regular forum members who may have noticed I've been absent of late.(Hi, to the G's
)We loaded up our little Subaru, Suzie, with suitcases, the ice chest full of frozen potential meal makings, our "camp" box with various needed supplies like the waffle iron and paper plates, the staples box with canned goods and spices, our golf clubs, tennis rackets, bags of books, quilting paraphernalia and my dear Baby Bernie (portable sewing machine) and headed out at dawn in a light snowfall up here in the Sierra Mountains of California. Our first stop was Merced to pick up Dear Mom. She had already escaped the snow & chilly temps a few weeks earlier when she went to pay an extended visit to my brother Jon in Watsonville. Mom was waiting at the motel where Jon had dropped her off the night before, saving us all the extra time & mileage to get together for this trip. After some major reshuffling of stuff, we managed to cram Mom into the 3 foot space left in the back seat and continued on due south for our first week at Desert Breezes in Palm Desert, Ca.
The entire 5 weeks was booked using our timeshares. I've mentioned on my blog Through the Barn Door how much we like timesharing. Large, nicely furnished condos with fully equipped kitchens, heated swimming pools, tennis courts, often on a golf course and when you leave someone else does the cleaning...what's not to like? Sure beats a cramped motel room, eh? Of course I'm preaching to the choir here, I'm sure.
Our first week was spent at our absolutely favorite place, Desert Breezes in Palm Desert. It's an older resort, lacking in many of the much lauded bells & whistles so favored by many timeshare affictionados but it suits us to a T.
This is the view across the little pond at sunset. Isn't it serene? And to make it even better, there are ducks and geese on the pond during the day. And resident turtles in the pond. Although, Diane (the lovely lady who is newly fianced to Mr. Barn's brother Dave) may not be so fond of said turtles. She got a nip on the finger from an attack by a jealous turtle as she was offering a bit of bologna to another pond resident. Her wound wasn't bad enough to warrant medical attention, thank God, so our miniature golf tournament, scheduled later during their visit, went forward as planned. With the beautiful weather, lovely visit with brother and his new love, a bit of golf and lots of good food, our first week was a delight. We never made it to the Thursday Street Fest or the Air Museum or the Tram Ride. We just lazed around and read books and drank several bottles of very nice wine while visiting with Dear Brother and getting acquainted with our soon to be new sister-in-law.
You'd think after 7 days our provisions would have diminished but instead we seemed to have acquired even more stuff. Somehow, we managed to cram it all into little Suzie Subaru once again, although I'm pretty sure Mom lost a few square inches of space. We headed over the mountains toward the Calif. coast for our next week. The drive is easy and the views are breathtaking.
This is the view back over the Cochella Valley from the lookout spot. It was a fairly clear day so we could see all the way to the Salton Sea to the south. Someday we plan to drive down there and have a proper look. I guess the place was a real tourist destination back in the 1930's but has lost it's allure in the ensuing years. So onward we went up and over the Santa Rosa Mountains. We stopped off at a little local eatery for some brunch.
There were several pick-up trucks in the parking lot, always a good sign when assessing a local restaurant. We weren't disappointed. The food was good, the service excellent and the price was reasonable. The portions were generous, too.
I'm afraid I'd already eaten a good bit before I thought to take a photo. Sorry.
Fortified with plenty of artery clogging calories we journeyed on to Carlsbad for the second week of our snowbird vacation with anticipation of being pampered like the rich and famous at the Four Seasons Resort. As an added bonus, we have a lunch date with Emmy & Peter at their timeshare in Laguna and a possible meet up with Odaddy at 4 Seasons to look forward to.
We really enjoyed our lunch together and I posted a picture 
It was also quite run down the last time we were there but I think they've done a total refurb since then. DBZ isn't fancy smancy but it's also feels less crowded even when it's fully booked like it was when we were there. And it seems that most of the folks we meet there are owners and everyone is so friendly. When we are there we just spend most of the time hanging out at the resort rather than running around. Families really like it there because their kids have lots of large grassy space to play. The interiors are getting a total re-do over the next few months.
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