We had the "pleasure" to visit the high desert this week. What joy that was.

It was Francisca's 80th birthday party and we joined all the family to celebrate. This must have been the only time everyone could get off, since her birthday is in February. A fun time was had by all. We had dinner and dancing. The menu included rice, beans, enchiladas, salada, tortillas, salsa and cake. They made coffee, and it was pretty good. The Husband and I were sitting close to the coffee area and the waitress who was serving coffee, dumped what was left of the regular pot into the decaf pot, then took the decaf pot to the sink and added a bit of hot water to make a full pot of decaf. We quite drinking coffee after that. What a shame.

The weather is hot there. I don't do hot well. We had a hotel room that stayed nice and cool the whole time I was in it. I liked that. I would have gone swimming but this body doesn't wear a bathing suit well. It never got to 100 degrees, and if I heard it once more I would have pulled out someones arm...sure it's hot but it's dry. Oh how idiotic that is. Hot is hot, whether it's dry or humid, it's all just hot.

One thing I noticed is that most of the Joshua Trees have blooms on them. We see them on occasion, but this was a massive blooming season. I read that what ever causes them to bloom like this is uncommon. Even the little trees that are about shoulder high had blooms. I did not take this picture, I didn't stop it was too hot. But this is what the blooms look like. Impressive!