After Ghis and Jean enjoyed a game of tennis (it’s finally sunny and nice), Jean and I and Morgane and the twins headed to Legoland. I’d heard it was definitely worth seeing. In the end, I’d say it was okay – there was lots to do and it wasn’t too crowded, but the lego sculptures didn’t interest me that much.

The ones I did like were part of Mini Land, kind of a small replica of our world with beaches and skyscrapers, kayakers and fire engines, houses and picnics and sailboats and the statue of liberty, the White House and everything else you can imagine.

The kids had some trouble getting along – it seems that after a couple of days together, they were getting on each others’ nerves. They still enjoyed the rides though: the pirate ship that spun around in circles, the roller coaster and the log boat ride that they had to wait so long to go on.

They even went to driving school and got to drive little lego vehicles around a realistic-looking lego neighbourhood. They told the kids to drive on the right-hand side, but I don’t think all the kids knew their right from their left!

Morgane liked digging up bones like a paleontologist and she really liked designing and building her own lego vehicle and then testing it out on a ramp (and racing against others). Once she had a vehicle she was happy with, she didn’t want to take it apart so she convinced the staff member to put it on his special shelf for awhile.

We also rode the Sky Rider which we got to pedal as we enjoyed a view overlooking the park.

The kids also loved the adventurers labyrinth – a dark, scary and mysterious place where they had to search for 6 keys.

At 5 o’clock, the park closed and we came home and had a great dinner with Jean and the kids and the Bodeswell’s who are around again for a few days before they head off to Baja in Mexico.

Morgane and I may go back to Legoland since the second day is pretty cheap and we still haven’t seen a good half of the park.

Last night we went out with Jean and had an adult night – his kids were going with their mother and she offered to take Morgane, too. They went to Chuck E. Cheese, so Morgane was happy.

The three of us ate some good Thai food. The water they brought us to drink was flavoured with lemon, mint and cucumber! Then we went downtown and saw a movie. Downtown was full of bars and clubs and there were lots of people out drinking. We drove past one club that had a toy bucking bronco that people could ride. We watched Up in the Air which was good, but not as good as Juno or Thank You For Smoking, the director’s previous films.

Today we slept in and then had the exciting job of putting our new stickers on the van! We ordered them from our Buses by the Bridge neighbour, Scott, of Pinsville in Las Vegas and they came in the mail very quickly. I felt strange putting something on our van, but Ghis seemed happy about it.  I still can’t believe that Ghis consented to us putting something pink up.

It was a bit of a learning curve applying the stickers, but with Jean’s help, it turned out fine.

Then we took the van for a spin and had breakfast in Encinitas. We sat on the sunny patio and watched the many bikes go by.

After picking up the kids, we went hiking at Torrey Pines Park. Unfortunately, we lost Ghis early on – he never noticed us coming out of the washrooms and we looked but didn’t see him sitting and waiting.

The rest of us walked the road to the top of the hill and got to see a roadrunner outside the visitor’s centre. Then we followed a trail to a viewpoint and from there, we descended to the beach.

Halfway down, Jean pointed out a couple of dolphins swimming in the waves.

There were caves and interesting indents in the colourful sandstone. At the beach, the waves came up all the way and threatened to soak our feet.

Since it was easier to walk along the beach than to walk back up the hill and down the other side, we took off our shoes and alternated sprinting over the sand with shuffling along a dry ledge.

Unfortunately, I stuck Morgane’s shoes on the back of my pack where there is some stretchy cord. Young Gabriel noticed when the second shoe fell off, but we never found the first shoe and the waves were so high it was probably washed away.

Morgane loved the giant kelp that was washed up on the beach. She even tied one around her waist and walked along, dragging it behind her.

We saw a lot of erosion that had happened during the rains of the last few days – a lot of sandstone had been washed away and sometimes the steps were missing except for the bare skeleton of the staircase.

Back at home, everyone was tired. We had a BBQ, watched a movie, and soon we will all be asleep.

We are visiting Jean, a new friend, in San Diego. He is from Drummondville and was just a bit younger than Ghis in school. Morgane is happy because Jean has twins – a boy and a girl – only six months younger than Morgane. It’s fun to speak and hear French after so long. Of course, Ghis can’t send Morgane private messages anymore because everyone understands!

We are happy to be sitting by the fire inside because the weather has been stormy. We haven’t seen anything scary, but there was a brief tornado warning and there seems to be flooding in some areas. Here it’s raining but not enough to keep us out of the hot tub!

Yesterday we got out of the house to go to Trader Joe’s, our favourite grocery store. Today we went to the Patagonia store. We love this company and their clothes! I think it’s the first time I’ve been to one of their company stores, not counting the discount outlet in Maine which I love, too.

We admired the enormous waves at the beach but didn’t stay outside for long. Hopefully we’ll have better weather for exploring this weekend.

We stayed at a hotel near Joshua Tree Park and in the morning began the drive to San Diego. We passed huge farms of windmills along the way.

I HAD to stop in Palm Springs since that is where my mother went last year to watch tennis and she talks about it a lot.

Oddly enough, it was raining when we drove into this desert oasis town. There were lots of palm trees and a huge mountain towering over the little community.

We stopped and ate at Joe’s sushi and then walked down the main street a bit. Then, since it’s no fun in Palm Springs when it’s cold and rainy, we hit the road.

We decided to follow the Bodeswell family on a longer drive past a large salt-water lake and through the mountains. Apparently the lake was made after a large dam was built by a developer. But the lake turned out to be salty and it didn’t quite draw crowds.

After the lake, we drove through a different kind of dessert with flowering plants and little rock canyons which experience flash flooding.

Further on, it started raining. And then it rained more. We expected this turn in the weather, but were still glad to arrive in San Diego around dinner time.

We drove through a lot of desert after leaving Lake Havascu, most of it in California. I felt like we were hardly moving. Even in this bare landscape, there was graffiti made with wood and stones.

We arrived at a town called Twenty-nine Palms and turned to enter Joshua Tree Park.

We were still travelling with the Bodeswells and they wanted to take a picture of a Joshua Tree just like the on the U2 album cover, but we couldn’t remember what it looked like. So we took a picture of the coolest Joshua Tree we could find.

Morgane had a scavenger hunt to do for her junior ranger badge and we found a lot of evidence of life – around every plant were different sized burrows where snakes, kangaroo rats or large spiders might live. I’m glad to say they were all sleeping or hibernating at the time.

Our next stop in the park was to check out the amazing rock formations. The kids loved it and they could squeeze through little cracks and crevices, but I found it difficult and the rock really hurt my fingers. Angela got a nasty scrape when she was helping the kids get down.

Stop number three was to admire the view over the valley where Palm Springs sits. It was cold and windy, but we had a good view despite a few ominous clouds.

After that we appreciated the park only from inside our van. We drove past many more rock formations and hillsides covered with Joshua trees before we exited the park. Morgane got her gold junior ranger badge. They even liked the fact that she had invented a new desert animal: the dogadillo who lives in a prickly cactus doghouse and eats catmice.

Thanks to our neighbour Scott again, Morgane and I got to try out the coolest bike! One person rides and one kneels or stands. It took awhile to get the hang of, but I loved it.

Another amazing thing we saw was a lady who brought a bunch of hula-hoops. She was really good and even had a glow-in-the-dark one. But at night she really impressed the crowd when she used a hula-hoop on fire!

There are 5 or 6 torches around the outside of it. Her husband stands by with the fire extinguisher, just in case, and we’re glad even though she doesn’t seem to need it.

Our super VW neighbour loaned us his canoe to go see London Bridge. I know it may be hard to believe that London Bridge is in Arizona at Lake Havascu, but it is. It seemed odd to me when I first heard about it, too. I wondered why they didn’t keep it in England somewhere, but I guess they needed someone to take it and pay for it as well.

Ghis and Angela took the kids in the canoe while I volunteered to walk along the shore and take pictures.

They made it around the corner past the lighthouse and then began to run into some light traffic including the very large paddle-wheeler that ferries visitors to the casino across the lake. They got to ride a few waves as they crossed into the right lane.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t park their canoe anywhere. All the docks were private, so they turned around and headed back to camp.

As they left, I climbed up to the bridge to get a better view. I could see them paddle all the way back to VW land.

Up on the bridge with my zoom lens, I found that I could peep into boats as they passed under the bridge.

It was fun, but I decided to switch to the other lens to get a picture of the entire bridge. I think I put the lens down on the edge of the bridge for a second because at the last second, I saw another boat I wanted to photograph – two ladies in a pedalo, one pedaling with her hands.

Somehow the lens fell onto the hard cement. I removed the lens cover and grimaced when I saw the broken glass. This was our one and only very good lens. I wondered all the way back whether we’d be able to replace it.

When Ghis saw it, he popped a protective filter off the end and showed me that the actual lens wasn’t broken at all. That was why he had put the filter on (He thinks I’m a klutz!). I am very grateful that he did and will be so careful from now on.

Morgane and I arrived in Phoenix and after visiting with Ghis’s sister, Michelle, we headed for Buses by the Bridge, a large gathering of VW buses and Westies at Lake Havascu, Arizona. We didn’t spot any buses until we got pretty close.

Once we arrived, we paid $25 for the weekend and we drove around looking for a place to park. We followed the road onto the beach, but at the end of the beach, we got stuck and couldn’t get back to the road! Lots of people offered to push, but I thought it was an excellent place to park.

Shortly after, a red bus tried to do the same thing and got stuck. We immediately recognized the bus as belonging to Jason and Angela and Bode, another family on a year-long trek that we had been trying to meet up with for ages. Maybe it was the horns on front that gave it away! We convinced them to park beside us.

I made sure to walk around and get a look at all the buses. It made us feel very luxurious in our Eurovan.

There were lots of activities organized over the weekend including a bouncy obstacle course for the kids, a raffle, a chili cook-off, and various silly games. Lots of colourful people, too!

There was lots of tie-dye and people selling stuff – anything from VW parts to VW pins and t-shirts and toys.

We met up with some people from the Wet Westies group that Ghis had chatted with on-line. I heard amazing stories from them about the incredible community shared by VW owners and enthusiasts.

Sometimes we ate food cooked up by a local fundraising group and sometimes we shared with our neighbours. One morning, Ghis cooked up buckwheat pancakes for our new friends.

There was always lots going on. Above, a bunch of brave swimmers enter the lake. They were all wearing tie-dyed bathing trunks!

At night we could hear the merrymaking going on into the night, but everyone was happy and respectful and we managed to get to sleep fairly early.

This morning we left and most of the buses were leaving, too. Many needed a push to get going! Most of the old ones had bumper stickers that said “I am flooring it!” or “Are you still behind me?” I guess it takes a special person to drive an old bus. But seeing one that’s been taken care of is enough to make anyone fall in love.

Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday Dear Heather
Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Tomorrow we fly back to Phoenix! I miss the sunshine a lot. Thanks, Ghis, for keeping up the blog.

Morgane is playing UNO with her grandparents while I pack up our stuff. Earlier I went for a walk in the forest with Glen and we went around Rice Lake. It reminded me that it can be beautiful in the rain – that you just have to go anyway

I am sorry for the mess with the pictures in the previous post.  I spent two hours trying to fix it and ran out of time and patience.  The Grand Canyon (and Michelle) awaits!

Peace!