01-26-2019 Morning Walk at Catalina and Singing the Birds

Current Location: Catalina Spa and RV Resort Desert Hot Springs, California

74 Degrees F  thin high clouds and brilliant sunshine, slightly windy at 10mph

Mt San Jacinto (The Tram goes to that peak from below)

We both woke up early this morning.  The moon was shining in the back window over the bed and at only half full, it still seemed really bright.  I had gone swimming last night after Mo fell asleep, once again navigating my way through the bobbing non-swimmers just enjoying the murmur of their conversations without having to participate.

I brought two swim suits for this very reason, and at 4am when I said to Mo, “Want to go swimming?”, I was ready with a nice dry suit.  The nights aren’t terribly cold, but cold enough that walking a few hundred yards from the rig to the pool is darn chilly if one is wet.

Once again we were preceded by the dedicated lap swimmer, Terry, who does 2 miles every morning.  Living in Lebonon, Oregon, he is now retired, farms a few alpacas, has a wife who does fiber arts, and identifies as an old hippie.  He isn’t bad company that early in the morning if we must have company.  We would have to swim at 2 to beat him. 

I tried to catch the fleeting sunrise this morning, but without a lot of clouds to reflect light it wasn’t much to look at.  Still, the snowy peaks of Mt San Gorgonio and Mt San Jacinto glowed pink on the horizon opposite the sunrise.

Mt San Gorgonio

Our morning was easy, with big glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice.  I think they are even sweeter than ever this year, even though they were small.  Such a delight.

Around 11, after giving Mattie an energetic outing at the dog park, and a nice hike in the desert, we left her behind as we headed into Palm Springs. Today was the annual Singing the Birds event for the Agua Caliente Band of Calhuilla Indians.  There is singing and dancing by several tribes from the Southern California area and all are welcome to the free event.  We were impressed with the new Agua Caliente Cultural Center and Museum they are building in the heart of Palm Springs.  It is going to be quite fabulous.

The announcer made sure we understood that this celebration is for singing about the beginning of the world, to remind the People of their roots, and the dancing is social dancing, not performance dancing.  Everyone is invited to join in, but unlike some of the PowWow’s I have attended, I didn’t see any non native folks out dancing. 

The music was different as well because there were no drums, only rattles, which provided percussion for the singing.  Still, even without the drums, the music was hypnotic, and the event was delightful to watch.  We opted for a Native Fry Bread taco to share, something I haven’t had in 20 years and probably won’t need again for another 20. It is fairly bland, and the juices from the veggies really soaks into the fry bread making it somewhat soggy. 

On the way home, we then stopped at the Ice Cream Shoppe, which turned out to be NOT the place I thought it was that we had visited the last time we were in Palm Springs.  The Shoppe was rather upscale, with vegan ice cream, and flavors like green tea, blood orange sherbet, and Mexican chocolate.  Not the place for a simple scoop of chocolate which is always Mo’s favorite, but she settled for the Brownie Sundae, and I had Cappuccino chip, which was rich and perfect.

We had seen a sign for the Kim Nicol Trail at the end of our road, but couldn’t quite figure out how to find the trailhead with all the no trespassing signs posted along the dirt road.  The website explained it more clearly and we traveled the half mile or so south from Catalina Resort to find the trailhead to the first officially designated trail in the Coachella Valley in the last decade. 

It looked like a fun hike through sandy open hills, nice in the very early morning, but fairly exposed for a daytime hike.  Might have to give it a try before we leave here this time, or if not, then next time.  Brothers will be returning tomorrow from Quartzsite and our time will be busy with them for the next couple of days.