Blogs from Palm Springs, California, United States, North America

After nearly two and a half years of the Australian Governments border closures, we were at last able to head to Los Angeles and see our daughter. Having been to Palm Springs before, I was keen to again head uo on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and visit the Mount San Jacinto State Park. Previously, I had been up on the Tramay and visited the Mount San Jacinto State Park at Christmas time and with the elevation gain, it was very cold. This time, in mid June, at the Tramway starting point, the temperature was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degress Celcius. At the top, the temperature dropped to 66 degrees Fahrenheit or a very comfortable 19 degres Celcius. The tramway takes about 11 minutes to make the trip up to an elevation of 8,516 ... read more

Neben der Aerial Tramway ist in Palm Springs der nahegelegene Joshua Tree National Park eine wichtige Sehenswürdigkeit. Diesen habe ich heute besichtigt. Auf dem Weg dorthin bin ich an einer großen Windkraftanlage vorbei gekommen, wie ich sie in Deutschland noch nicht gesehen habe. Allerdings frage ich mich, ob hier nicht Solarenergie mehr bringen würde. Auf jeden Fall habe ich den Nationalpark gut erreicht. Das Standardticket ist 7 Tage gültig. Es gibt kein kürzeres. Das ist natürlich schade. Dann bin ich dort hinein gefahren und habe schnell festgestellt, was man sich unter einem Joshua Tree vorzustellen hat. Die gibt es hier massenweise und auch nur hier. Dann habe ich ein paar Mal angehalten und Fotos gemacht, bevor ich zu einem Aussichtspunkt auf einen Berg genannt Keys View hinauf gefahren bin. Hier hat man eine schöne Aussicht. Von ... read more

When it comes to feelings about the desert, there really is no indecision. You are either in or out. There is no in-between. Some see it as a wasteland, hot, arid and forbidding. Sand, sky and scrub. Certainly not worth visiting, much less living in. Others see it as everything they have ever dreamed of. A perfectly blank canvas where they can create any story their imagination can render. A vast landscape of endless opportunity whose only limit is one's own vision. The latter are the people who made Palm Springs. Utilizing what they had, the first visionaries took advantage of the hot dry air and natural thermal baths. Imagining cures for a host of conditions amongst the cactus, smoke trees and palms they built curative spas designed to give sufferers hope. People came from all ... read more

,Well hello everyone from sunny and WARM Palm Springs. It's good to pack the cardigan and jeans away for a change. We were headed up to Boston when I last wrote and on the way there we stopped at a beautiful town called Wethersfield that had the most magnificent old homes that are still being lived in today and they are hundreds of years old. You would never guess how old they are as they are so well kept. I have included photos of just a few houses but there were whole streets full of these gems. Don't forget to look for the ghost house. After leaving Wethersfield we called in for a tour of Mark Twain's house in Hartford Connecticut and that is also a museum. Did you know that Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) ... read more

Perhaps the most interesting and enlightening destination in Palm Springs is the Air Museum, a real gem dedicated to the restoration, preservation, presentation and operation of some of America’s most significant military aircraft from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The result is a really fine collection of more than thirty aircraft from those conflicts, many still flyable and some being restored. It’s a non-profit institution which also has static displays, a research library, theatre, and education center, all with the aim of educating the public about the role played by Air Power in maintaining freedom. It provides a unique opportunity to view close up some of the actual legendary aircraft that participated in the European and Pacific campaigns, while learning about the deeds of their crews and their leaders. Detailed information plaques about their capabilities ... read more