By Shelby
Monday, we worked from a local library southwest of Las Vegas. It seemed more like a community center than a library. It was very loud and kids were running around everywhere. We struggled to get a free table to work at because it was so busy. After work, we did laundry. This suburb of Las Vegas seemed very new. For some reason, there were only dry cleaners and not actual laundromats in the area. We had to drive 20 minutes to find one. For dinner, we had leftover zuppa toscana.
Tuesday, we worked from the same library. After work, we got Thai food for dinner. I got soup, while Spencer got a noodle dish. Mine was just a little too spicy. Spencer wasn’t crazy about his meal. I got Tom Kha soup and Spencer got Rad Na.
Wednesday, we worked from the same library again. It was actually a little less busy than it had been so that was nice. After work, we drove a couple hours to a Planet Fitness in a suburb of Los Angeles. Along the way, we passed massive fields of solar panels. They looked like seas. We were looking forward to warmer weather in southern California. Las Vegas was surprisingly cold. We’d been running the car every night to stay warm.
Thursday morning, we got up early and drove an hour and a half toward Joshua Tree National Park. We had a 6 mile hike in Black Canyon to do right outside the park border. The trail went through a Joshua Tree forest. The trees were a lot bigger and taller than I had expected. They were like actual trees.
The trail led up through a canyon to a panoramic loop section. We could see all the surrounding hills. There were snow covered mountains in the distance. The temperature was pretty nice. I had to take my jacket off after a while.
When we finished our hike, we drove into the park. The landscape was unique. There were massive boulders everywhere. The mountains looked like piles of stacked boulders. We saw lots of rock climbers everywhere. The park is a world class climbing destination, apparently.
We had lunch at a picnic area in the park. It was a very nice and private picnic area. There was a picnic table with a grill set up in the shade of a large boulder.
After lunch, we walked the one mile Hidden Valley trail. This trail wound through a valley surrounded by small rocky mountains. The area used to be used as a grazing area for animals since the mountains formed a natural corral. It was very pretty.
When we finished our walk, we drove to our last stop in the park, Keys View. Keys View was a scenic viewpoint on top of a mountain. We could see Coachella Valley in the distance below. It was pretty hazy, so we decided not to stay for sunset.
Our next stop was Palm Springs, about an hour and a half away from Joshua Tree National Park. Along the way, we stopped at In-N-Out to get a couple burgers. It was crazy busy. I had never seen a fast food restaurant with so many people. The burger was good, but neither of us were crazy about the fries.
The weather in Palm Springs was great. It was in the 70s every day. There were mountains surrounding the city and palm trees everywhere. It had a resort feel to it. Apparently, many celebrities have homes there.
Friday, we spent the day in Palm Springs. We went grocery shopping and then went to a park to make lunch. We decided to make spaghetti with sauce for our next meal. We messed up and cooked two boxes of spaghetti at once. We had to get more water by walking to a nearby library. Almost all the water was absorbed and the spaghetti was nearly overflowing. There was no way we could mix the two bottles of sauce into it. We ended up dumping the spaghetti into two plastic freezer bags and mixed the sauce into the bags. It did work, but it felt weird.
After eating lunch, we drove to a hiking trail up one of the surrounding mountains. The sun was getting low, so we hurried. From the trail, we had a great view of Palm Springs below.
Along the trail, we saw a herd of bighorn sheep. There were even two babies. They were very cute. We also saw a small waterfall. We took a short break when we reached the top of the mountain before returning to the car. Unfortunately, we realized that the Planet Fitness we were staying at wasn’t open 24 hours Friday night. We had to go into a nearby grocery store to use the bathroom before bed. We were also woken up in the middle of the night by a street sweeper and someone leaf blowing the parking lot.
Saturday morning, we drove to a scenic area nearby where we could see the many windmills outside Palm Springs. There was a snow covered mountain behind the windmills, which made it look extra scenic.
After that, we drove on to Los Angeles to the Grove mall. It was not what we had expected. We thought it would be a normal indoor mall with a few floors. We parked in the parking garage for the mall and walked to the top floor. There were great views of the Hollywood sign and downtown Los Angeles.
The mall turned out to be outdoors and there was a huge farmers market next door. It wasn’t a conventional farmers market either. There was maybe one vendor selling fruits and vegetables. The rest were local restaurants. We ended up getting hot dogs for lunch.
After eating lunch, we drove to a viewpoint over Los Angeles on Mulholland Drive and waited there until sunset. The city was very hazy. As the sun set, it looked like the downtown area was slowly fading away. We could see Beverly Hills in the distance. It looked like houses were placed randomly all over the hill sides. It was interesting they were able to build on such steep inclines. After sunset, we drove to a Planet Fitness further out from the city center for the night. Interestingly, it was right next to an airport, so we got to watch planes land.
Sunday morning, we drove to the Griffith Observatory. It was very cloudy and foggy in the morning, so we worked on the website from the car until the afternoon when it cleared up. We hiked a mile up to the observatory. The view of Los Angeles and the Hollywood sign was pretty nice. It was still hazy, though. In the observatory, which was free, we saw a lot of exhibits about space. They even had a Tesla coil. There were tons of people.
We had a quick snack outside the observatory before hiking up to the peak of Mt. Hollywood. The weather was nice. The air was a little chilly, but the sun was warm. The trail was well-trafficked. We could see evidence of recent landslides, which was interesting. The view from the peak was nice. We could see the observatory and L.A. below, and the ocean beyond them. We hiked back down to the car after enjoying the view. Next week, we plan on working from a suburb in L.A. before checking out some more sights.
Fun Facts from Week 41:
- Joshua Trees on average live about 150 years.
- The Hollywood sign used to say Hollywoodland. It was an advertisement for a new real estate development in 1923. The “land” was knocked out by a landslide.
