California 2020

The condo this year was in Rancho Mirage and overlooked a golf course.  Jordan of course, spent most of his free time watching the golfers.

Found a flower for my hat on our dog walk

Colin found a tumbleweed!

Day trip to one of our favorite places, Joshua Tree

Hiked in the Cholla Gardens.  Kayla was pretending to be a cholla when she got too close and got one stuck in her arm!  Took awhile to get it out but we still love the chollas!

Climbing rocks at Skull Rock

Loving those joshua trees

One last hike

We all look a little sleepy but happy to see each other this morning

One of our favorite hikes...the Ladder Canyon

Hey, I see Jordan down there!  In the evenings, he would hit balls back and forth.  Colin played a bit too!  Jordan unfortunately never got to play a full round because the course closed due to flooding and then COVID-19.

Colin cuddling with the Nikki pup

Arcade with Auntie Dana!

Then on to an escape room.  We managed to solve it with 4 min left to spare!

Our side trip this year was exploring the Mojave National Preserve.  First stop was Rainbow Basin and while 4 wheel drive was recommended, our car was a little low for the bumpy road.  But the scenery was amazing!

Next stop was Zzyzz where we found a scorpion and abandoned health spa which is now a run down field station.

We didn't visit on the best weather day as the clouds gathered with the threat of rain.  But we made sure to stop at the visitor center and took a hike where the densest area of Joshua trees are found.  Was hoping to climb the dunes but the rain stopped us luckily before we even started.  The scenery was just breathtaking but none of our photos do it justice because of the low clouds.

Getting back to the condo was difficult as the rain made several roads impassible!  We finally made it back and our once dry golf course now looked like this:

The next day we went on a hike in Taquitz Canyon.  We had fun counting lizards and play with smud - smooth mud!  It was also on this hike where learned that school was cancelled due to COVID.  The kids, mostly Kayla, was devastated.

On our last day, we were hoping to do a bird walk or go to the street fair again but both were cancelled.  So Jordan and I went hiking at Mission Creek while the kids went to the trampoline park.

The next day we flew home and the airports were oddly empty.  So much that we let Colin play on the people movers with no concern of running into other people.  Once home, we tried grocery shopping in the empty store and at our celebratory lunch at Mr. Brews which was also empty.  We couldn't believe this was just the start!  Another memorable vacation.  :)