desert vacation

Just got back from a holiday vacation in Joshua Tree, California, about 2 hours east of LA and 9 hours from our place here in San Francisco. We've been gone for the last 6 days with little or no internet access, so i'm sorry if i've missed any emails and fun stuff from the internet community. But i'm back, so fill me in on all the gossip, har har!

Kurt and I drove first to stay with friends Christina and Paul in Venice, LA for the night, and then hi-tailed it to the desert with them for two nights where we had rented a little house. We wind up going to Joshua Tree about every other year or so and usually stay at the 29 Palms Inn, an old-style adobe bungalow place with a great restaurant, hot tub, and bar. But this time we decided to try something different and rented a vacation house tucked in amongst the rocks...Paul and Christina work in the LA movie biz as film editors and special effects makers so there was a lot of industry talk. I didn't take any photos of a fancy schmancy party we went to the night before we left, in some film guy's wealthy digs, but needless to say we all got super smashed and I wound up having a heated drunken debate on the pitfalls of the neoliberal capitalist system with a true Southern California conservative (the worst kind). it was rather ugly, for sure, and gave me the biggest adrenaline rush. i think he wound up calling me a communist...

OK, on to the trip! Here's some pics with captions. Needless to say, it was a.w.e.s.o.m.e.!


first off: happy holidays! ha ha--this photo of a christmas tree shape made out of soda cans hanging out in front of a raleys grocery store in LA just KILLED me...(hey kate of obsessive consumption--this one's for you!)


the house was on the edge of the Joshua Tree National Forest, and had the most amazing large rocks right outside


view of the house grounds from the living room...note the roses blooming in the middle of the desert sands


one of several terraces outside the house. oh, and watch out for scorpions...we didn't see any, but were warned not to walk around in bare feet


mmmmmmm! we love the meatsies. sorry. we're not vegetarians. i know. oh well, it's certainly yummy though :)


Kurtie cooking potatoes for breakfast. rawwwwrrrrr!


paul, christina, and kurt in front of big-ass boulders


desert flora


yet more


hello pokey yellow thing!


more pokey


shenanigans


did i say there were pokey things? these are awesome cholla cactuses, also known as "teddy bear" cactuses, or "jumping" cactuses


hello, my baby!


poke


i know...i'm a bit enamored of cactuses, aren't i?


drinks at the 29 Palms Inn bar...niiiiiiiiiiccccccce


the high desert


down the block from our bungalow was the craziest piece of architecture we've seen in a while...loooking like it's a cross between something out of the jurassic age, an h.r. geiger drawing, and a futuristic abode, it had an amazing gate in the front and we watched people ride little golf carts to and from the front parking area up to the living structure wedged into the rocks. sometimes rich people are seriously great, aren't they?

i want to be better about posting fun things in the future, so watch out for more photos of stuff and things in general :) hope ya'll are having a good holiday season and it's not too hectic!