Well, I have plane tickets. I feel.... a bit nauseous. Nothing makes it feel real like spending $1600 in airfare I guess?
From the Grand Canyon, we descended into the heat of Flagstaff, Arizona. I had been to Flagstaff once before, almost 20 years ago when my mom, my sister, and I dropped off my dad at the airport where a sign read, "All Arrivals, All Departures: Gate A." I can only hope my transfer in Auckland will be that straightforward.
In Flagstaff this time we ran into some locals who recommended the Aquaplex - notable for it's water slides and childcare. Childcare, you say? We went immediately. Sorry, I have no pictures of this outing because pools and iphones are not my favorite combination. But a good time was had by all. Bear didn't want to leave the childcare area when we came to pick them up (they had trains).
Then onward, to our next destination: Homewood Suites of Palm Desert, CA. This place is awful. Not the hotel, the hotel is good, I mean the desert in general. I don't understand how people are always espousing the values of 'dry heat' and saying 'it cools off at night, though!' It does not cool off at night. And yes the heat is dry - so dry you can feel the saliva evaporating from inside your mouth.
Driving through this landscape with the outdoor temperature reaching 48C (that's 118.4 degrees F, y'all), I began to realize I do have a phobia - and that phobia is being baked alive by the toxic sun inside a rental car with my entire family. There was literally no shade for hundreds of miles.
So in Palm Springs, a bunch of wealthy retirees decided they hated winter so much that they would literally rather live inside a dry sauna. Evidently they also hated shade, water, and non-cancerous skin. But they were brought together by their love of golf, investment banking, and imitation stucco to found Palm Springs.
And then someone made Palm Desert so that the waiters and golf course workers in Palm Springs would have someplace to live. So here we are.
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| The open road. |
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| Pax has started eating non-milk food - she is a big fan. |
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| Post-aquaplex dinner. |
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| Pillow hog. |
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| I am going to miss these two so much. |
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| Pax loves pickles. |
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| Ugh. |
You are so going to love the weather pretty much anywhere in Aotearoa New Zealand. I expect that living on the Pacific in Opotiki will be amazing. Safe travels.
ReplyDeleteYea, That was the wrong time of year to go to Palm Springs! And yes, that is pretty desolate country out there. There are nicer desert areas with dry air. Like Moab, Northern New Mexico. Did you stop in Joshua Tree national Park? Because it is actually a pretty cool place despite being really hot too this time of year.
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