Monterey Bay and its Aquarium

Mom and I drove from Quartzsite to Monterey, CA. to meet up with some friends.  One friend from San Francisco and one from Willits.  The first daythere mom and I drove along the coast.

The next day I met up with my friends and we went to the aquarium. 

Jellies

Sardines swimming in a big circle.

Sand dollars.

Red octopus and friends. 

Sea turtle, hammerhead shark and friends.

We stayed at the Laguna Seca Raceway campground.

  View from rv, you can see a bit of the racetrack.

We'll be back soon.

Evie

l-r  Cathy, Jolene and me.

Lunch at Silly Al's and a Drive to Crystal Hill in Quartzsite, AZ

Five of us got together for lunch at Silly Al's Pizza in Quartzsite the other day.  Sue, in green, was passing through town on her way to Why, AZ from the Palm Springs area so we decided to all be at the pizza parlor and wait for her to get into town.  

l-r Charlene, Sue, Bev and me, Kelly left before we thought to take pics.

After lunch Sue continued on to Why, AZ and Charlene , Bev and I drove in Bev's truck out to Crystal Hill to have a look around.  They hiked up the hill a ways to do they're looking and I wandered around on the flat area looking around.  The light areas on this hill is where the crystal hunters go.  Sue and Bev are in this picture but only I know where they are. Hahaha

The next few pictures are of dead Saguaros and their different stages of decomposition.

After the flesh rots and falls off only the ribs are left.

These are standing ribs.

Fallen ribs.

I was able to get up close and personal to a couple of Saguaros.

See how deep the crevasses are on this one?

And now see how shallow these ones are?

This saguaro has gotten more water.  

The more water the more spread out the skin is.

And as they use up their water supply their skin folds in on itself.

As I was standing at the base of the Saguaro, in the above picture, I was talking to it and reached out to pet it and what should I see?  Someone had pushed or hammered a crystal into it.  Can you see it? Just goes to show, you don't have to hike up the hill to find crystals.

                       

Little crystal I pulled out of the Saguaro.

More death in the desert.  A cholla skeleton. 

Be back soon.

Evie and Joy

This Ocotillo is just dormant, next time it rains here within 48 hours Ocotillos will leaf out and bloom.

Leaving Las Vegas or Something Like That

We spent last week in the Las Vegas/Lake Mead area.  We were there to rendezvous with a cousin who flew in to spend mom's birthday with us.  We were in this area a year ago but didn't do any exploring so that's what we did.

Snowy mountains above Las Vegas

The drive from the Quartzsite area to Lake Mead took several hours and it was cloudy all day long.  I was tired when we got there and I said to mom, "let's go out to eat for dinner".  Bless her heart she was tired too but she agreed and off we went.  Just about 3 miles up the road we see this stunning view.  The setting sun was shinning under the cloud cover and shinning on the opposite side of the lake.  I took lots of pictures but my poor camera is having a hard time focusing and this one was the best of the lot.

One of our drives took us below the 1990's water level.  

They just keep making the boat ramp longer and longer.

Hoover Dam.  The old highway use to go right across the top of the dam.

This is the new bridge opened in 2010.

We drove through the Valley of Fire State Park 

which is east of Las Vegas.

Then the next day we drove to the west side of Las Vegas and drove through Red Rock Canyon.  

If you look real hard you can see people walking on the rocks.

This is what happens when you dump a load of rocks alongside the road. 

Part of Red Rock Canyon seen to the right in the background.

We saw some wild burros along the road.

We're back in the Quartzsite area for a few days and then we will head back to the Yuma area for a week or two.  Today I'll meet up with a few friends for lunch in town and then maybe drive out to Crystal Hill to find some crystals hopefully.  We shall see.

By for now.

Evie

My current neighbor