A week in Palm Springs!

Wendy and Eric headed for a week in Palm Springs California during Eric's university reading week. Adam had won two return flights anywhere Porter Airlines flies, so he gave them to us and we selected Palm Springs as our destination. This one will be a long post - sorry!

We were lucky to get out of Toronto, as a major storm was brewing and started just as we were getting ready to fly out. De-icing was necessary. It was a good time to exit - Adam was stuck using the snowblower several times while we were away.

We arrived on time Saturday just after lunch and it was over 25C and very sunny! Much of the Palm Springs airport is outdoors. Seems strange to see grass and palm trees inside an airport!

We headed over to the AirBnB we rented (a casita - mini house - with the main back yard shared with the owners). Their place was spectacular!  The hot tub was used every single day we were there! Lots of shade and many places to lounge. We also had our own small enclosed patio outside our patio door.

Our first event was the Woozy Boozy Brunch, a famous drag show at the PSAir bar. The setting is the inside of a classic airliner (seats and all). Lots of fun, and lots of Canadians there.

We wandered the downtown area and found the 40ft tall statue called "Marilyn Forever".

The back yard of the AirBnB had oranges and lemons!  Wendy enjoyed picking her first orange, and it tasted great! 

The fully enclosed back yard itself was clothing optional, so Eric took advantage of that feature every single day! One of the hosts picked an orange and a lemon and made Eric a very strong margarita.

Eric took a trip on his own to the Palm Springs Air Museum and enjoyed the displays.

Later that day we walked over to the Moorten Botanical Gardens and took in their extensive cactus display. It was pushing 30C, so we got an Uber back and did more hot tub time. 

The next day was a strenuous hike at the Tahquitz Canyon. They would not let you in if you didn't have 16 oz of water each, and that was for good reason. Some shade in the canyon, but very hot most of the time. 

We rented a car on the Wednesday and drove out of town to visit the Shields Date Garden. This famous store and botanical gardens was beautiful, with lots of citrous fruits and date palms everywhere. The date milkshakes are famous (invented here in the Coachella Valley) and the restaurant for lunch was spectacular. 

Date shake

On the way back to town we went to the Cabot's Pueblo Museum. It was hot, we were tired, but we walked around for a few minutes.

Another trip outside of the city was the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.  This gondola ride up 8500 feet was excellent and the gondola itself rotated slowly on the way - so you could see everything. The temperature was closer to 2C in the shade and there was snow up there. The views of the city were spectacular! 

We later went to some outlet malls in Cabazon (three of them close together) for some shopping. Thursday night is the weekly Palm Springs Village Fest and Market. It was also the one night each week that the Palm Springs Art Museum is free, so we took a walk through the museum then wandered in the market. It was nearly 20C and we saw people wearing parkas! As this was our last night in the city, we stopped in at a nice restaurant and had a great meal. On the way home, we just happened to walk by a sports bar and caught the final goal of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament where Canada beat the USA. The two people who were outside on the patio started cheering (they were Canadian) so we cheered along with them!

Friday morning we got up early and Eric picked a few oranges to go. After checking out, we headed out to Joshua Tree National Park, named after the famous trees that are plentiful in the park. This huge park was about an hour away, but the traffic was very bad trying to get out of the city. 

We entered the park from the south (Cottonwood) entrance and drove through to the north. It takes about 3 hr to drive through the park, but we stopped at all sorts of interesting spots. 

Teddy Bear Cholla cactus

Joshua Tree

Keys View - very cold and windy on the top of a mountain

After we exited the park at the north side into the town of Joshua tree, we stopped and did some shopping at a quaint store. Later, we headed to the next town over (Yucca Valley) and checked into a theme hotel for our last night. This turned out to be more on the tacky side of interesting, but it was an experience!

Jungle themed room

Back to the airport we went to return the rental car. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed by several hours, so we waited from about 10:30 am to after 4pm before boarding. The outdoor airport allowed us to walk around periodically in the heat, then sit in the air-conditioned gate area.  We landed close to midnight in Toronto and Adam picked us up.

Likely near the Mojave National Preserve on our climb out from Palm Springs

Toronto at night

A week (-1) in Newfoundland

OK, this is going to be a long post...

We recently got back from our trip to Newfoundland with our friends Terry and Theresa and there were thousands of photos to choose from. I have cut them down to give the flavour of the trip. 

After our airline (Lynx, a new budget airline) cancelled our flight for Saturday, we were rebooked for Sunday and ended up having 1 day less than a week in Newfoundland. No much we could do about that...

July 24

On arriving late on Sunday (flight was delayed leaving Toronto... not a surprise), we picked up a car from the owner (via a car share company called Turo - it was the only way we could secure a vehicle), then went to a grocery store and Swiss Chalet for dinner. Oddly, Swiss Chalet ran out of chicken (rotisserie chicken, specifically)! I had a Nashville Spicy Chicken sandwich that had a scoop of vanilla ice cream (yes, ice cream) that was drizzled in honey. Surprisingly good. It was dark when we got to the cottage in Conception Harbour where we were staying. It was still very hot, as there was a heat warning in place and St. John's was over 30C that day.

Yes, vanilla ice cream on a spicy chicken sandwich

Eric, Wendy, Theresa, and Terry

July 25

Our first full day saw slightly cooler temperatures and gorgeous views over the harbour. 

The view from the stairway window

Our first outing was to go hiking at the Bay Roberts East Shoreline Heritage Walk. Amazing views and lots to look at. 

Wendy with the shell of a sea urchin

We went to a tiny restaurant in the middle of nowhere (the Madrock Cafe) that is purported to have the best toutons in Newfoundland.  Toutons are a traditional fried bread dough specialty, often served with molasses. They were fantastic!

Two toutons with molasses - one also had cinnamon sugar

We took another drive to the town of Dildo to see the famous 'Hollywood style' sign and to visit the Dildo brewery. 

Another drive and we reached Harbour Grace (home of comedian and actor Jonny Harris from Murdoch Mysteries and Still Standing). We went primarily to check out the monument and statue for Amelia Earhart, who took off from this town on her record breaking first solo transatlantic flight.

Amelia Earhart statue

Back to the cottage we went and dipped our feet in the blistering cold North Atlantic water.

We were joined by two humpback whales only 20 m from the dock just before dinner!

Humpback whale

After dinner, a neighbour waved us over and asked if we would like some fresh cod. He threw a line in the water from the dock and caught a cod within seconds each time he cast. He caught three and the neighbours got together to fillet them for us. Very friendly people!

Not exactly kissing the cod, but close enough!

July 26

The next morning we headed out early for a long drive to the Edge of Avalon Interpretation Centre for a tour of Mistaken Point and the fossils that are there. The fossils are famous for being the earliest known record of complex animal life (with no skeleton) at about 565 million years old. They were animals on the sea floor when they were alive. The long hike and tour was damp, as it was drizzling and misty the whole time. To walk on the fossil locations, we all had to take our shoes off.  Was a little chilly and made it feel even more damp to have wet feet.

Wendy with a Bake Apple (a berry)

Back apple

One of the surfaces with pre-Cambrian fossils

Yes, we had no shoes. Had to take them off to protect the fossils.

We drove for another 15 minutes or so to find the Cape Race lighthouse. It was difficult to see the lighthouse in the thick fog, which was kind of disconcerting... considering the purpose of a lighthouse.

We cooked the cod that evening and it was spectacular!

July 27

More fog the next morning, so we stopped at the ship wreck only a few hundred metres away from the cottage.

Our goal was Ferryland and a pre-arranged lighthouse picnic. It was very wet getting there, but it stopped raining after our arrival at the lighthouse while we ate. It started drizzling again as we finished eating.

Garbage cans were painted creatively

Cape Race

Inukshuks on a ridge, plus a person

Fog makes pictures look more mysterious

On the way back, we headed to the Rooms (museum and art gallery) in St. John's. Lots of great art (many Group of Seven paintings) and some interesting displays on Newfoundland history.

The Rooms

View of downtown St. John's and Signal Hill from the Rooms.

We saw more whales in the harbour this evening, but they were further away and were Minke whales rather than humpbacks.

July 28

We had more wildlife visit us the next morning - a bald eagle! 

Our tour for the day was the Gatherall's puffin and whale tour in Bay Bulls.  We got on a relatively large boat and had a great tour in the perfect sunny and warm weather. Puffins were everywhere (300,000 of them breed in this area) and had a mother and calf humpback whale keep close by for photos.

Puffin racing away from the boat - they are not good fliers

Whales have distinctive tails. We sent this one in to a website to see if it was previously identified.

Seagulls also covered parts of Gull Island

Puffins on Gull Island

Puffins have orange feet and an orange beak... but only around mating season

A puffin flying back to the island with a capelin (fish) in its beak

They fly close to the water when they are too heavy to get much higher - a bit ungainly looking

 

On the way back, we headed to St. John's and stopped at the Cape Spear lighthouse - the location of the most easterly point in North America. Cape Spear is also the location for Fort Spear, a WWII set of bunkers and shore defences.

Next stop... Europe and Africa

In the bunkers under the Cape

In the bunkers under the Cape

A shore defence gun

Most easterly point in North America

While driving through St. John's (too crazy busy to stop and park at Signal Hill or to get out and walk), we checked out the Jelly Bean Houses that are colourfully painted.

July 29

We took a quick jaunt the next morning to visit the town of Brigus (not far away from the cottage) to check out their tunnel. It was built in the mid 1800s to provide easy access to a deep water wharf.

We also looked at the Overfalls, a hiking area with a waterfall less than a km from the cottage. Nice spot, but only took about 20 minutes to look. Back to the cottage for a relaxing evening.

July 30

Our last morning (a Saturday) saw all the neighbours out cleaning their catch. Apparently they have specific days of the week when they can catch up to 15 cod for personal use. 

We checked out and drove back to St. John's to see whether there was a place to park at Signal Hill. There was, but it was raining and there was little that you could see. 

Signal Hill in the rain and fog

We took a leisurely lunch at a restaurant to waste some time before heading to the airport and returning the car in the afternoon, but with another flight delay, we were still way too early. We instead went to the Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Gardens and wandered around there in the drizzle. Nice gardens and well kept walking trails. 

Finally got to see a moose (a wooden one, at least)

A random berry (called bunchberries)

Lots of cultivated gardens as well as wilderness

Planted puffins

A nice rock garden and bridge

We eventually headed to the airport to drop everyone and the luggage off, while Eric went to return the car. He got a ride back to the airport by the car owner and the long wait to get on the plane began. We were supposed to leave at 6:55 but didn't actually take off until closer to 9:30. Of course, Lynx doesn't sell food on board, so we had to eat at the airport. Luckily we did this before all the restaurants closed at 7pm. However, $28 for two plain grilled cheese sandwiches was not our favourite meal on the trip. 

We arrived back in Toronto at 11:23pm local time but couldn't park because there was nobody available to marshal the plane to the gate. Once that happened, we waited again because there was nobody available to position the bridge up to the plane. After a lot of waiting (I think the pilot was getting embarrassed at making so many announcements), we got off the plane and headed to the baggage carrousel. Unfortunately, this was also when the real waiting began. They started the carrousel every once in a while, but NOTHING came out. Other flights got luggage from other carrousels, but not ours or the two other flights on the board. Over time, each of those flights got deleted from the board, and around 1:15, ours disappeared as well. All the passengers had tired of getting excited every time the carrousel started and getting sad when it stopped. Everyone sat where they could or on top of the hundreds of unclaimed bags laying around. 

Unclaimed bags at Toronto airport

We didn't get our luggage until 1:42 am (3:12 am on Newfoundland time), and didn't get home to Dundas until 3:00 am (4:30 am in Newfoundland). Not pleased with the new airline, we headed to bed before the sun rose.