California

A Date in the Desert

A Date in the Desert

I love how much you can learn while traveling, as long as you are curious and ask questions. We recently decided to trade a portion of our wet and windy Pacific Northwest winter for some dry, sunny days in southern California. En route driving south, we suddenly started noticing crooks, curved posts along the highway with… what was it? Was that a bell in top? Or a lantern? We couldn’t tell while zooming past so we stopped to investigate…

Southern California: Whose Fault Is It Anyway?

Southern California: Whose Fault Is It Anyway?

We were hiking in an oasis near Palm Springs. Having driven here through endless dry, sandy desert, I marvelled out loud about the presence of water in the desert. “Well,” said the volunteer park ranger, “that’s because of the cracks in the earth here. Water comes up from underground and is collected in the canyons along these cracks. You are standing on top of the San Andreas Fault here.” And she pointed to my feet.