(see previous post for some exposition)

remember Wienerschnitzel? a long time ago, one of Houston’s two dailies (the Post, I think) ran a snippet about my grandfather Ted’s visit to a Wienerschnitzel in Bellaire – he ordered “ein wienerschnitzel” at the drive-thru, trying to be funny, and the non-German-speaking person who took his order thought he wanted NINE wienerschnitzels – he had a hard time explaining why he wasn’t going to pay for nine hotdogs once his order arrived – and, yes, this made it into the paper (I have the clipping) – there weren’t as many mass killings and celebrity nip slips to cover back then, so newspapers had room to share anecdotes

Joshua Tree National Park: in the middle of this picture, you’ll see a ridge – that would be the San Andreas Fault – it runs right through the park – I felt some trembles during my visit, but I think it was just my usually dormant leg muscles responding to hiking up a mountain rather than anything earthly

the park is full of huge boulders strewn about like they’re in a giant’s sandbox and weird trees reaching for the sky (can’t tell if they’re asking “why?” or saying “you kids, get out of my yard”)

this was my first trip to the desert, and I was very taken with the unusual (to me) plant life – we only saw a few lizards here and there and the occasional bird – any other wildlife remained hidden from sight

Lost Horse Mine: sadly, the mine is all fenced off, which takes away from the magic of the machinery (and probably also takes away from potential lawsuits), check out the solar panel installed on top (?) – the hike was four miles, and because it was so hilly and curvy we felt like we were alone in the wilderness most of the time

Rorschach effect: I tried to keep my boulder interpretations to myself, but I did point out to James the two huge, round rocks that formed a big butt (not pictured)

Joshua Tree Inn: we stayed at this funky little inn right off the highway – the guitar is part of a memorial in the courtyard dedicated to Gram Parsons (who ODed and then died there) (he died in room 8 – we stayed in room 9) – he was supposedly going out in the desert to hunt for UFOs – there were weird noises in the room the entire night, probably pumped in by the owners to heighten the haunted feel of the place

this bird liked hanging out on top of the guitar – we saw him/her at night and then early in the morning

Newport Beach: I was really excited about being able to get so close to a couple of sea lions when James pointed out that there was probably something wrong with at least one of them





