Carli's Perspective on Joshua Tree

"We had a great time climbing the mountain. Dad and I decided to climb a number of big rocks. The view was incredible when you got to the top. My shoes were grippy (thankfully) as well as the rocks so it was not that hard. Mom and Pearl sat at the bottom watching us tackle the rocks. There was a strong breeze that could of surely knocked us over but we held our ground. I took a lot of amazing and stunning pictures over the hike which you will see on the blog in a short amount of time. Each person in our family had a job to keep Pearl going. I was the photographer, Pearl was the leader and model in most of the pictures, dad was the producer, and mom was the director. The hike was 1 mile and not to long, but Pearl had a tough time at the end, but we bribed her with a cookie. After the park we decided to head back to the hotel. Mom and dad went to the gym, while Pearl and I went to the hot tub, then cooled off in the pool. We had dinner at a very good restaurant named LuLu. I had a hamburger and french-fries, and Pearl got a margarita pizza. Then, for dessert we had triple layer chocolate cake, and vanilla ice cream."

A Few More PS Pics

 Hotel Lobby

 Orange Tree right outside our hotel room.  We ate oranges every day!

 Frank Sinatra's home

 Elvis Honeymoon hideaway

Christmas in Palm Springs

We were lucky enough to spend the week of Christmas in Palm Springs.  We had never been there and were looking forward to the sun and warmth (compared to our grey Pacific Northwest skies).  Our hotel was magical and swanky with an incredible pool area and was the playground for Frank Sinatra and his rat pack back in the days.  I have a ton of pictures and will need to cull through them and send them out in separate posts.  Here's what we did:

Day 1: We got acquainted with Palm Springs and read all the famous stars on the sidewalks.  We also were amazed by the 34 foot statue of Marilyn Monroe. Seward Johnson of Johnson & Johnson is the artist and it is remarkably realistic (except for the sheer size).  It is in Palm Springs through June 2013.  We also had some pool time, of course!

Day 2:  We went on a self-guided mid century architecture tour.  We saw some pretty cool buildings, both residential and commercial, including Frank Sinatra's house and Elvis' honeymoon hideaway.  Pool, again, too!

Day 3:  (Christmas Day)  We drove through Rancho Mirage and Old Town LaQuinta.  Not much was open due to the holiday so we had plenty of pool time on this day, too.

Day 4:  We went to Joshua Tree National Park.  This park is stunningly beautiful and almost surreal in the way the rocks are organized.  There are all kinds of rocks...gritty and smooth.  Carli and Eric had a great time climbing a few of them.

Day 5:  On this day we went spent the first half of the day at the pool and then went to the Palm Springs Art Museum.  It had same amazing contemporary art, glass art and two outdoor gardens.  We then went to a new hip restaurant called Workshop.  It reminded us of the many cool restaurants in Portland.  One thing Palm Springs is definitely lacking is good restaurants.  This restaurant was probably the closest thing.  After dinner we went to Village Fest which is this open air market in downtown PS.  They close off the street to traffic and there are artisans, farmers markets and everything in between.

Day 6:  Pool time ALL day long.  It was great and even close to decadent given that we had the pool boys deliver us drinks and lunch!  It was the perfect way to end our vacation.

Tokyo

A few interesting pics from Tokyo.  Eric says that the next time we go out for sushi he is going to show me how Japanese eat sushi.  I can hardly wait to find out how I have been doing it wrong all these years!

Beijing

According to Eric, you never know what you will see in China and so he sent this recent picture while he is in Asia this week.  Is it a car?  Truck?  Bike?  Who knows?!

2nd Annual Great Groff Christmas Tree Hunt

First choice

You may recall that last year was our first ever "real" tree.  We had such a great time, we decided a repeat was in order.  Last year it was cold, but at least sunny.  This year, the weather did not cooperate as much; it was cold and WET!  So wet, that we considered going the "pre-cut" route.  Instead we decided we would choose quickly.  Of course, choosing quickly is easier said than done, when you have Carli and Eric.  We considered this little guy first.

We moved on to this one...

But ended up with a third one that we did not get a picture of.  Us girls sat in the car while Eric tied the tree down tight.  He was well prepared this year with rope, towels and even an extra pair of shoes.  We drove home in the rain and figured it would wash the tree down before we dragged it in the house. 

Eric assembled the tree stand, stuck the tree in (after I showed him how) and brought it inside.  The girls were excited to get the lights on and put the numerous sentimental ornaments on the tree.  We have all of Eric's childhood ornaments plus we have a yearly ornament we get for each of the girls. 

I forget how much work it really is, especially when the weather does not work in your favor.  But, alas, I think the tree looks pretty good!