Back on the app

After some fiddling around, I was able to get back on the old blog app on my phone and upload photos for the boys’ birthdays, yay! So I’m back in business. I felt disincentivized to blog without being able to share photos, especially when there’s trips or milestones involved. Glad that’s been resolved.

Last week was our spring break trip, which was a bit of a throwback to our pandemic travel days. We spent two nights in an Airbnb trailer in Bombay Beach and revisited some of that area that I think we last saw in 2021 or ‘22 - Salvation Mountain, East Jesus. And added on some things we missed last time along the south western tip of the Salton Sea such as the “mud volcanoes” (accessed next to a geothermal plant which involved some mild trespassing) and searching for some more geothermal pools out in the marshlands which we never did find. We finally got a meal at the Ski Inn (the only restaurant for miles). We also visited Shield’s Date Shakes in Indio and Slowjamastan (a self-declared sovereign nation in the desert) and did a hike in Anza-Borrego called The Slot. Here are some shots from that first two days:

Then we headed north to our cabin and hiked a gnarly trail called The Ladders which took nearly all day - slot canyons, bouldering, and an encounter with a baby rattler, but we survived! 

By the time we got to our cabin late Wednesday we were pretty tuckered out - and we were dealing with some pretty extreme winds which made us not want to do anything. I got us to go to the Mojave National Preserve for some sand boarding, but the winds were too intense and then Theo announced he had to poop, so we had no choice but to head back to the parking area and give up. I spent a small fortune on a two hour soak in a hot tub at a small hot spring resort about five minutes from our place that was, in my opinion, worth every penny.

Saturday we went to see Gary Numan at Pappy & Harriet’s (which was so awesome!) and drove home after.

Despite a little flailing around when we got to the cabin and not really having much to do, I thought it was a swell trip. So much so that I’ve been pretty sluggish and disoriented ever since I got back. It definitely didn’t help that Monday morning I had to get up at the crack of dawn to go line up to register the kids for summer camp. I was able to get Theo in, but apparently since Bobby is a CIT there’s now a separate interview and training process that he’ll have to go through before he’s admitted, so that still hangs in the balance. Then yesterday we were all bracing ourselves for nuclear war. So, needless to say, I’ve been a bit distracted!