Los Angeles....Palm Springs....Las Vegas

Doesn't that sound like it should be a Beach Boys song?!?!?

Our last sea day aboard the Norwegian Star,

Arnold , Terry and I were finalists in a Slot tournament!!

3 out of 6 contestants were Canadian...

This moolah was coming home with.....

ME!!!!

We parted ways with our new Ontario friends and Anita and Bill

Arnold and I rented a car and drove to Palm Springs for the night 

to 

meet up with my parents who are in Yuma for the winter

The drive was pretty.

One of the pit stops had some unique 'treats'

Criscets and Larvae...Yummooo!!

I am more of a chocolate fiend...I passed.

The next day we drove to Las Vegas to reunite with Anita and Bill

I love the terrain changes through the desert...

We stopped in Needles, California for lunch...

We wanted a quick stop so we went to McD's

Definitely NOT ship food!!

It was better choice than Jack In the Box....

5 cop cars pulled up and arrested some dude.

Our view from McD's was close enough!!

It was our 34th anniversary the day we arrived in Vegas.

Our kids surprised us with Prosecco and Strawberries

Delicious!!  

It was the perfect late night snack!!

Thank you, Justin, Jeremy, Chantel and Jeramy

If you ever get a chance to go to California Pizza in the Mirage,

 you need to try the Thai chicken pizza

So Fresh and delicious!!

We also took in a show with the Duncans

We went to Mystere at Treasure Island

Walked till we couldn't..... checking out the strip...

It was Super Bowl Sunday Weekend

(who knew....Not us!!)

It was innnssssaaaanely busy!!

I love how even Liberty at NYC was even ready for the big game!!

All jersey-ed up!!

We were so tired of walking so when NBC asked us to review a sitcom

We jumped on it!!

Who KNEW Jose made 'to go' margaritas?

We do now!!

Our last evening was spent at PIFF, the Magic Dragon

He was a contender on America's Got Talent.

He is talented for sure but this was a low budget show.

Definitely added to the humour though!

Then......

It was HOME COLD HOME for us!!

Back to reality and time to get ready for calving...

Bundle up....it's freeeezing out there!!

(-34C to be exact.....)

Christa 

Hello Palm Springs

I know... 

I have been a travelling fool lately.

My sisters really wanted me to go on a sisters trip.

They chose Palm Springs. 

I resisted for the longest time but had guilt as I always say no.

So I went.

Arnold's cousins own a house in Sun City Palm Desert

 so 

we rented their fabulous accommodations!!

Thank you, Allen and Cheryl and Greg and Trish!!!!

It even had it's own little casita for Mom and Dad to stay in!!

It was a beautiful place to stay!

The sisters have never gone

 to see where our parents boon dock out

 in The Yuma Proving Grounds

So we took a drive through Quartsite to tour a little of Arizona.

I didn't get a lot of pictures as I drove

 and 

my sisters were irritated every time I asked them to take one.

I keep telling them.... a picture is better than a thousand words!!

Mom gave us directions to find them.

One of them was to turn at the two big guns.

We were thinks GUNS???

Then we came across this.....

Yup.... that is some big guns!!

The Proving Grounds is where they do a lot of training and trials.

After a few mixed messages we found them in the middle of the Desert...

Literally!!

Our friend, Joel also stays out there so it was good to see him also!!

The weather was awesome too!!

On the way back to Palm Springs,

 we went by Yuma and Salton Sea.

There were fields

 of 

Broccoli, cauliflower, beans, artichokes, killer lettuce 

and

 strawberries.

I would love to have done a farm tour.

Maybe next time....

Loved the jacked up New Holland tractors!!

They need the height to get over the plants.

The Desert Sand Dunes were incredible too!!

I can only imagine how dangerous this would be in a wind storm!

It was strange to see hay being grown in such a contrast of landscape.

It was sand everywhere!!

The next day mom and dad came up to Palm Desert to hang out with us.

It has been years since were had spent time with just us as the 'original' family

Don't get me wrong, I love all our entire family 

but

this was like being kids again.

We talked them into playing a game we found at the house.

Cards against Humanity.

It was a good thing there were no kids around as this was adults only!!

We saw dad in a whole new light!

He doesn't like games but I am not sure why not??

He won...he was so good at fooling us!!

He shocked us with his answers to the questions!

We had some crazy good laughs.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

Christa