Scoop Fountain Hills: Going Back to Cali

Photo from: AZ Central

How was everyone's 4th of July? We decided to spend ours in southern California, visiting friends we met while boating. We were tired of the heat and needed a road trip, so we packed up the car for what looked like a 2-month trip and took off for our 6-hour drive to the west. We don't normally pack that much for 4 days, but we lived on the (foggy) coast of California for 2 years and know we can experience all kinds of weather, so played it safe. We decided to take I-8, hoping to avoid any traffic and construction on I-10 and did just that.

The drive has all kinds of cool stuff along the way, the best part being the Imperial Dunes just on the other side of Yuma. We've driven through these before, but I've never noticed the bright blue aqueduct running throughout it. It's such a crazy contrast. Unfortunately, the photos are not doing it any justice.

This photo's from Shutterbug

On either side of this 40-mile desert area is a huge, bright green farm and a lush golf course. Go figure. If we keep not getting rain, this may be many towns in CA and AZ someday.

Next up are some huge wind generators.

And then we drove through our former sailboat's namesake (a lot of translations are out there, but we liked "hut by the water" or "look at the water" in the Kumeyaay language).

Just on the other side of Jacumba is a strange heavily bouldered area.

And before we knew it, we were there! We went 411 miles on just 3/4 tank of gas. We love our Mini Cooper. We also enjoy a nice sunset.

Meanwhile, a dust storm barreled through Arizona, right along the corridor we'd just driven (both photos from AZ Central's Facebook page).

For the July 4th day, we headed to the community lake to see what they had going on for entertainment.

Well, the singing was a bit painful, but the wildlife was pretty. Have you ever seen a black swan? We hadn't and thought they were tarred or something at first.

Most of California is not only brown, but a bright orange from the drought, but the neighborhood we were in sits on a lot of groundwater, so it was pretty lush. We thought this cactus flower was fake. It wasn't.

Once darkness fell, we watched several fireworks displays right from the backyard. It was quite civilized. Saturday morning, Michael & I headed up a paved, very steep hill to get some exercise.

On the way there, I had a little too much fun with this thing.

I debated photoshopping it to say 55mph...

Up top were some great views.

And lots of development. Lots. My camera got sweat or something on it, so many pictures came out foggy, sorry.

You could see the ocean, but there was a thin marine layer (fog) hanging over it, as usual.

The road we were hiking was very steep. A lot like the hills on St. Kitts, only without the monkeys. Well, if you don't count Michael.

That done, it was then time to hit a couple of breweries to celebrate a 30th birthday (unfortunately not ours; that train left the station a looooong time ago). 4 little taster beers for $5. Not too shabby.

Our final day, we hit the beach in the morning, before heading home. You can't go to California, and not go to the beach.

This actually was the same beach we used to live near. And the water was just as cold. Michael had planned on dunking himself but lasted about a minute with just his feet in the water. I didn't even dip my toe in.