Part 12???? How can a 7 day trip turn into a 12 part series???
Sort of reminiscent of Gilligan's Island and the 3 hour tour.
Enough of that, and on with my show ...
Next stop was the Carousel of Endangered Species. $2 a ride and for those like me who can't handle roller coasters or death defying carnival rides, the round and round and round motion of a gentle carousel was right up my alley.
I enjoy taking pictures ... as you well can guess by now ... but rarely get a picture taken of myself. I knew that I couldn't miss this photo opportunity and so kindly asked my Hubby to snap one of me.
This was his first attempt ...
a close up of my shirt!
A repentant soul.
He did a much better job next whirl around, although it sort of looks like I am hanging on for dear life doesn't it???
Not so, I enjoyed the carousel in the middle of the desert very much.
Ugh. What takes you, dear blog readers, a minute to read, usually takes me about 30 - 40 minutes to put together. Today, it will take twice that long. I down loaded many pictures ready to post and had finished about 3/4 of today's post, when my little finger hit some key and WHAM everything was gone. Ugh.
Here we go again ... Our next stop at The Living Desert was the outdoor miniature train display.
I will post many pictures today to help you visualize this marvelous display. Keep in mind that it is ALL outdoors. Hard to fathom that Palm Desert has 360 days of sunshine a year. An outdoor display like this would never work where I live in the West Coast. It boggles my mind for sure.
There were many trains traveling throughout the 'towns'.
They even stopped at train stations!
Among the many scenes was the Wigwam Motel.
A vintage wild west street.
A grave yard complete with a person rising from their grave. Proof that there are zombies in Palm Desert! Not.
A dare-devil skier attempting a stunt off of a roof
Mount Rushmore off in the distance. Remember that these men are only about 6" high.
Many different railway tracks and tunnels and buildings and structures and landscapes.
Even a train wreck. Pretty realistic if you ask me.
And then there was a lowly, small homestead with a groovy VW van parking in its yard. This Bug Van reminded Dreamer of a friend she has named ChUn (code name to protect her innocence), who has a dream of road tripping in one of these machines.
Then came the Grand Canyon. It was vast and deep and wide.
Lots to see and imagine.
This shot shows you the vastness of the display AND The Living Desert Zoo. On and on it went.
Hard to believe that we had only circled half of the miniature train display at this point.
Some sort of village shown here ... can't remember if it is past or present dwellings.
And then as we leave the train display, we happen upon a perfect photo opportunity. Can't resist those 'put your head in the hole and shoot' pictures!
On the Thursday of our vacation week we ventured out to the Living Desert in Palm Desert. Check out their site here: The Living Desert. Established in 1970 this desert zoo has expanded to some 1,800 acres. Relatively inexpensive to visit (Adults are $12.75 each), I can highly recommend this tourist attraction when you visit California.
When we first entered, we were cheerfully greeted by a zoo representative who answered any questions that we had, and suggested where to go and what to see next. First stop was an enclosed reptile and snake 'cave'. There was the cutest little turtle chomping on his breakfast.
And not so cute lizard.
Then came an outdoor animal show that was very well done. We sat in a small bleacher area out of the sun and these funny yet informative zoo keepers came out with a great variety of zoo residents. Each animal was well trained and put on quite a show.
One such beast was a very large porcupine.
See him running after the zoo keeper?
Then came this small yet adult aged cat 'of some kind'. We were told to keep still in our seats as this fuzzy kitten is quite a killer.
For a closer view, this zoo keeper brought out a small variety of fox with giant ears that were used for air conditioning. Actually it was said that he had 'ear' conditioning! Ha ha. Good one.
Although the zoo is not a Christian organization, the facts and figures given could only prove that there is a Creator. It is fascinating to hear how God has planned out His creatures.
To wrap up the show, two dishes with 'salad' were placed on the sandy floor. As the instructor continued to speak, two tortoises slowly made their way from either side of the stage to find their dinner.
We paid a little extra and purchased passes for All-Day Shuttle privileges. I am just too old to be hiking 1,800 acres in the heat of the desert. Every 15 minutes these shuttles would pass by and all you had to do was wait at the Shuttle Pick Up Areas or simply flag them down. The driver was well versed in pointing out the attractions of the zoo, answer any questions that we had, and was willing to stop at any time to let us off or allow us to take pictures.
Well worth the $6 price.
And finally a picture of Hubby and I.
If you get a chance to visit THE LIVING DESERT, don't forget your sun glasses, sun screen, camera (see mine in hand) and water bottles. There are water fountains EVERYWHERE in the zoo, but we had brought our stainless steel insulated coffee/water thermos (best purchase we ever made from Costco) and for most of the day had ice water. We just kept filling them up at the water fountains.
They did warn us to keep hydrated as they have had instances of fainting zoo goers. I am not too much of a sun lover, but this zoo had shaded areas everywhere, the shuttle train was covered, and there were areas of water misted seating along the paths. In my opinion anyone will enjoy this zoo whether young or older.
By its name you would think that Palm Springs is a lush tropical paradise full of beautiful trees and flowers with a babbling brook trickling over water falls ... But you are mistaken. The surrounding mountains are desolate and the plains are dry and dusty and for the first time in my 49 years, I saw a real live ... er dead ... tumbleweed blowing in the wind.
But Palm Springs did contain much beauty.
The cactus's ... cacti (?) ... were amazing. Splashes of colour here and there to excite my eyes.
Johnnie-Girl explored one cactus VERY closely
And yep, it's true ...
those needles are sharp like needles
The bug life in the desert was very different to what we are used to. Luckily we were not pestered by many insects, (I hate bugs), but Dreamer found this monster insect sucking nectar or water from a plant. It was about 2 or 3 inches long!
There then there were the many different types of palm trees to be seen. We figure that this one is used to make hula skirts.
To help you understand how big some of them grow ... realize that I am pointing the camera straight up to get this shot. So unusual.
We stopped at a very informative Visitor Information Station and was blessed with a woman who wanted to share ALL she knew about the desert, its plants and animals. They even had a display of animal and bird droppings ... I think it is called 'scat'. Don't be too revolted ... the display was under glass.
They also had a display of the local snakes. Fortunately these 'stuffed' ones were the only ones that we encountered on our trip.
Next stop was the Carousel of Endangered Species. $2 a ride and for those like me who can't handle roller coasters or death defying carnival rides, the round and round and round motion of a gentle carousel was right up my alley.
He did a much better job next whirl around, although it sort of looks like I am hanging on for dear life doesn't it???
Round and round we go. 
