Yep, we're still here. A lot has been revealed since our last blog entry. We spent a week in San Diego and discovered that we may very well be choosing it as our second home site. At first I was resistant to the idea of city life, but once we began looking at some of the downtown condos and I was able to get a feel for what URBAN living might be like, we sort of began transforming our thoughts from the Active Adult Community living, to possibly living on the edge as Urbanites in downtown San Diego. It totally goes against both of our natural inclinations, but San Diego is not San Francisco, nor is it Seattle. San Diego has a city atmosphere but I would describe it as much less intense. The freeways don't appear to have traffic jams on them and the downtown area has several interesting neighborhoods that have unique personalities to them.
One of the things we learned is that if we had a condo with a view, we would prefer it to face the Northwest. That would do a few things for us. It would save us from intense all day sunlight and it gives us/Claude a view of the San Diego airport and the planes landing there which is very interesting to watch. It also has a view of the water on the NW side and there is always something happening on the water. I did a little research and contacted a few realtors who specialize in Downtown Condo Real Estate. We chose one who will be working with us in January when we return home from the holidays in Washington. He has a great web site for those of you who like looking at things like that. Check him out at http://www.livingatthetop.com/ He is very knowledgeable about future development in San Diego's downtown area and one thing we know for sure is that we would want to have an idea of what sort of view blockage could occur with future buildings that may be built at various locations around the downtown area. San Diego has big plans for updating and making the downtown area more pedestrian friendly. It already has a good transit system to get around or to get up and down the coast. This would be important for Urban living. They are planning on having a park within 5 to 10 walking minutes of anyplace in the downtown area and a new pedestrian bridge that goes from the Harbor to the downtown area. It is really well planned and should be very nice when they get it done. We have looked at a few condo buildings. Some we didn't like and some we did. One we really liked is called the Sapphire Tower. It has a great NW condo that would be perfect for us and a visitor. We have not seen all the condos yet so we are not sure if we will go with that building or another. Most condos are rather small in square footage and we want to have enough room for ourselves and a couple of visitors at a time without feeling like we are squeezed together in a hotel room. We kind of like the 2000 s.f. range but we don't know how that will work for us in the long run. It may need to be smaller. But regardless, there will be a room for visitors since I can't think of one person I know who wouldn't like to visit San Diego in the middle of winter for a week. And that means you! We were thrilled to be reminded by my sister Colleen, that Allegiant Air flies direct to San Diego from Bellingham twice a week so there is no excuse not to come. Also the Amtrax drops off right down town so trains are a possibility as well. This is all still in the new thinking stage, but it feels pretty good to think about doing the downtown San Diego living now while we are not too old...and maybe the Active Adult community when we get a little older. We'll keep you informed on how it all goes.
After we went to San Diego, we came over to Indo/Palm Springs where we have our RV (Motorcoach) site. This is the third winter we have had it. We bought it before we even had our RV. The cart before the horse. I have two videos of where we park the motorhome for your viewing pleasure. It is really nice here and we like it a lot. I also have a picture of the entrance to the RV park. They like to plant lots of flowers (pink and red of all colors). I put a couple of photos of Claude and I on the couch in the motorhome and Claude reading in his chair. We have it pretty nice. Today we are putzing around, cleaning, catching up on things and just hanging out. Seems like we are always doing something or going somewhere trying to learn something new or discover something we need to discover. Isn't that what life is all about? We drove here from San Diego then within two days up and left for Phoenix. We had on our list several Adult Communities to check out in the Phoenix area. Once there, we realized it is not for us. I think we caught the Urban living bug in San Diego so that may be part of our lack of interest in lookiing further at Active Adult Comm. especiallly in Phoenix. We do the like Dell Web Shadow Hills here in Palm Springs area. We even have our favorite houseplan picked out now, so if we decide against San Diego, we will probably choose this area and Dell Web. It is very nice there and easyliving, organized, dependable etc... I think we still have a few good years left in us for some wild living. We'll see.
In Phoenix we went to the Greyhound Dog races. I had a photo of me but it got delete somehow. Here's one of Claude. We had fun at the races. I won several times and Claude did too but I made enough to pay my way. We bet "Across the Board" which means you choose a dog then if it wins, places or shows you win whatever they are paying. Once I won almost $50 dollars on one and I paid $6.00 for the Across the Board. The dogs love to run and race each other. Other than that, they are very mellow and tame. You would think they would be hyperactive but they sleep a lot they say. I sort of wondered if it was dog abuse but I haven't decided yet. I have it on my list of things to research. Also a couple photos of some art we saw at the Heard Museum. It was a museum that focused on the Native American Indians. I was sad to hear that they were taken from their parents as children and forced to attend Christian boarding schools, cut off their hair and given American names while stripping them of their native culture. I am so ignorant of what history has done to many cultures and this was heart breaking to learn about. I really do not appreciate any government intervention on the choices we have or want to make for our own selves including the right to choose life, gay marriage or any other right. It was only a few decades ago women were not allowed to vote so how insane was that thinking? Okay enough of that...
We are both very relieved and happy that Tash is doing so well. She is reporting to me her magnificent recovery and that she met with a medical intuitive and naturopathic doctor she really had a positive experience with. We are so pleased her body is healing and she is feeling happy and healthier. Now to get a little bit of a chubby cheek look on her since I'm sure she is very thin. I wonder what it would be like to worry about being to thin? Gosh, that has never crossed my mind in my whole life and certainly not after all the delicious eating we have been doing on this trip.
We are back here in Indio until Saturday the 13th when we fly home. Claude's brother Tom and his friend Jason are visiting in Palm Springs so we hope to connect with them. Also our friends Terrie and Ron Dupuis are on our list to connect with too. I look forward to seeing all or most of you soon when we come home. Love and Hugs to each of you. Here are the two videos below of our RV site in the Desert.
