Chhhhhatttttter - Day 10

It was an early but bright sunny morning on the day we planned for Joshua Tree Park. The view down our street was very promising for a gorgeous day. As you can see there is a Jewish Temple at the end of our street. My parents had already made friends with the neighbor lady...a Jewish widow. She had them over for 'drinks'. She explained to them that she had a lot of liquor in the house since he husband has once owned a lounge in L.A.! Anyhow, back to the story.

It was an hour drive to the park entrance. We drove up to the booth to pay our entrance fee to find the car ahead of us had already paid. The park ranger in the booth seemed really impressed with that so we didn't tell him that was our dad!

We drove a few miles to our first stop of the day. I had noticed that most people were wearing pufffy parkas and toques and mitts. I thought they must be wimpy locals who think anything under 70 degrees is cold. I opened up my car door once we parked the car and wanted to cry! The wind chill was absolutely frigid and I began to fear for my comfort and that of my children's.
We put everything we could find on Liam and then poked in everyone's trunk to see what else we could wrap that poor child in. We were ill equipped for below zero wind chills. So thankful that my coat was windproof but my hands and legs got really cold. The boys were very very lucky to be given an extra hoodie from grandad, a pullover from Uncle Andrew and a toque from Uncle Ron. What great men to sacrifice some of their layers for my boys!

It was a painful sort of cold and as beautiful as the surroundings were it was hard to enjoy them fully. My aunt and uncle had been here the week before and said they only wore sweatshirts and were perfectly comfortable.

It helped somewhat to find a rock that wasn't exposed to wind and flatten oneself against it like a lizard soaking up sunshine. We did this where ever we could.

Hugging and cuddling was the order of the day. Survival skills.

We had to stop often to make sure Liam was all tucked in. The wind would whip his blanket apart and expose his red and swollen little hands to the elements. He just sat there with watery eyes, not saying much.

Our group photo. I had the camera set up on a rock but just before the shutter clicked the camera moved due to the wind and Uncle Ron is half the man he used to be!

That cool rock has been carved by the wind to look like a bull. Very cool.

Some people in our party took it upon themselves to ride the bull. How they got up there so fast I'll never know.

After walking around the one mile trail loop we found a very sheltered area to eat our picnic lunch. We needed the fuel to warm up our insides and the break from the wind was a relief. Liam got a chance to unthaw a bit.

We hopped back into the cars and headed towards our next stop. The Joshua Trees stretch forever.

I decided that I had warmed up enough to give exploring another try. My mom was D.O.N.E. so she offered to keep Liam in her car. There was no way I was going to drag him out in this weather. It just wouldn't have been a smart decision. I did a bit of rock hopping like the youngsters until my camera flew out of my pocket and skidded across the rocks. That's when I too knew it was time to sit in the car and visit with my Aunt Carla who also could not tolerate the cold anymore.

Taking full advantage of the greenhouse effect in the car. Toasty warm!

I reprimanded the boys for collecting these rocks since we were in a National park. But they popped one in their mouth and laughed...they had 'got' me! Chocolate rocks from Uncle Ron.

Just a bit further down the road was Skull Rock. I think you can see why.

A different angle. And then it was back to the car for me!

Keith, Nathan and Chad explored with the other guys while I stayed back with Liam. Keith assured me that this rock jumping looked more dangerous than it was. The things that happen when mother isn't around to supervise!

We finally headed back down to the valley. We were at quite a high elevation which explained the temps.

One last stop at the Cholla Cactus garden. It was cold here but tolerable as it was lower elevation and the wind wasn't quite as strong.

The sun was getting low so the lighting was wonderful for photos.

Apparently these are nasty little plants that will 'jump' out and stick to you if you even slightly brush by them. We stayed far away.

We let Liam out to stretch his legs. It was a long day of being immobile for this little guy.

After seeing how much the boys enjoyed the rock candy, Uncle Ron gave his whole stash to the boys to take home. He's a great guy...thanks Uncle Ron!!!

After this last stop we headed to the exit to the park on the south end....we had entered at the north point. We stopped at the Visitor's Centre for a bathroom break and then headed home. At this point we left the gang behind as Liam fell asleep and we wanted to keep driving to keep him dozing. We got home and Keith got a delicious tray of sushi from just down the street from our house. My parents got home a while after us and we found that they had been to an In 'N Out for dinner! I knew they'd love it :)

After settling the kids to bed we got into the hot tub as I still felt chilled from our day out. Just cold to the bone but after an hour in 102 degree water I was warm, relaxed and very ready for bed. I believe Keith stayed up with my family to watch a James Bond movie but I simply could not keep my eyes open one moment longer.