Palm Desert Cross

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE

I REALLY need a vacation. My trip to the Sierras reinforced that. Thankfully, I'll be leaving for Tahoe this weekend and making a stop at Yosemite along the way. All I have to do is live through this week without going bonkers. I hope I'm able to do it.

While the temperatures here in the desert haven't been too bad--less than 110º--it's still too hot to go out for a good long hike during the day. That limits the choice of trails and that's another reason I need a vacation: I want to see some new terrain.

The trail to the Palm Desert Cross is good for a late summer afternoon because it is well shaded and it gains elevation fairly quickly offering nice views of Palm Desert below.

This is a view that to me never gets old. I love the outline of the cross against the sky.

Another view

If there's one nice thing about hiking in the desert in the summer it is the serenity. Kahlua and I had this entire trail to ourselves going up and back. It made for a very peaceful hike.

Even still, it'll be nice to see some new scenery. Hopefully, we won't have to be back here until the fall.

My Longest Vacation Ever

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY

As a kid nothing beat summer vacation. No school, never ending days and fantastic fun with friends made the time off school the best time of year. I never wanted summer vacation to end.

The same is not true for adults. I hate summer vacation. Most of my days off work are spent babysitting, refereeing and entertaining. There are no days of carefree blissfulness; disappointment and frustration are the norm. Today was one of those days.

No trip ever goes off as planned but during summer, it seems, no trips go off. Idyllwild was on to do list today and I'd hoped to go there after my wife returned from an eye doctor appointment. She was going to watch the boys but when she came home there was a big problem. She couldn't see. It is hard to watch someone without vision. By the time her eyesight returned to normal, it was too late. I can't wait for summer to end.

Instead of a trip to Tahquitz Peak as I would have liked, I did a little hike near home with Nikolas and friends. But my mind was in the mountains.

When I was here a few a months ago someone had built this little monument. In the intervening months it's been added to quite a bit.

The boys decide to take a break. It's not that they are really tired; they probably would've enjoyed the mountains more, too.

For some reason, they do not get as excited as I do about a pile of rocks left here to make a faint trail up a slope of loose rocks. I don't understand why.

They decide to wait and let me go ahead and I'm OK with that. A few minutes of peace and quiet does me well. A few hours or days would do more, though.

The boys get a little more motivated when it comes to climbing a little hill. We build a little wall beneath the hill and I promise we'll come back later to build a fort. I figure if I have to spend all my hours in the presence of ten year old I may as well do something fun for them.

I love my kids. But they say absence makes the heart grow fonder and it's those hours they spend in school that gives me time to miss them and love them more. Without it, the fondness wears off real quick.

School starts this coming year on August 31. I cannot remember school starting so early in my life. Even still this will be my longest vacation ever and I am counting the days until the kiddies are back in school. July 4th may be Independence Day but August 31 is when I will celebrate freedom.