Los Angeles to Quartzite, AZ

Leaving the bay area, we travelled to a lightly visited National Park, actually a double NP, Sequoia and Kings Canyon. We felt like we had driven to the end of the earth. Very few cars or people were seen in our 2 days there. The 2 largest (not the tallest) trees in the world, General Sherman & General Grant were their names. General Sherman is the largest by volume and it continues to grow each year. It is estimated at 2200 years old. What a site. We felt like midgets gazing at these trees. Driving up the side of the mountain to enter the park was a thrill. You could see where you came from down below and looked up to see where the road would take us. We enjoyed hiking among the Sequoia trees and climbed the 400 steps up Moro rock. What spectacular 360 panoramic view of the mountain ranges in the distance from the top of the rock ! We were so excited to get to the top of a rock without doing rock climbing with all the danger and equiptment. Kings Canyon was a canyon deeper than the Grand Canyon but not as large. The view down into the canyon was breathtaking.

Our next stop was Los Angeles to see Allie (Marge's youngest daughter) in college at Azusa Pacific University and my cousin Marilyn who live in Woodland Hills just north of LA. We arrived at our campground in VanNuys without hitting the famous LA traffic jams on the freeway. What a blessing! The drive through the " grapevine" on I-10 outside LA was a long uphill climb. We quickly understood why they have a huge number of accidents on this road in the fog. A drive down to the ocean on the winding roads thru the hillsides showed beautiful homes hanging from the hillsides. We drove thru Malibu and Santa Monica before we stopped at Venice Beach Boardwalk. The boardwalk is colorfully adorned by beauties and beasts on bikes, skateboards, and rollorblades. Many unusual shops dotted the boardwalk. We passed the muscle beach where we saw a gym where Governor Arnold reportedly worked out. Surfers abounded in the waves and a beautiful sunset was enjoyed.

We met Allie for lunch and a tour of her apartment and campus. It's a small Christian college, Azusa Pacific University, with 2 campuses. After a delightful lunch, we viewed artwork by Jackson Pollack on campus. We wondered what made it art, as it looked like any 2 year old could accomplish the same. One campus had beautiful modern buildings while the other was much older. We loved seeing Allie in her element with other students calling out to her as we walked by. Allie must be the most popular girl on campus. She loves the fact that her professors know her by name as her classes have about 15-20 students. The next day she was going home to celebrate her 20th birthday.

The next day was spent with my cousing Marilyn and her family. What a delightful visit we had. Marilyn was originally from St. Charles Il and had gone to nursing school at Little Company near my home when I was about 10 years old. She and my mom were best buddies in those days. She moved from Il to Conn to California. She is a psychologist by trade and enjoys doing it part time. We enjoyed meeting her daughter Ann and her husband David and her son Jim and his wife Monica. Jim is a photographer and Geri had lots of questions for him. Ann has an internet business called Plush Puffs, a gourmet marshmellow that she manufactures and sells. They were served at the Emmy Awards last year. So if you have sweet tooth, go to plushpuffs.com and try them.

Driving out of LA was a breeze as we left early in the AM. We headed down to Joshua Tree NP for the day. We walked among the chollas and unusual plants trying not to touch them as they sting. The Joshua trees were unique in size and shape growing only 1/2 inch a year, They were named by the early Mormons as they thought they were reaching up to heaven. Huge boulders were visible in many parts of the park. Their unique shapes were so appropriately named such as Skull rock. Many of the hiking trails required some scrambling over the boulders. We met many young people at this NP as they love to go "bouldering". They carried a huge mat on their back that they used to cushion the fall they probably would take while climbing up the boulders. You've got to be young to be a true boulderer. The hikes featured an old dam and a small arch by Arches standards, Seeing a roadrunner and a jackrabbit told us we were truly in the desert. A beautiful park that combines the Mohave dessert with the Colorado desert.

Our next drive took us south along the Salton Sea, the third largest inland salt-water lake in the US. A stop at the Sonny Bono Natl Wildlife Refuse rewarded us with sightings of many of Geri's favorite water birds. White pelicans, great blue herons, eggrets and woodstorks as well as many birds and ducks were spotted. We continued our drive very close to the Mexican border ( we could see the fences) to Yuma and points north. Tonight we are camping on BLM land outside of Quartzite Arizona. Tomorrow we will head north to Las Vegas where we will try our luck for a few days before we fly home to Chicago to visit our children and grandchildren.