Joshua Tree!

Oh heyyyyy, blog. I missed you. And I am so happy that the two-week span of sickness that kept me from my computer has passed, and indeed that it passed *just* in time for our trip to Joshua Tree! A few months ago, Eric showed me this cool map thing that would tell you where your closest National Park was. And it’s Joshua Tree! I guess I sort of already knew that since we had passed it on our way to Vegas during the gigantic road trip of 2015. I pretty much fixated on getting to see those majestic trees, and I had read that the rock formations and history were pretty cool too. Also, Joshua Tree is home of the tiny World Famous Crochet Museum! And just a short drive away is the old Western film set known as Pioneertown, complete with the ever delicious Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace. So, basically, resistance was futile. I was a moth to a desert flame. AND I talked Hillary and her family into coming, thus quadrupling the awesome and making this the Second Annual Cartibellm Desert Extravaganza! (Last year we went to Julian and Anza Borrego. I appear to have not written a blog post about this, which is quite a shame!)

Although we hit some major traffic on our way (and both swore never again to leave LA on a Friday after noon), the house we rented made up for all that with its great gorgeousness (I mean, seriously, check it out!). When we went to Julian last year, our little tiger cried most of the night. This time he did much better! However, my traitorous iPhone randomly started playing a podcast REALLY LOUD at 4:53am on Saturday, and I, in my asleep state, kept turning it back on when I was trying to turn it off, so the little tiger can hardly be blamed for his rooster-like morning appearance, can he? Here he is enjoying his breakfast. Tiny angel.

And here he is strapping his bear in for breakfast. Heart. Broken. Plus two bonus adorable girls in the background reading Roald Dahl. Micah was IN LOVE with them. I can hardly blame him!

After much coffee, we were ready to head to the park. We really must get a National Parks pass because Danny and Hillary zipped right past us in the fast lane! I will try to limit myself to just a few pictures of the trees and landscape because I have millions of them.

The Joshua trees were in bloom! So exciting for this desert nerd.

This is a baby Joshua Tree. I always thought that the green shoots looked soft, but they are actually hard and spiky. Apparently they belong to the also spiky yucca family. Cool.

Jumping cholla! I love it so much. I just don’t want to be super close to it. For reasons of stabbiness.

When cholla dies, it leaves these amazing sticks behind. I gathered up 2(00) of them from the back yard of our rental house. Ones with no spikes still attached, of course.

Before too long, we came across this rusted old car, which was a very big hit with the kids.

How did our little tiger do? Great! I think his life motto is, “Have graham cracker, will travel.” He likes being up high in the backpack so he can see. It helped that the weather was just about perfect–not too hot, not too windy. And we got there pretty early in the day (thank you, rooster), so it wasn’t too crowded for a while.

A nice Joshua Tree family portrait. Micah is looking at the car, of course.

An atmospheric ruin of a desert home.

After this first foray we took a climb through the rocks down to Barker Dam. Such cool rocks.

This is the view from the southern tip of the park. We could see the Salton Sea and Mount Signal, almost to Mexico. Wow.

We were all pretty beat after that, and we headed back to the house for a flurry of naps, followed by Danny grilling burgers for us for dinner. How did I get these amazing friends?! And someone very sweet read his books in the evening.

Saturday night we switched to daylight savings time, and we, like all other parents, thought that maybe our child would sleep late? Hahaha, another 5am wakeup. But this gave us lots of time to savor breakfast, pack up, and swing on the hammock outside. Our little rooster is so thoughtful! Hillary drew this quail in the guestbook, in case you needed any further proof that she is awesome.

You know how people say they are dating up? I am friending up. Way up!

Although, sadly, the line was way too long at Joshua Tree Coffee Company (siphon brew?!), we did get to explore the art community, anchored by The World Famous Crochet Museum. It is tiny! And full to the brim with cuteness.

For human scale.

Look!

Tiny pastries!

Pretty cakes!

Tacos! That is the outdoor movie theatre in the background.

Inside a barn next door was the studio of Shari Elf (the artist behind the museum), full to the brim with bright and interesting things. Shari makes good and sturdy art from trash, including lots of screen-printing on discarded garments. That’s the fitting room in the corner. Love!

Micah slept through this part of the trip, and I am sorry that he missed this pillowcase.

Aaaahhhh, my friends are so cool! Album cover. Soliciting titles.

After this we had lunch at Pappy and Harriet’s, where the wait for food was very long, but someone sat very happily in his high chair driving his trucks and eating graham crackers for an hour and a half!! Joshua Tree must hold some baby magic.

Even though this post is already about four times too long, I can’t leave out our last stop, Pioneertown. Our little cowboy took right to it.

Thus ended the Second Annual Cartibellm Desert Extravaganza, and thus ends this post!