What do biologists do in spring in California? They go and watch the desert burst into spectacular bloom. As I am a good biologist, I got Shinji out of bed at 8.30 (it would have been even an hour earlier because of the day-light-saving (Sommerzeit)) and into the car heading for the desert. On our way we passed Julian that is famous for its apple-pies and we had to stop to check out all the tourist shops packed with bikers and people dressed for a Western movie. The pie was delicious but we haven't found out yet where the apples come from as we haven't seen a single apple tree on our trip. Of course some of the burnt trees we passed might have been apple trees but I doubt it...
After another hours drive we arrived in Borrego Springs in the middle of Anza Borrego Desert State Park, the biggest state park in the US. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones with the good notion to watch the flowers at their peak. Unperturbed, armed with my binoculars around my neck, cowboy-hat on my head and flip-flops on my feet I stepped out of the car and into a field of flowers only disturbed by an army of tourists. Shinji preferred to stay in the car and study the map to locate the more private parts of the desert. Actually, there are much more flowers on an alpine meadow and surfing would have been much more fun....
A couple of dirt-road-miles onward the flowers were less colorful but more private and we enjoyed some hiking up a hill until we got attacked by cacti (plural for cactus for the non Latin people). Shinji got a nasty bruise on his knee and I regretted the choice of flip-flops as adequate desert outfit....
On the way back we drove through another park: Cuyamaca that is greener (except when the flowers bloom in the desert) and contains a lake with a restaurant that sells Wiener Schnitzel. So the story has a happy end as we live happily ever after...
After another hours drive we arrived in Borrego Springs in the middle of Anza Borrego Desert State Park, the biggest state park in the US. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones with the good notion to watch the flowers at their peak. Unperturbed, armed with my binoculars around my neck, cowboy-hat on my head and flip-flops on my feet I stepped out of the car and into a field of flowers only disturbed by an army of tourists. Shinji preferred to stay in the car and study the map to locate the more private parts of the desert. Actually, there are much more flowers on an alpine meadow and surfing would have been much more fun....
A couple of dirt-road-miles onward the flowers were less colorful but more private and we enjoyed some hiking up a hill until we got attacked by cacti (plural for cactus for the non Latin people). Shinji got a nasty bruise on his knee and I regretted the choice of flip-flops as adequate desert outfit....
On the way back we drove through another park: Cuyamaca that is greener (except when the flowers bloom in the desert) and contains a lake with a restaurant that sells Wiener Schnitzel. So the story has a happy end as we live happily ever after...
4 comments:
There's not much to add... But I hope you are as happy as I am that Selina wrote a post!
Very nice and quite surprising for us europeans ti imagine the Desert blooming like this is quite fancy
Nice post Miss Selina
Kisses from Switzerland
Happy Birthday to you Selina !!!!! Joyeeeuuuuxxx Annivveeerssaiirrree
Mes voueux les plus sinncccèèèrrrrress
:o)
i think if you call yourself for at least 7 times a biologist, one could expect that you should know the names of the blooming plants, and not just call them "cacti".
;-)
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