From gregarious to serene

Palm Desert, CA

Yesterday I headed to the Street Fair at the College of the Desert here in Palm Desert. On weekends they turn the college’s parking lot into a huge market selling everything from fresh dates and other produce, to clothing, yard sculpture, hot dogs, shoes, jewelry, etc. And in the evening, Karen and Allen and I headed out to a movie – Trumbo. It’s a great flick, that I’d highly recommend. It’s a true story about Dalton Trumbo and the “Hollywood Ten” that got blacklisted in 1947 for their political beliefs and not testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Once again makes us thankful for the freedom we have in Canada to speak about our beliefs.

Today Karen and Allen and I had a great day with two completely different but equally fun activities. It went from the gregarious, colorful, and loud to the serene, quiet and beautiful.

First off we headed east to downtown Indio for the 2015 Annual Tamale Festival. What fun! Instead of traffic the streets were covered with lively booths selling food – primarily tamales of course- but drinks, hats, pashminas, sorbet, churros, sandals, jewelry and a whole pile of other things. There were several stages set up throughout the area with entertainment and beer gardens for the big kids; and for the smaller ones a play area with bouncy space ship and climbing/sliding castles, amusement rides, face painting and pony rides.

Having never had tamales we were off in a search of the best booth to choose. We found one that had a whole line up of trophies and quite a few people in line so we stepped right up and ordered one each to try. They were OK, but not terrific. They had a thick corn bread type covering that was kind of tasteless. So we tried one at another booth and they were much tastier, had less bread and more substantive amount of protein, and we all agreed they were much better. After walking around we came upon “Grandmother Lupe’s Tamales” booth, and it had a huge long line up compared to all the rest. So I suspect it might have been the best. But one never knows, and like anything it’s individual taste. And yes, there were churros so of course I had those as well. Not surprisingly, they were much better than the ones at Disneyland.

When I was at the College of the Desert Street Fair on Saturday, I sat and chatted with a fellow Canadian from Nelson, BC, who had spent winters in Desert Hot Springs for the past several years. He told me about some things to do while in the desert including an oasis in Coachella Valley Preserve that you could walk through and approximately where to find it, so after the Tamale Festival we headed out to see if we could find it. And sure enough we did. It’s called the Coachella Valley Preserve. There is a small parking lot with an old log cabin visitors centre, manned by volunteers, and well marked paths through the desert from one oasis to another.

We started off at the Thousand Palms Oasis near the visitors centre, where there was some standing water and we hiked for 30 minutes or so out to another oasis, called McCallum Oasis. Between the two, the path meandered through the sand and dry brush and there are some plaques marking native desert plants such as the smoke tree. Once at the McCallum Oasis, you come upon a gorgeous, large pond produced by hot springs. This area is on the San Andreas Fault so there are many springs in the whole area. There is a path around the pond with a viewing platform and several benches, and you can even have a picnic if you haven’t eaten tamales and churros all morning. There is also a lookout point up the hillside you could hike to, but we were losing light and energy and hadn’t really come prepared for hiking so we headed back.

It is very different to hike among a palm tree forest, or oasis, than it is in other kinds of forests. The palm trees are surprisingly huge up close and with the fan palms and other grasses it felt jungle-like near the water source and yet you’re just steps from the dusty taupe desert. There are two types of native palms at these oases which produce tiny fruit the size of wild blueberries rather than the larger fruit of the imported date palms found elsewhere in the valley. Once back at the visitors centre we asked about the fruit and they had some samples there for us to try. They tasted much like dates, but with their small size and the pit there was very meat.

What a great way to spend a Sunday.