Bobbi and I spent January and February in California. More accurately we were in the CoachellaValley which is a desert surrounded by mountain ranges. Los Angeles is about a hundred miles west with San Diego completing a triangle about 120 miles away.
We picked this area because of an average temperature in the 70’s, 350 days a year of sunshine, 124 golf courses in the valley and the opportunity to leave cold weather behind.
Our 8 week adventure taught us a lot. We better understand the meaning of “diversity and tolerance.” We know leasing real estate can be fraught with misunderstanding and half truths. We know more about living in a metropolitan area than we expected to – the valley is made up of nine communities and a population exceeding half a million people. Events adding a hundred thousand visitors happen often.
The local newspaper – which was excellent – said the CoachellaValley is home to some of the richest people on earth and also some of the poorest.
The San Gorgonio Pass the north-west entrance to the valley is thought to be the second windiest place in the country and is home to nearly 3,000 wind turbines.
This was a shocker for me thinking California would never allow this kind of sight pollution, but I’ve learned these giant windmills have been there for more than 30 years!
Here are some of the events and things we found interesting during our California stay.
The Palm Springs Film Festival was amazing. One hundred and thirty movies were shown several times each over an eleven day run to packed houses. We saw two foreign films. We’ll see more next year.
The church we attended was amazing.
The traffic wasn’t bad, but fast. With most areas being gated with no front yard exposures 50/55 mile an hour speed limits were common – in town.
Name dropping was everywhere. We’d go from I-10 onto Bob Hope Drive then turned on to Ginger Rodgers Drive to go home. Frank Sinatra and Gerald Ford were close by and the Eisenhower Medical facilities were everywhere. Every restaurant had pictures of famous people. I’ll talk about the eating establishments next week.
There were events of all kinds. The Coachella Valley Music Festival, too many art festivals to count, six casinos in the valley all featuring name stars and shows. Pro golf, pro tennis, D-1 Softball, the NBA Outside Games, the Palm Springs Grand Prix, an 8,000 participant bike race, winter professional baseball league and did I mention 124 golf courses?
It’s a big agriculture area with 95% of U.S. dates being grown in the valley plus many other fruits and veggies.
But, with all that said – it is really nice to be home.
