Two days after Christmas we headed to California! We have some places we always go when we are there, the tennis courts, Sweet Tomatoes, the Mexican restaurant nearby but this time we decided to go somewhere new for a little outing. Our first stop was the Salton Sea. We have only been to the west side before, and that is pretty much a ghost town. But to get to our final destination, we went along the east side this time and happened upon the Salton Sea State Recreation Center. When I was young, I had a friend that went to the Salton Sea for vacation. It was a hotspot for fishing and boating until it became too salty and all the fish started dying. Now we learned the only fish that live in there is a species of tilapia and there are 400 million of them in the lake.
After a short visit at the lake, we headed to Salvation Mountain. One man, in his quest to spread the message of the Gospel, made and painted this entire thing. He spent 30 years of his life working on it.
The man who originally did all this passed away a few years ago. The man below is the caretaker, John. His job is painting, as needed, for upkeep and to keep people walking only on the yellow brick road. We saw him throw a few people out because they wouldn't listen to him and kept standing in the waterfall to get pictures.
I completely forgot we were supposed to go a few more miles to Slab City. This is an old army base where only the slabs are left. Artists camp out there and create works of art that you can walk around and look at. Yes, the desert lends itself to extreme people!
On the 30th, Dar had everyone over for a gathering. Both Aunt Helen and Bill were staying at Dar's. I miss the family gatherings so much. It felt like old times.
Dar's pool was just finished and it was a beautiful sunny day so we all hung out there.
Matt and Lauren are having a baby in May!
The girls were happy to have other kids there.
Joey and Brittany were able to make it.
Once back at home we swam and swam and swam. It may be the last time we are there as we are putting it on the market. It doesn't make sense to keep it if we are only going to use it three times a year. Dan spent the entire first day there, his birthday, doing chores.
On the 31st, we had our usual New Year's, find an old video from a few years ago and do the countdown at 7:00!
We came home on the second!
