desert getaway part II // hicksville trailer palace

Oh man. You guys ( and by 'guys' I mean the three people who actually read this thing), there's this place near Joshua Tree called Hicksville Trailer Palace, and you need to go immediately. It was like camping without the sucky parts of camping. It was like hanging out in your friend's awesome garage and never wanting to leave. It was like going to a small but chill party where you don't know anyone else at first but soon you're all sitting around a bonfire in a giant teepee making s'mores and talking about the universe. Oh, and themed trailers. Gotta have the themed trailers.

The Mister and I stayed in The Fifi, and just like Hicksville's website says, it really was like sleeping inside a genie bottle. A purple and gold, shag-carpeted, Louisiana wig shop-themed genie bottle. It was glorious.

You wanna shoot BB guns? They have BB guns. You wanna try your hand at some archery? They have archery. I quickly learned that I suck at archery, but I'm pretty okay at shooting beer cans on an extremely windy day. They also have a ping pong table that we used heavily (and where we met two other fellow San Diegans), and the world's tiniest library.

 Our friends stayed in The Sweet, and I was so dang jealous of their trailer! They had a record player, 8-track, electric fireplace, TV, and even their own private gas grill. Oh, we used the heck out of that record player. And we gave the 8-track a whirl, but the tapes were pretty much shot. Still fun though, in all its kooky, 70's glory.

We met some pretty interesting people while we were there. Besides the aforementioned San Diego locals, we met a high school physics teacher, a bio-engineer, and a couple of Aussie musicians that were there to use Hicksville's recording studio. It's one of those places where you just naturally talk to the other people staying there because the place is so small and there's not a lot of privacy (besides your trailer). Besides, if I hadn't struck up a chat with the bio-engineer, I never would've gotten a peek inside the Cramps-themed trailer he and his partner were staying in.

Of course I had to get some photos of us standing next to the weirdest trees ever. It was our first time seeing a Joshua tree up close. And so much desert. Everywhere. I remember saying to myself as we were walking toward these trees, "Ok, keep an eye out for snakes. And scorpions." And thinking how odd that felt, being a mere three hours away from a place where that isn't a general concern. Oh California, you're so crazy.

Hicksville, you were a pleasure and a treat. One night was not enough. I am so coming back to you.

desert getaway part I // cabazon

Oh, it is so sweet to have the Mister back home. We knew that we wanted to take a mini, two day getaway with some friends. Somewhere. Anywhere. Something that wouldn't break our wallets and be ridiculously far away. The desert? Why not? And this is one of the many reasons I love California: a mere two hour drive can transport you to a place so vastly different in landscape, you'd think you were on another planet.

Our two day desert retreat began with a stop at the famed Cabazon Dinosaurs. Enormous, over-the-top, faux dinosaur sculptures in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Such a surreal treat.

It was the middle of the week, so there were only a few other tourists beside ourselves. We even discovered that we could climb up into the T-Rex's mouth and take in the view through his teeth. So fun!

The poor man's Jurassic Park? Perhaps. But still, a pretty rad place :)

local gem // a Coronado ferry ride

When family visits to San Diego for the first time, I get to be a tourist all over again (although I still feel like a tourist most of the time, having lived here only a year and a half). So on a beautiful and warm Saturday afternoon, the Mister and I treated my parents to something we had never done before either: a short ferry ride from Broadway Pier to Coronado.

Gorgeous bay views, a little shopping area where we treated ourselves to ice cream, and duck and pelican-watching. It was perfect.

And just for fun, here's a quickie panorama I took with my iPhone :)

a left coast daytrip

Oh heyyy there blog, nice to see you again. Yeah, I've been neglecting you for a bit. You know how it goes...husbands come back from deployments, wives jump all over said husbands, and the wives wanna do fun things that make them pretty much ignore any blog-writing obligations. Oops.

And when a sister-in-law says she wants to visit San Diego for spring break, I happily play host and photo-document along the way.

...And obligatory instagrams...

:)