One cannot survive on hikes alone.

 There are many cool places in the desert.  First up is the Glass Outhouse gallery in 29 palms - so cool. 

The houseband at the Glass Outhouse.  Do you think they know "Don't stop believing"?

I wish this fountain was up and running.  The folks at the outhouse are super friendly - complimentary bottle water if you need it. 

This moose is missing an ear - just like a moose we have back home who is also missing an ear. 

By far, the Glass Outhouse is the friendliest gallery in the area 

More J- tree hikes.

 The desert can be a tricky place to navigate (i.e. cacti galore) but this fox is an experienced hiker so no injuries. Besides the Wall Street Mill from the previous post I was able to explore panorama loop and warren mountain, along with the lost palms oasis and the ladders/painted canyon area. 

Panorama Point and Warren Mountain were pretty cool places.  The air quality was great so you could see all around on top of the mountain. 

Joshua Trees accompanied us along our hikes. 

View galore. 

Next hike is to the lost palm oasis.  

Finally got to the oasis - the trails are not maintained past this sign but you can explore the oasis w/out any problems.

The oasis is very calming. 

Next stop is painted canyon and the ladders - it's near Mecca California. 

The canyon was so cool. 

Views along the way. 

Narrow corridors but this fox did great. 

Wall Street Mit Joshua Tree.

So many reasons to take this trip.  Sun, hiking opportunities, and warmer winter weather than back home.  Today we are focusing on the hikes.

According to the sekrebearies notes 5 hikes were completed in 6 days. 

All of the hikes were desert hikes (don't worry I made sure they prepared with water, sun screen, and tons of salty  snacks..  

First up is the Wall Street Mill Hike.  This mine area was a nice desert hike out to a historic location - 

Came across a few old buildings - this is a remnant of the Wonderland Ranch.  This ranch was owned by Worth Bagley a competing rancher to William Keys.  Both early homesteaders in the area. 

The Wall Street Mill was pretty cool - very well preserved. It was used sporatically to process gold that was either mined by William Keys or milled for other miners. 

Professor Thomas at the University will be very pleased with this hike.  Professor Thomas is a challenging professor for my desert archeology 203 course. 

Keys and Bagley did not  care for each other.  According to one source Bagley ambushed Keys near the Wall Street Mill and Key's killed Bagley.  They did not care for each other.  Keys apparently created a tombstone where Bagley died:  Here is the inscription:

"Here is where Worth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W. F. Keys, May 11, 1943.

  Keys spent about 5 years in prison for the crime then went back to his ranch at Joshua Tree till his passing in 1968. 

Vacay for a fox

This little fox finally got a winter vacation.  Any guesses where we landed? 

 

A very chic part of California.  Home to many old-timey celebrities (Sinatra, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Liberace, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor) and the like.  Did you guess Hollywood? Good guess but it's Palm Springs. 

The final destination was the desert - this fox like to hike at Joshua Tree National Park. 

A holiday trip to downtown

 Hiya Blog World - 

Little Fox and Navy here.  Just us two today since Cocoa Beanie booked a cheese tour of the pacific northwest and is out traveling to different creameries and tasting all sorts of cheese. 

We decided to head out to Portland's living room (aka Pioneer Courthouse Square) and the Christmas tree is all lit up.  

So much public art in town, this one is a hat sculpture.  It's called "Will Martin's Hat" and Will Martin was leader of the team that won the design contest for Pioneer Courthouse Square in 1980.  There were over 160 submissions - way to go Will!

The Benson Hotel does an amazing job every year for Christmas.  The tree is well decorated but we always come for the Gingerbread display. 

This years masterpiece is Germany's Eltz Castle. All the gingerbread is homemade (over 50 pounds).

Next stop is a pop up store in the lobby of another fancy hotel.  The stores were pretty quiet but had some cool stuff.  In the basement of the hotel they had free arcade games, we played a round of Rocky and Bullwinkle Pinball.  So fun. Our score was in the millions!

Finally, a few more stops around town and we came across the Portland Therapy Llama who was out and about. A long line for therapy so we enjoyed the fireplace and the fake snow.

Onward team.  Where too next? 

A trip to olive country with a couple of mice.

Hiya Gang.  Little Fox took us out on a day trip to Durant Vineyards and Olive mill.  Today we are focusing on olive oil tasting.  

A crazy group of birds flying over the vines today. 

Cocoa Beanie is very interested in the olive trees growing in the nursery.  Cocoa wonders what customs and immigration would think about importing an olive tree to Canada. 

All the oils were on display today for tasting - even the expensive (ok, more expensive) ones. 

Of course one needs vinegar if you are going to taste olive oil.

Cocoa and I wandered around the gift shop and found this jar of bitters with a fox on it.  Super expensive, but it does have a fox on on it so it's probably worth it. 

They even had an old truck on display. 

Next stop is lunch, the olive oil place was offering some food but the roommates think they can find a good lunch in town as well (Cocoa and Navy are hoping to find a cheese shop for lunch). 

 

Mail Call!!!!

Hiya Blog World.

LF and the gang here processing some mail on a rainy November day.  

First up is a letter from Snoopy, oh wait it's actually from Jerry and Ben. It's a super awesome Halloween card from the gang in the midwest thanking us for joining the Halloween contest. Us west coast stuffies think we should be thanking them for hosting the contest.

Little Fox got a postcard from team midwest (AKA Jerry and Ben). Quebec City has always been on LF's bucket list and according to J +B it's a great place.

Ben got to practice his French (comme c'est cool) and Jerry got to taste a maple syrup cheesecake.  Sounds amazing, LF doesn't have the French skills but could certainly check out the Quebec City cheesecake situation.

Sandy and Canadian Crew sent us a great Halloween card.  On the cover are animals decorating for a Halloween party.  

Sandy mentioned that I might want to supply the mice with some Cheetoh's to keep the mice out of mischief.  I need to add Cheetoh's to my list. 

Hmm, this is interesting It looks like Sandy sent a road map from 1959 of BC.  Is he hinting that the roommates should take me on a trip to BC?????IF so, Sandy might need to be more direct with the roommates.

Oh wait, Navy turned the map over and noticed a letter was written. Apparently, the map was sent to Sandy from their cousins in Germany and Sherlock Sandy deduced that his grandparents sent the map as gift wrap to the family in Germany.  That is so cool.

Sandy got back from Vegas and had an amazing Smoked Scottish Salmon Platter on toast with capers and tomatoes - yum.  Also, tried a few beers or two.  Apparently Sandy's humans realized that Budweiser is sold in resealable beer bottles.  Interestingly, Sandy said they don't have these types of bottles in Canada but in the USA, that's surprising since this seems like a more Canadian idea compared to a US idea.

Sandy mentioned that the humans went ziplining on Fremont street.  He did not make the minimum height or weight requirements.

LF always wanted to see the Neon Museum near Fremont Street.  LF's roommate said the last time he was in Vegas Fremont was still a neighborhood in transition - seems like things have come a long way.