Desert Hot Springs

We just returned from our second trip to California this year, so I figured it was time to get the pictures from the first one online. We made this reservation in later December and traveled down to the Palm Springs area in later February. We were all feeling the strain of COVID lockdown and needed to get away for a little while to catch our collect breath. Anyone who knows me knows I like to plan trips like nine months in advance, so a two month lead time qualifies as spur of the moment. That’s not entirely true, but you get the point.

We ended up renting a house in Desert Hot Springs (DHS), which is a small town just north of Palm Springs. With COVID measures still in place and none of us vaccinated, we figured we’d stay somewhere off the beaten path and spend our time lounging around and going on a few outdoor excursions. DHS has no major attractions to speak of and it’s really nothing like Palm Springs, but I can’t say we’re huge fans of that scene anyway. Really we were looking for somewhere sunny, warm, and away from crowds – we found that.

We did manage two hikes where we were there – one in a little known trail that enters Joshua Tree National Park and another in Palm Canyon on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. We’d been to Joshua Tree a few years ago and didn’t feel the need to drive the long way ’round to possibly have to deal with a bunch of tourists. The park is definitely something to cross of your list, but we find that we’re much more into water and forests than we are the landscapes of the area. We’re probably breaking some National Park unspoken law by not being terribly interested in JTNP. Oh well. The hike in Palm Canyon ended up being about three miles and Dom did it mostly complaint free… as long as we gave him a snack every hour.

Other than that, there really isn’t much to speak of about the trip. We spent a lot of time enjoying the sun in our backyard and just plain relaxing away from our house in Seattle, which was really starting to feel like a prison with amenities. For those unware, Washington and especially Seattle has had some of the most restrictive and long-standard COVID measures over the last year+. It was really nice to experience the outside world, given travel was pretty much the only hobby our family had before the pandemic. No complaints here.

Packwood, WA

Two months ago, we spent a week of vacation at a house rental in Packwood, WA. If I’m honest, we only chose Packwood because it’s within a three hour drive of home, was in striking distance of snow without danger of roads closing, and we found a house with all our needs at a reasonable price. We’ve camped in the area before; it’s fair to say Packwood is a great basecamp for experiencing all the surrounding natural beauty of Rainier, et al. but there isn’t much to do in the town (of ~300 people)… especially during #lockdown2020.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do besides hang out at home and go on a few short hikes around the neighborhood. We could have gone big if we wanted, but it was pretty wet during that week and there was no real need because our place was nestled between the Cowlitz River and Lake Creek. We did drive up to White Pass to play in the snow one day – Dom lasted about 15 minutes before he was over the cold… and our amateur attempts to keep him properly bundled in it. Other than the snow pics below, everything was taken within walking distance of our rental. I also got a chance to practice my drone photography.

It’s hard for us to have these do-nothing vacations, as we’re very much into boarding planes to explore new cities and countries. We are very much looking forward to returning to that. In the meantime, we’ll continue exploring all the sights our our home state has to offer. At the least, we got to live that quarantine life somewhere else for awhile. A wood burning stove and hot tub when it’s 38° outside isn’t so bad.

Olympia 2020

At the end of July, we spent 10 days living and working out of a VRBO in Olympia, Washington. We needed to get out of our house for awhile and decided to pick somewhere we could easily drive to… that also had reciprocal rentals with our boat club. Honestly, it wasn’t much different than life at home – we just did it somewhere else. We celebrated Melissa’s birthday with a meal out (!), we went out on a boat three times, and the rest of the fam explored parks while I “worked from home” for all days but one. We also had the opportunity to hang with three of my old Amazon co-workers and some of their families while down there. In a strange twist of life, I’d seen no Amazon co-workers in Seattle at that point. Still haven’t, I guess.

Olympia is a town of about 50k, while Seattle-proper is approaching 800k (3.4 million in metro area). The difference, especially during COVID closures, was stark. I can see how people make a home there – green parks, proximity to water, cheaper real estate, and a whole host of other reasons. I will admit to growing weary of Seattle as it tries to mature from a small city to a medium one; I also know a place like Olympia is too small for us. Boating in the south Sound is pretty great, though. Lots of open water and privacy while battling minimal waves from tides or other boats. Also on the upside, Dom got to see the buildings that house our state government… during normal times. A good change of scenery.

It was an odd week+. Not sure it was ever gonna feel like anything but. In the end, it was nice to get away from our cage for awhile.