Day trippers......

7:10 am - Thursday - December 14th - GNHS - 42° F, humidity 67%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast....crystal clear, blue sunny skies today with a forecast high of 68° F. On this date in 2014 Nick got down one knee and asked our daughter, Katharine, to marry him.....what every father wants....a good man on one knee asking for his daughter's hand in marriage.....↴

We began Wednesday with another out and back walk stopping in front of Bashford's on the way back for our usual walking usie......

....we managed to shave about 90 seconds off our time from Tuesday.  It was a beautiful, clear, cool, sunny morning walk!  By the way, Bashford's is one of the three hot springs on Mineral Hot Spa Road, and is pretty much directly across the street from GNHS.

I had my appointment at Quest Labs (cholesterol panels) in La Quinta at 12:10 pm, plus we needed to do some shopping, so we left GNHS around 9:30 am to make the 50 minute drive into town.  Our first stop was COSTCO, then over to Walmart for a few more things, and a quick stop at the local Stater Brothers grocery to buy some of their peppered bacon.....2 pounds in four 1/2 pound packages....makes it easier for TLE to fit them into our small Dometic freezer.  Surprisingly, with less than two weeks until Christmas none of the stores was that crowded, in fact COSTCO and Walmart were about as uncrowded as I can remember them being this time of year.

The local Quest Lab is located in the Vons Supermarket right next to Rubio's Coastal Grill where we've eaten lunch a few times over the years.  We arrived about 20 minutes early and they got me ahead of schedule, around noon time.  I was in and out in 10 minutes.....the Phlebotomist was very good....I didn't even feel the needle go into my arm.

We always try to have lunch when we're in town, and we haven't been to Tacos Gonzales since last year, so on our way over to Ralph's to do our final shopping of the day we stopped off there....

.....I had their Two Crispy Taco plate with rice and beans, and TLE Two Crispy Tacos a la carte.  We love this place....it is one of those amazing 'hole in the wall' Mexican places that turns out great Mexican food day after day.  Everyone is so friendly, and the service is lightning fast, no matter how busy they are.  They have the best salsas, and guacamole!

Before we entered Ralph's we stopped at their fuel station to redeem our 50¢ per gallon gasoline credit making the price $4.19/gallon....the best we've paid for premium unleaded on quite some time....

....we were back at GNHS after another uneventful drive by 2:30 pm, and within 90 minutes it was time to take our places on the 'viewing deck' for another Chocolate Mountains light show, and then sunset.....

.....life continues to by idyllic here on the eastern shores of the Salton Sea.  The park is pretty empty as I write, but we know that in another week the Christmas/New Years crowds will descend yet again, and the quiet solitude of GNHS will be shattered for a couple of weeks by the hordes of Christmas/New Years revelers until after New Years....lol.

On the health front TLE and I continue to be in good health.  Neither of us has been sick in years, and I have a hard time remembering the last time I had a cold.  We still continue to be asymptomatic to the Wuhan flu.  With the completion of my recent cardiology exam I have been pronounced good for another year.

Thanks for stopping by!