Poppies! Poppies! Poppies!

So we have this state flower out here, the California Poppy. And it blooms from time to time. So we get in our cars and drive off to go see entire hillsides covered in the things. We drive and drive, because the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve isn't all that close to any actual population centers. (Which is not to say that there aren't a lot of residences nearby, just that many of those residences have big signs out front that say things like 'Reduced!' 'Make an Offer!' or 'Help Me Burn it Down and We Can Split the Insurance Money!' O.K., I might be kidding about that last one.)

This is California, so even the plants are in rehab. (And no, you can't make opium out of these poppies.)

Anyway, when the poppies bloom, the poppy peepers come out. Much like the leaf peepers of autumnal New England, these poppy peepers will park just about anywhere if they see those golden hillsides, drag their cameras and their tripods and their children out of the car (not necessarily in that order) and begin trampling some of the poppies in order to photograph the rest.

So, with the Canadian Grandparents visiting, we decided to become poppy peepers ourselves. Tessie seemed more interested in the dark beetles along the trail than in the actual flowers, but she did like the bright orange color and the crisp fresh air, even if it was a bit breezy.

(That's right: we have a bear on our flag. Our flag can beat up your flag!)

But before long, the bracing winds got the better of us, and we decided to move along (via In-N-Out Burger) to our next destination, the planet Cestus III, er, Vasquez Rocks, the former cattle rustlers' hideout turned filming location for about a bazillion productions, perhaps most notably 'The Arena,' an episode of the original Star Trek television series. (That's the one where Kirk makes a bamboo cannon and blasts a big, bad lizard thing called a 'Gorn' to save the Enterprise and all humanity... you know, the usual.) You've seen this place on TV. Trust me.

Tessie loves the desert, probably because she thinks of it as a giant sandbox. Sure enough, no matter what the scenery, she can be found scanning the ground for dirt to scoop up, bugs to watch, sticks with which to scratch in the dirt, etc.

Until she comes upon a rock that must be climbed.

Or possibly a press conference about climbing said rock.

Olympic Dreamer

Tessie's pre-school held another Olympics-inspired fundraising event today, just as they did two years ago. Tessie donned her "50% American, 50% Canadian, 100% CUTE" t-shirt, and strove to represent both of her countries to the best of her ability. Since NBC wasn't there, we got to see it all!

The Opening Ceremonies went off without a hitch, mostly because nothing needed to rise up out of the floor; toilet paper-roll faux torches don't have a lot of moving parts to break down.

The four events were based - very loosely - on events from the recently-completed Vancouver Games. The first was "Speed Skating," but since this was being contested in southern California, there was no ice. Without ice, skates were deemed superfluous. So what we really had was a sprint.

The Travels with Tessie media pool assembled alongside the course...

... while Tessie lined up at the start and waved to the crowd...

... and got off to a great start...

... and won her heat!

And then it was off to the "Luge." Again, no ice, and this competition more closely resembled skeleton, anyway, as the competitors navigated the course while riding wheeled boards on their bellies. They pulled themselves along with their arms, and Tessie rocketed around the track several times.

The "Downhill" was next, and it was contested in a giant bouncer slide. With no ski lift to the top, the kids had to climb up under their own power before letting gravity take them back down. So much more challenging than the "real" Olympics!

The day's final event was the "Giant Slalom," a bouncer obstacle course. There were tunnels to climb through, barriers to scale, bollards, hoops and a big slide at the end. Tessie loved it, even after she went down the slide head first and belly-flopped - hard - on the finish mat.

Lastly, the medal ceremony. It was the culmination of a lifelong dream Tessie's had for almost a month as she received her shiny "gold" medal.

She beamed, and so did we.

"You Do Know She's Fearless, Don't You?"

While making our weekend plans, Tessie asked to visit a natural history museum. Really; she specified natural history. So, as part of our ongoing efforts to thoroughly explore the Inland Empire, and because it's on the way to the outlet mall in Cabazon -- and because they were holding a free-admission 'Family Fun Day' event -- we visited the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California.

One of the features of the event was a museum docent reading stories to the kids. Tessie used her considerable charms to make the poor guy read "The Ugly Duckling" twice in a row. I tried to get her to pick a different story, but she had walked in during the first reading and wanted to hear it again from the beginning. The docent never had a chance.

The stories were being read in the mammal hall, so Tessie took a quick spin past the taxidermy exhibits, but before long we were off to see real live critters in the museum's Exploration Station.

Breezing past the rosy boa constrictor (snake) at the entrance, Tessie headed for the real action -- the insect table. There, unbidden, she reached out to a mantis and let it crawl onto her hand:

She did this in front of a pair of Cub Scouts, one of whom had been reluctant to touch the big green bug. The Scoutmaster-chaperon, in a moment of pure unadulterated sexism, asked him if he was going to allow himself to be shown up "by a girl!" The young lad, in a triumph of gender equality, replied, "I don't care if she's a girl! I'm not touching it!" Tessie, unfazed, then moved on to the giant cockroach:

At this point, the table docent turned to me and said, "You do know she's fearless, don't you? I mean, some parents are very surprised to see what their kids will do." I assured him that we were well aware of Tessie's daredevil nature. Even so, she declined the opportunity to touch the tarantula:

The museum's collections are not limited to natural history. There are displays of local interest, especially the mining and hydroelectric industries, as well as a fenced-in steam train on static display. The museum's primary claim to fame is the world's fifth-largest avian oological collection. (Go ahead; look it up. I'll wait.)

That's right, bird eggs. Thousands of them. No exact number was available, and I'm not about to count them, but if I had to guess, I'd put it in the 80 to 100,000 neighborhood. (That's a heck of an omelet.)

The egg rooms were also the scene of some craft projects for the youngsters. Tessie first made (with a bit of help from Mommy) a flip-book showing a bird in flight:

then she colored in a drawing of a barn owl:

This is one of her better coloring efforts. She seems to have grasped what the lines are for. Also, note that she wrote her name atop the page: T-E-squiggle-squiggle-I-E spells 'Tessie':

County Fair!

Our long weekend continued with a visit to the Riverside County Fair. Actually, the full name of the event is The Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival. Located in Indio, California, the fairgrounds are about midway between Palm Springs and the southern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park along I-10.

Tessie loves animals, and there were animals in abundance, not just in the agricultural displays and petting zoo:

but also racing. We saw racing pigs (with names like Lindsey Loham, Rush Limhaug and Snoop Piggy-pig):

racing ostriches:

and racing camels (ridden by faux-oil sheiks with stilted accents. I guess political correctness hasn't quite reached certain parts of the Inland Empire):

After the races, we hit the midway so Tessie could enjoy the rides. Alas, we discovered that she did not quite meet the minimum height for most of them, so she had to content herself with a limited selection. You see that she had a blast "driving" by herself:

and making Mommy dizzy:

After a time-out to see the extensive model train exhibit:

we had time for one more ride. This one had signs proclaiming that it had previously been the property of Michael Jackson and operated at Neverland Ranch. Oh, the stories it could tell! [*shudder*] Regardless of its pedigree, there was still a line to get on. Tessie had a lovely ride, and then we bundled her back into the car.

We intended to stop at the Palm Spring Aerial Tram on our way our of town, but Tessie was sound asleep in the back seat as we passed, so we decided to let her be. We'll make that trip another time.

Where the Streets Have No Names

Presidents' Day gave us a long weekend, and that coupled with a desire to see our car's odometer hit 100,000 miles while doing something more memorable than a mundane commute inspired us to revisit (and introduce to Tessie) one of our favorite places, Joshua Tree National Park.

(It's such a favorite place that Tessie, had she been a boy, would likely have been named Joshua.)

Three hours of driving brought us to one of the park's Visitor Centers, where Tessie was finally able to add another stamp to her National Parks Passport. It seems we have been remiss as parents. We bought her the thing just after she was born, but this trip added only her second and third stamps. She'll get more stamps next month. I promise.

The Joshua Tree Visitor Center is not so large. It's really just a place to pay fees and buy souvenirs, so after acquiring the all-important stamp we drove onward into the park to our first stop, the Barker Dam Nature Hike.

It seems that roughly a hundred years ago, this area was considered if not prime, at least decent grazing land for cattle. Several ranches were established in the park, and bands of rustlers even used the area's intricate rock formations as hideouts. Rainfall levels are now much lower than they once were, and the cattlemen left the area in the 1940s.

[Insert anthropogenic global warming disclaimer here]

Before they left, the ranchers built dams, or "tanks," to collect and store rainwater. The dams still remain, but it is uncommon to see much water in them. We did have some significant rainfall recently in southern California, so we did expect to see more water than usual behind the dam. We weren't expecting this much, though:

Beyond the dam, the area showed many of the Mojave Desert's characteristics: the monzogranite rock formations, the scrub oaks, cholla and other varieties of cactus, yucca plants and, of course, joshua trees. Tessie found it a wonderful playground, but we had to remain on guard to protect her from the desert's pointier plants.

It's only a 1.3 mile loop trail, but between Tessie's natural curiosity and my need to take pictures, we spent a couple of hours on the Barker Dam trail. Eventually we headed off to Keys View to take in the sunset. After a day in the sun, the desert reminded us of how cold it can get at night.

We were expecting it to be cold at night, so we decided to forgo camping on this excursion and instead opted for hotels. After sunset we left the park to go find our lodging in the bustling desert metropolis of Twentynine Palms, which, owing to its resemblance to Iraq, is home of the Marine Corps' Air Ground Combat Center, or MCAGCC for short.

There are not a lot of fine dining options available in the vicinity of Twentynine Palms; perhaps they just can't compete with the gustatory satisfaction provided by mess halls and MREs. The one promising-looking option had a line out the door, so we instead opted for Santana's, a fast-food Mexican place. Whatever the food lacked in quality was more than made up for by the interior decoration. (To say nothing of the complimentary reading material.)

We headed back into the park the next day to hike a different nature trail, this time the Indian Cove Nature Walk. In contrast with the crowds at Barker Dam, this trail we had almost to ourselves. It's only a 0.6 mile loop trail, but we made it take all morning, first by missing the trail marker and wandering for a while in totally the wrong area, then by letting Tessie lead us by following the trail marker arrows.

We saw lots of birds and a few lizards, and Tessie stopped to investigate each and every anthill. The trail also took us past some of the park's signature rock formations.

We went from there to another Visitor Center, this time a slightly larger one with another nature trail just behind it. Here we saw rabbits, Gambel's quail and other birds, and more ants. Tessie is fascinated by ants.

Back in the car, we drove south to exit the park, stopping briefly at an ocotillo patch. Ocotillo are a Colorado desert plant, so seeing them meant we'd left the Mojave behind and crossed into the park's other desert. Tessie was wiped out by this point, so she napped in the car while we got out and enjoyed the cooler air of the lower elevations.

We continued to the Cottonwood Springs Oasis near the southern entrance to the park and arrived there just ahead of sundown. The oasis formed around a spring that trickles out through the rocks to feed a large stand of palm and cottonwood trees. The area was well known by native Americans, who wore deep holes in the granite rocks by grinding grains with stones.

As the sun was setting, we didn't spend much time there, but did stay long enough to see several bats come out of their homes to begin feeding in the twilight. The bats showed no fear of us and often passed within feet of us as we stood watching. I tried a few photographs, but the low light combined with the twisting, fluttering, almost chaotic flight of the bats meant my efforts were unsuccessful. Here's the best shot I got:

With the sun down and the park darkened, we left for another hotel. We still had another surprise in store for Tessie, to be revealed the next day...