We attended a holiday zoo lights attraction, “WildLights” at The Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert, California:

Santa:

Model trains:

More holiday lights:

Merry-go-round:

An interlude of live animals, starting with a mountain goat, wishing people would go away and let them sleep:

Vultures:

Antelopes:

Zebras:

Giraffes:

Holiday lights editions:

Selfie:

 Of course a zoo in the Palm Springs area had a golfing Santa:

Light tunnel, with synchronized holiday music:

Light cube, with synchronized holiday music:

We went for a drive around Salton Sea in California, a lake with an interesting history: apparently created by accident from overflow of an irrigation canal, and has been slowly shrinking as modern farming uses water more efficiently.

Here’s a map of our route, going south first:

We stopped for lunch at a Mexican diner attached to a casino, then filled up the truck gas at a station that was mostly populated by ATVs:

The drive was just flat empty desert for most of the way south:

But with some farmland around the south side of the lake:

We stopped at Bombay Beach, which used to be a booming tourist destination in the 1950s. Nowadays, it’s a “living ghost town”.

On the beach, there are a number of art installations:

We took a drive down the California coast, via Carmel down to Big Sur, just for fun.

Monastery Beach, Carmel:

Ocean:

Bixby Creek Bridge:

Point Sur Lighthouse:

On the way back, we noticed a Giant Artichoke in Castroville, CA:

A map of our route; we went there and back basically the same way:

Having seen how narrow and windy the most direct route was from the Thousand Trails San Benito Preserve campground to our next stop in Bakersfield, we decided to explore an alternative route that involved a little bit of backtracking up to Hollister, but made up for that via the speed of the I-5 freeway, and an easier drive. We enjoy twisty roads in our truck, but not so much with 60 feet of coach and toad.

So we took a drive in our truck along the first part of that route, past the San Luis Reservoir. Which was looking distressingly empty; according to the map, all of the flat plain in these pictures was supposed to be covered with several feet of water:

After reaching I-5, and satisfying ourselves that it was a much easier route, we stopped for gas, and visited a nearby roadside stand selling dried fruit and nuts and such; now we’re well stocked for snacks:

Then we headed back home via Little Panoche Road, Firebaugh, CA:

The route:

We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The aquarium had timed entry tickets, with a very long line to get in, and having to show ID and vaccination card (the first time we’ve encountered that):

We enjoyed exploring the various exhibits, starting with a feeding of the sea otters:

Lots of fish exhibits:

Fascinating jellyfish:

An impressive 90-foot window on the open sea exhibit:

Sea birds:

Octopus:

More fish:

Interactive exhibit:

Sea birds: