The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens

We visited The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California. It is one of the nicest zoos we’ve been to; not because it has a lot of animals; it doesn’t have as many as others. But because it specializes in desert animals and plants, and harmonizes the gardens so well with the area.

This was our second visit to this zoo, though the first time was somewhat different: we attended some holiday lights in December 2021.

Here’s a map of the zoo; click or tap to see a larger map on their site (please let me know if the link breaks in the future):

An interactive map:

Entrance:

Entrance

Animals:

Animals

A tasty lunch from their grill:

Lunch

Animals

Also fascinating plants:

Plants

Miniature railway:

Miniature railway

Miniture railway

Miniature railway

New area under construction:

New area under construction

Animals

Plants

Animals

Shields Date Garden

We visited Shields Date Garden in Indio, California, to have brunch, explore their garden, and browse their store.

Shields entrance sign

Firstly we went to their restaurant, the Café at Shields, for brunch:

I had the Churro Waffle, and Jenn had the Beef Sopes:

Food

There was live music (can’t really see him, but a guy playing a guitar):

Live music

Restaurant

After lunch, we explored The Walk, a garden path that winds through the date farm, with biblical statuary:

The walk

Ladders formerly used to harvest dates (nowadays they just use cherry pickers):

The walk

Then we watched their film about date growing and harvesting in the Romance Theatre (you can watch it on YouTube):

Romance Theatre

We perused their shop:

Shop

We bought a couple of date samplers, plus some Cactus Candy (that we’ve enjoyed elsewhere):

Date samplers and Cactus Candy

Finally, we got a date shake to share; it was very tasty:

Date shake

A worthwhile visit in the Palm Springs area.

Orangeland RV Park

We stayed at Orangeland RV Park in Orange (Los Angeles), California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our third stay here. Tight sites, but a few miles from Disneyland.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-10-06
Check out: 2024-10-13
7 nights

Weather:

Partly sunny
High temps 80-85°F, lows 58-61°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 11 MPH

Noise:

No freeway noise, some road noise
No train noise, but distant horns a few times
Occasional helicopter noise
Some neighbor noise

Site:

#26, pull-through, asphalt
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Somewhat unlevel site; high in front and passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
Asphalt driveway about 45 feet long by 12 feet wide
15 feet to neighbors on both sides
Table, chairs, and umbrella on 9×8 feet stamped concrete patio
Orange trees that can be harvested
Fairly clean site (a couple small bits of trash)

Utilities:

50 amp power, very conveniently located
85 PSI water, conveniently located
Loose sewer connection, very conveniently located (4 foot of pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 5 Mbps down, 5-25 Mbps up, 30-40 ms ping
AT&T: 18 Mbps down, 3-5 Mbps up, 30-45 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: 5-6 Mbps down, 1-4 Mbps up, 5 ms ping
Starlink: not used

Amenities:

Garbage pickup from site
Swimming pool and hot tub
Package delivery to office
A few miles to Disneyland

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Best urban campground

This was our third stay here and it’s still a favorite. They’ve raised the prices since last time, but it’s still a fair rate for the location and what it offers. The sites are on the smallish side, with one of our slides getting very intimate with one of the orange trees on our site, but it doesn’t feel cramped since the trees and other landscaping give a bit of a buffer. A quiet getaway it isn’t, but if you’re here, you’re probably doing Disney or any of the other things LA has to offer and not hanging out at your campsite, so it’s a pretty fair trade. We camped at Orangeland RV Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

A nice patio with table, chairs, and umbrella (but we also put out our own chairs, as the patio chairs weren’t all that comfortable for sitting for any length of time):

Patio

When staying in a city, it’s nice to be able to take advantage of pizza delivery:

Pizza delivery

And Chinese food delivery:

Chinese food delivery

Utilities:

Utilities

The sewer connection was loose, but protruding enough, so I used my Dump Buddy for the first time; it clamps on to the pipe and my hose to hold it in place:

Dump Buddy

Neighbor site after they left; there was a trailer there most of the week, but this shows an empty site:

Neighbor site after they left

We’d be happy to stay here again, but next time we might try another RV park that is even closer to Disneyland.

Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon

We stayed at Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon in Acton, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A fairly typical Thousand Trails campground, but with a recently renovated 50 amp section with large sites.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-09-29
Check out: 2024-10-06
7 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps 89-102°F (!), lows 63-73°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 11 MPH

Noise:

Some road noise
Some train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#K-45, pull-through, sand
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
Mostly level site; high in back and driver side; used hydraulic leveling
Large sand site about 65 feet long by 40 feet wide
Picnic table
A couple of tall trees
Somewhat unclean site, as usual for Thousand Trails
Non-invasive ants

Utilities:

50 amp power, very conveniently located
65 PSI water, very conveniently located
Good sewer connection, a little inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 80-95 Mbps down, 15-19 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 35-50 ms ping
AT&T: 2-6 Mbps down, 0.05-0.25 Mbps up, 40-115 ms ping
T-Mobile: negligible service
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool
Package delivery to welcome center for $10/package (didn’t use)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Decent campground close to LA area

The Gold (K) section has all 50A full hookup sites, so we headed that way first. The sites are mostly pull-through and decently sized. We lucked out and got a site on the last row with a gorgeous view of the hills. These sites also have the advantage of being further from the railroad tracks along the park’s edge. The Platinum (B) section is half 50A but has the extreme disadvantage of being buddy sites. Other sections are 30A or W/E only, so there’s something for everyone. We camped at Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

View out our windshield:

View out our windshield

From outside:

View

Watching baseball on TV while griddling pancakes and bacon:

Watching baseball on TV, griddling pancakes and bacon

A neighbor had a cute outdoor cat that was curious about our truck:

Neighbor cat

Clubhouse:

Clubhouse

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Another neighbor site, with lots of space:

Neighbor site, with lots of space

Some other sites were also very wide:

Some other sites were also very wide

It was too hot to walk around to take pictures of other sites, so I flew my drone to get an aerial view; here’s above our site:

Aerial view

This is the 30 amp section, with buddy sites (eww):

Aerial view

Looking back to the 50 amp section where we were:

Aerial view

Heading back down:

Aerial view

We’d be happy to stay here again, though only in the 50 amp section; the rest of the park is 30 amp and buddy sites. Unfortunately, you never know what you’re going to get with Thousand Trails (though they are slowly rolling out a more conventional booking system).

Sequoia National Park: northern side

We visited Sequoia National Park in California, including the Lodgepole Visitor Center and Grill, and the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world by volume. And saw a couple of bears in a tree.

An interactive map of our route:

Relief map in the visitor center:

Relief map

Visitor center

General Sherman Tree trail, a half mile (each way) path from the parking lot to the tree, through the Giant Forest sequoia grove:

Sherman Tree trail

Footprint of Sherman Tree:

Footprint of Sherman Tree

Path and steps:

Path and steps

General Sherman tree, the largest tree in the world by volume:

General Sherman tree

Other big trees:

Another tree

Tree cross section:

Tree cross section

On the way back up the path, we saw a couple of black bears in a tree (not very close, fortunately):

Bears in tree

Baseball: San Francisco Giants vs San Diego Padres

We attended a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres, playing at the Giant’s ballpark, Oracle Park in San Francisco, California. What we thought would be our last game of the year (but actually only our last game of the regular season), and the 8th ballpark we’ve visited in our stretch goal of visiting all of the ballparks (six new ones this year, plus re-visiting the Mariners’ park a couple of times).

Jenn’s game summary:

The Giants lost after 10 innings. The Padres had a large number of fans in attendance, and it was difficult to distinguish the chants for each team. The weather was very changeable and I got a little sunburnt on my neck. Ramos hit a home run into McCovey Cove, so that was fun—the first right-handed hitter to do so. Tatis Jr. came out to pinch-hit in the 8th and sent the first pitch over the wall. It’s a nice park with lovely panoramic views of the Bay, but not much entertainment between innings.

Bay Bridge:

Bay Bridge

Oracle Park:

Oracle Park

Team store:

Team store

Oracle Park

Three times world champions:

World champions

Concessions:

Concessions

Burritos:

Burritos

View from outfield:

View from outfield

Big Coke bottle:

Big Coke bottle

Big glove:

Big glove

Cable car:

Cable car

Ferry next to the ballpark:

Ferry

View from outfield:

View from outfield

World Series rings:

Rings

View from our seats:

View from our seats

Orlando Cepeda memorial:

Orlando Cepeda memorial

Mascot:

Mascot

First pitches:

First pitches

View from our seats

Pitching

Batting

Out at first:

Out at first

View from our seats

An advertising boat circled for half the game:

Boat circled for half the game

Batting

Exploring Oracle Park:

Oracle Park

Bridge view

Exploring

Boats and kayaks next to the ballpark, waiting for a splash home run:

Exploring

Our traditional ballpark dessert:

Our traditional ballpark dessert

Submarine pitcher:

Submarine pitcher

Runs score:

Run scores

That was a new splash hit home run:

A new splah hit home run

Final scores:

Final scores

Padres win, sorry Giants:

Padres win, sorry Giants

Ashland food

Some samples of food in Ashland, Oregon.

Firstly, an ice cream snack from Zoey’s Cafe & Artisan Ice Cream:

Ice cream

After the cabaret (which also had food, covered previously), we went to an old favorite, Louie’s of Ashland for a small dinner creekside:

Louie's of Ashland

Salad and truffle fries:

Salad snd truffle fries

Before a play, we had a fancy dinner at Chateaubriand 36:

Chateaubriand 36

Appertizers

Mains

Dessert menu

Absinthes

I enjoy absinthe (Jenn doesn’t), so I got an absinthe drip:

Absinthe drip

David with absinthe

Desserts

Finally, before another play we had dinner at Cocorico (which used to be Amuse):

Cocorico

Front dining room

Selfie

Appertizers

Mains

Desserts

Tasty stuff. Our only regret was that we missed the delightful breakfasts we used to be served when staying at Ashland Creek Inn each year. Now that we live in a motorhome, we don’t have that particular pleasure anymore.

Ashland wineries: Quady North & Belle Fiore

While staying in Ashland we visited a couple of wineries that we’ve enjoyed in the past: Quady North & Belle Fiore.

Firstly, Quady North:

Quady North

They used to have a tasting room in Jacksonville, but recently moved to a building at their winery:

Quady North

We did a couple of tastings, which included some bonuses, along with a charcuterie platter for our lunch:

Quady North

We bought several bottles, plus a box of wine:

Quady North

Another day, we went to Belle Fiore Winery, another winery we’ve liked:

Belle Fiore

A somewhat fancier building:

Belle Fiore

We did the Reserve and Chateau tastings:

Belle Fiore

I admit it, we mostly go here for their truffle fries; this time since this was our dinner we also got a charcuterie board, though I think we would have preferred just getting a full-sized order of fries (this was the small):

Belle Fiore

We didn’t buy any bottles from here; after doing the tastings, we decided we didn’t particularly enjoy any of them enough this time. Their wines are too tannic for us.

Oregon Cabaret Theatre: Legally Blonde, the Musical

While in Ashland, we attended a performance at Oregon Cabaret Theatre of Legally Blonde, the Musical. We’ve visited Ashland many times over the years, but this was our first time at the cabaret.

Oregon Cabaret Theatre