The promise of free date shakes lured us to the Oasis Date Gardens in Thermal, near Mecca, CA. Bob and Gloria, new friends from Washington, joined us for the trip. The brochure said there would be an educational talk, but the staff just shrugged their shoulders and said there was a video we could watch (which we did). The Coachella Valley turns out to be one of the few places in the world where weather and soil conditions are perfect for growing palms. Who knew virtually every species of date palm here was imported from the Middle East and Africa? Washingtonia filifera, California
fan palm is the only palm tree that is native to California .
We learned a lot about dates and had a nice lunch with our free date shake.
We sampled far too many dates.
I think David is in a date induced stupor!
The dirt is flying!!! There is a gopher to be had!
Sam wants the gopher in a bad way, but all he will get is a BATH!
Good thing I had that nap - I was able to stay up for the
stars. This campground was the first
place I could actually use the telescope. The skies were pretty dark and clear and the moon was nearly new. I pulled the telescope out on three separate
nights while we were here and was able to share some sights with the other
campers.
The favorite, of course, was
Jupiter and its moons. There were
"wows" from some of the open clusters (M35, M36, M37, M38 and M45)
and the Double Cluster in Perseus. M31,
the Andromeda Galaxy was also a big hit. I think most everyone liked M42, the Great Nebula in Orion. The only globular cluster out was M15 which
looked good to me, but it is a bit difficult to appreciate if it is your first
time looking through a telescope (as it was for many of our neighbors). Several people were entranced with the laser
pointer which made it easy to point out constellations. I think it was fun for all, especially me,
and I will have to try to get it out more often.
No comments:
Post a Comment