Dawn and Kyle come to stay

This week we had our first visitors! Mitchell's mum and brother came to spend a week with us, and we packed a lot of adventures into that time. 

They arrived late on Thursday and we picked them up from the airport. It was straight to bed as the adventures started first thing on Friday. 

After breakfast, Mitchell went to work and I gave them a VIP tour of the botanic gardens. I even found one of the people who work there and they unlocked the greenhouse for us specially. We saw a lot of turtles in the turtle pond and plenty of interesting plants and lizards. Once we'd finished it was time for lunch and we met Mitchell on campus for some burgers. 

Finding a comfy seat

After lunch we headed back to the apartment complex, and as it was a nice day, decided to try out the pool. We haven't been in there since the autumn because it's unheated and it's been pretty cool, but I thought it might have heated up in the sun that day. It had not, so we had a very quick, very icy dip before retreating to the little hot tub next to it. We read in the sun for a bit until it got a bit cold and we went inside to join Mitchell for dinner.

Saturday we made pancakes and then went to the beach. We stopped off in Downtown Riverside first and bought some tamales from the farmers' market to take with us for lunch. We took the long route to the beach because you can get a good view from the mountain road of the city and Lake Elsinore. We went to crystal cove, because as well as a nice beach, there's the historic district to visit and the Shake Shack! 

Sunday was the day we were most looking forward to, as me and Mitchell were doing something we hadn't done before; taking the aerial tram up to the mountains! We drove over to Palm Springs and took the tram two and a half miles up into the San Jacinto wilderness. It was really cool to see the scenery change as you went higher and higher up, and the floor rotated so that no matter where you stood, you got a good view from all sides.

From hot desert to snowy forest

I'd thought about doing a long hike up to a peak, but it was still pretty icy there and none of us had proper snow gear. But, we did do a really nice trail which had some amazing lookout points, and not too much ice. 

There was also a lot of people sledging in the snow, and while we hadn't brought a sledge, there was a pile of broken discarded ones where we were able to find a couple still intact enough for Kyle to give it a go.   

We stopped for gas on the way home, and it was only as I turned off the freeway exit that I realised where we'd come to. The gas station Google had found for us was in Cabazon, i.e. the Cabazon dinosaurs! As we were right next to them, we got out of the car to have a look around and see them in their updated paint. The last time we'd seen them in late November they were all dressed up for Christmas, and this time they were decorated with hearts for Valentine's day. 

When we got back home, we used the communal gas grill by the pool to cook a bbq. We had veggie burgers and halloumi and all sorts of goodies. We were so stuffed we couldn't even manage the cakes we'd bought for afters. 

Monday was a public holiday for Washington's birthday so Mitchell had a day off work to come adventuring with us again. We decided to go to the San Diego Safari Park and see all the cool animals. It was good fun watching the tiger walking around, eyeing up all the small children, and we got to watch the elephants roam around their paddock while we ate lunch. Most importantly, this time we actually saw the platypus! It was smaller than we thought (maybe about the size of a guinea pig plus the tail) and it was swimming around in its little pool in the dark. 

On Tuesday, Mitchell went back to work. We dropped him off in the morning, and then headed out to Joshua Tree National Park for some desert fun. We hiked up to the Lost Horse Gold Mine where it was really windy and quite cold. We managed to find an old structure where we hid away from the wind to eat lunch, but didn't stay long as we wanted to get back down the mountain! 

Nearly blown away!

Hiding from the wind

We next stopped at split rock where we clambered over some big boulders on the trail to see skull rock and other interesting sights. It was a lot warmer down here and Kyle got to do some good climbing. 

Lower elevations = happier hikers

Skull rock!

While we'd had good weather in Joshua Tree (other than the wind) as I drove back to Riverside we could see the huge black storm cloud we were about to enter. The wind was still there and the sun had set when the rain started to lash down so heavily I could barely see. We took it slow and made it through ok to pick Mitchell up from work (who had quite rightly decided he didn't want to walk home in that weather). 

For their last day with us, we had a truly American day. We went to Ihop which is a breakfast diner known for their pancakes, and then to the mall. We had a fun day and everyone found something good to buy. We even ate pretzels and lemonade for lunch. That evening we went out to one of the restaurants in the town centre by us for some Italian/American dinner. It was very tasty, with a huge amount of cheese! 

Waiting for cheese

On Thursday, they set off early to LA to join a tour bus of the city before going to the airport. After such a busy week I was left feeling a little lonely all by myself so I joined Mitchell for lunch. We had such a fun week and it was so nice to share our favourite places with people. 

I've got a couple of days at home to relax, and then I start my new job on Monday!