day 19 20 & 21 San Diego

drove to san diego where we were staying in a comfort inn and we went swimming the first night. traffic was mad with far too many lanes and far too many cars. then it rained so we didnt get a great look at the city but still toured about and went to a folk  design art and craft museum.

 the Mingei international museum

the museum also had an exhibition of quilts

and an exhibition of Japanese cats 

Day 18 last day in Joshua Tree drive to San Diego

leaving joshua tree still astounded by this landscape.............................

....this was just before we met a guy with a cactus attached to his hand begging for tweezers or scissors. the cholla cactus ironically known as the 'teddybear chollla' (or 'jumping cholla') literally jumps on you if you brush by - whereby horrific barbs insert themselves into your skin - and only trained professional park rangers with very amazing tweezers can remove them...

in the centre of this photo runs the san andreas fault......one of the few places on land where tectonic plates are visible on land - the fault runs almost the length of california - and is responsible for the frequent earthquakes here...

day 17 Joshua Tree National Park

true world bungalow - joshua tree

3 days in this incredible desert landscape.... and in a wonderful and unique arty house that we loved...

an isolated cabin off road..... with beautiful night skies... 

palm springs

day 16 Lake Havasu drive to Joshua Tree National Park

lake havasu is well known because London Bridge was brought and rebuilt here in 1971....

then we headed for Joshua Tree for Halloween

very scary......... ion the middle of the desert all alone....

day 15 Flagstaff to Lake Havasu City

we stayed in a super 8 motel in flagstaff.. 

 enroute to Joshua Tree National Park we stopped off at the Lowell  Observatory where they discovered Pluto. We got to look at the sun through a telescope and here is a photo we took that shows a solar flare coming out of the sun we could also see sun spots.

 then we drove to Williams and went to 'bearizona' a wildlife p[ark which is involve in conservation and rescue projects....

 turk

ey vulture

 then we stopped on route 66 for dinner in an excellent diner.....