Anzo Borrego to the Salton Sea

 We decided to journey to the desert on Saturday. We wanted to see the wild flowers so we hopped into the Jeep Cherokee and off we went. When we got there it was much hotter than I expected, but better than what hubby thought. I don't like to be too hot...I think it was about 80 degrees and dry, dry, dry, dry!

As it turned out, we missed the best of the wild flowers. There were still a lot of white and yellow ones, but very few other colors. The weekend before was the best weekend and then the hot weather moved in and started scorching them. How can you argue with Mother Nature? We did still get some awesome pictures so I can't really complain. And really, they were still beautiful!

So while we were driving through the desert, we came across this...this guy went over some REALLY gnarly stuff with these kids in the cart! I couldn't believe it. Where was child services when you needed them?
Then we were headed back to San Diego I saw a sign for the Salton Sea. It's only 30 miles from where we were and we both kind of wanted to see what the hoop-la was about. For those of you who don't know, the Salton Sea was created by a damn breaking back in like the 40's or 50's. It created this huge lake in the middle of the desert which flourished with tilapia.

It was billed as the next Palm Springs, but with a lake. So a ton of building started happening, rich people from all over came and went fishing. Then after like 5 years or something, the salinity of the lake increased and huge batches of fish would start dying and they would have these weird random floods.

And, yes, hubby was still Number 1!

After that it's all downhill. We heard it smelled really bad, and it did. Like Tiajuana for those of you who've been there. Or like your wet suit if you don't wash the salt water off, yuck! We didn't see any dead fish because hubby wouldn't stop long enough for us to look. He wanted to see Slab City and Salvation Mountain (you may have seen these in the Into the Wild movie).

I have to say, the Salton Sea wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but the communities were REALLY depressing...

We felt bad for this new business. We couldn't figure out what it was and it sure didn't look open!
So this was the funniest thing I have ever seen. That's a satellite dish used for the umbrella and metal chairs around a fire pit. This was in a NEIGHBORHOOD. The sign says it's the Fireside Lounge (you can't tell in the picture).

So we continued out and found Slab City which is a spot in the desert where people will drive their RV's out to and spend the winter (or shorter periods of time). It turns into this huge community. Right across the way is Salvation Mountain.

Salvation Mountain is a work of art by Leonard Knight (who is still working on it). God told him to spread the word and he does. He's really nice and we got to chat with him for a while. Hubby says it's the most meaningful mountain he ever climbed. We plan on going back when we can.

After Salvation Mountain we headed to Calexico. It's a border city whose counter part is Mexicali. Cute, right? In Calexico there's this random place call Rosa's Plane Food which is literaly on the tarmac right next to the runway of the airport there. No fence blocking you in or anything. BEST Mexican food in my life. I mean THE BEST!!! Hubby used to do surveys in Calexico for burrowing owls and a colleague who used to go there told him about it. Some locals of Calexico took him there. Hubby takes any chance he can get to eat there since it's 1 1/2 hours away from San Diego. You know when you're the only white people (okay, half asian and white) it's going to be good. The waitress didn't even speak English! I can't wait to go back!!!

And never to be left out...one of the reasons I don't suggesting getting a cat. This is literally how Little Mookie sleeps, in between your legs and he's total dead weight. Try turning over at 3 AM and he won't budge!