We visit the local zoo called "The Living Desert"

Our hosts took us to the local zoo called The Living Desert in Palm Desert, California.
At the entrance,we stopped to find a letterbox. Letterboxing is a hobby of theirs. You register at this site http://www.atlasquest.com/ and find clues to boxes hidden all over the world. Inside box you find a stamp and a book. You put your own "signature" stamp in that book and you stamp your book with the stamp you found. It was fun! Inside the zoo, we found lots of native desert animals like this King Snake and Burrowing Owl.
We found maps and information about what makes a desert. It isn't always hot in the desert, it's mostly dry!
We also checked out the "Discovery Center" for kids. We had our picture taken with a coyote picture and a real skeleton of a rattlesnake.
There was a very nice mural of the desert valley.
And an working example of natural cooling. Hot air moving across wet pads is very refreshing when it's 110F outside! Don't worry, it was only 70F degrees today.
On the way back home, we stopped for ice cream at McDonald's!

The impressiv Giant Rock in Landers CA

We visited Giant Rock in Landers, California today. It is the home of the worlds biggest free standing boulder! Well, it was until a piece fell off in 2000 and made it the second biggest. We climbed some rocks and took a picture from high above the rock. You can see for miles up there. There are lots of stories about aliens landing here and there was a man that carved out a place to live under the rock. On the way back, we stopped and took a picture of the Integretron. The same man built it because aliens told him it was a way to heal people through sound. There are some pretty crazy places out here, but it sure is peaceful!

Saturday's Photos of us!

We spent the weekend relaxing with our new friends. Feeding the chickens was exciting and a little dangerous for us! We liked walking around the garden and seeing the crazy Joshua Trees. They are found no where else in the United States but here. And they aren't really trees but a giant spiny flower! We hung out with a tortoise in the rock garden and found some very neat looking cacti.
We sat by the fire with their dog Chili to warm up. It may be dry here but it sure is cold! The high temperature today was 45F.

We arrived in Yucca Valley

Hello!

Here are a few pictures from our first day with the Huelle Family. We arrived in Yucca Valley this morning with the morning paper. We got lots of rest thanks to our last hostess who made these lovely sleeping bags for us. It's a lot warmer here! We went to lunch at Little Ceasar's. The pizza is tasty! After lunch we went to the playground with Tom and Jake's friends. They all go to school at home with their parents and meet once a week to play games together. We loved playing in the sand and grass. Tonight we are going to a High School Basketball game. More pictures to come soon.

Our last day in Oklahoma

We managed to fit just a little more into our last day in Oklahoma. We met a local celebrity at L&B Yarn Co., Gnorbert. Gnorbert is a traveling gnome with a daily photo blog. He will be making his first international trip this Spring. We are hoping to keep up with him. He is following our blog too. It was nice to meet another traveler. We visited historical Main Street in Norman. American flags lined the street and many of the buildings looked much like they did in 1900. We saw the James Garner statue. He is a famous actor from Norman. His statue was dressed as the professional gambler Bret Maverick in the comedy Western series Maverick. After walking around Main Street we had our last meal in Norman at Tarahumara's Mexican Cafe and Cantina. We tried the carne asada tacos. We were told that it wasnot really Mexican food but Tex-Mex, a style of food influenced by Mexican cuisine served in Texas and Oklahoma, we aren't really sure what that means but it tasted good. Norman, Oklahoma was fun. We enjoyed the Christmas celebrations with our hosts and their family. We cooked a lot and made a lot of people smile. But our bags are packed and we are off to California. We are excited to see our next destination.

We took a lovely walking tour of the University of Oklahoma

We took a lovely walking tour of the University of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1890, it existed in the Oklahoma Territory 17 years before the territory became a state. There are over 30,000 students enrolled. We got to meet a few new students that were a little lost on campus and helped them find their way. The Unipark/Campus is really nice with beautiful architecture, fountains, sculptures and gardens. While the gardens were not in bloom we still got to get a close look at the sculptures. The campus has distinctive architecture, with buildings designed in a unique Cherokee Gothic style. We learned that the style has many features of the Gothic era but has also mixed the designs of local Native American tribes from Oklahoma. This term was coined by the renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright when he visited the campus. The unipark tour was really nice. It was warm day and we even spent time with our littlest hosts. You can see from our photo that this was as close as we got to them. Paul was rightly afraid that they might try to eat us :)

On campus we notice all the large trees. The university's first president ordered the planting of numerous trees before the construction of the first campus building because he "could not visualize a treeless university seat." The oak trees are nice but be careful not to lose your hat in the acorn littered ground. Hans' hat fell off and we were a little nervous that we would not be able to find it.

We visited the Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is one of America's most recognized college football "cathedrals". We thought calling it a cathedral was funny until we saw the the Sooner fans and football team in action during their recent championship game. Sooner fans take American football very seriously. The football stadium is the largest sports arena in the state and ranks among the 15 largest on-campus facilities in the nation with a capacity of 82,112