Idyllwild - Who knew, yet again?!

What to do on our last full day in Palm Springs? Well, after breakfast in the lovely courtyard of Las Brisas, we decided to find Idyllwild, an out of the way town, set high in the mountains above Palm Springs. The drive is around fifty miles along scenic roads that snake from the freeway into the mountains. To reach the town took around one hour, ascending through the highest ascent path per mile, in America.

The trip was certainly worth it, as the town sits in a forested area and, being at over ten thousand feet, the temperature is thirty degrees below that of Palm Springs. The town has lots of neat cabins for rent (at reasonable prices!) and a wide range of very nice shops and places to eat and drink. We stumbled on the Village Bakery and had a coffee in its fabulous outback garden setting. The staff there are wonderful!

As we sat having our coffee a local dude walked past with his coffee and a parrot on his shoulder! MInd you, the town mayor is a golden retriever!

We then meandered the streets and soon encountered some ladies who were in the business of transferring photographs onto 'anyou like'! We couldn't resist having our favourite photo of Ellie (our granddaughter) put on a tile. It looks great! As the photo processing progressed, we ventured down to Ceder Lodge, where its owner 'Christine' rents out cabins. She invited us to have a look round the lodge and one of the cabins. The lodge, once a tavern where General Patton had stayed, during the war. Now it is a a comfortable lounge area for cabin guests, stuffed with curios. The cabins themselves were situated in woodland next to running water and had fantastic vistas. We looked into Cabin eleven. Wow! We plan to stay here if and when we return to the area, again. We picked up a couple of bargains in the local shops and popped in and out of various galleries. The people here are really friendly and although there is a wide diversity of visitors, from motorcycle road-dogs to the local Porsche club, there isn't the 'oddness' that you can sometimes encounter in out-of-the way communities! So its a big thumbs-up for this fabulous town. Returning to the car, to drop off some purchases, I noticed a neat-looking Porsche Turbo, parked-up, close-by.

By chance, its owner, Larry, and his wife returned to the car, just as I was passing by. I commented that it was a nice car and soon after we were all chatting. Larry was a cool guy and he gave me a tour of the car, which had been heavily customised. Basically, it had been turned into a understated looking racing car, giving out 700 horse-power to its wheels!! A flying machine. Larry's wife wasn't so impressed with having to ride on the car's very taught suspension, on winding mountain roads and who could blame her?! (In fact, she got to name the car 'Elsapo', which in Spanish means 'The Toad'!) The couple, from Texas, were in the process of relocating to Palms Springs and just as Larry left, we shook hands and he gave me his Porsche West Houston driving cap. Way to go!

 A memorable day and to mark it, it has to be Bob Dylan's Mr Tambourine Man, which we heard whist having coffee in Idyllwild.