Vacation mode

The guests here are invited to pick fresh grapefruit and oranges from the courtyard trees. John borrowed the picker and I had a refreshing fruit cocktail for breakfast.

You know, the mind can't automatically switch over to vacation mode, especially after a year like the past one. And vacation takes a certain amount of practice or you lose the knack. The first day or so I was walking around in a haze and nothing seemed real. I could have been anywhere! It was discombobulating.  Then after a while, the mind and body relax enough to actually notice things. 

The pandemic is taken seriously here, mask wearing and such, but it's also the southern California desert, with a totally different vibe from uptight Seattle.  Life is more spread out, open and outdoors.  I look around and see happy faces. Is public smiling illegal in Seattle? Like, yea. It's really beautiful here.

After a very strict lock down things are starting to open up in California. We had dinner last night with friends at a Mexican restaurant in Palm Desert. It was a beautiful warm evening. The patio was busy with a live band (!) and quite a few people in our demographic (probably newly vaccinated) celebrating a first time out. How nice and strange it was to actually converse without a computer screen.  We admitted being out of practice. But being face to face with friends around a table was priceless.

Not that we're relaxed, it's almost time to go home.  Yesterday we strolled around the Moorten Garden, a place we never miss near downtown Palm Springs.  Today, maybe a walk in one of the palm oasis nature preserves.