Palms and Prices

This post is a little overdue, so forgive me if I forgot a few details.

 Tuesday, Ashley and I headed Southeast for Palm Springs. We got there in the afternoon and walked around exploring stores with kitsch and vintage furniture and jewelry.

Palm Springs is a great resort town, with these huge mountains in the background.

 After coffee at a local shop we drove up to the Palm Springs Tram.

In the town it was warm and sunny but it was so cold up in the mountains.  The tram takes you up through a canyon to an elevation of approx. 8500ft. While we were waiting in line we met this great couple, Mark and Debbie, and ended up spending the rest of the day with them. 

At the top there were hiking trails which we meandered down for a while.

Me, Mark, and Debbie

The tree in this picture had bark that smelled like butterscotch.  Ashley and I were smelling it and when we pulled away from the tree we had dirt all over our noses.

Once the sun started to set we went in to the restaurant at the top.  We had a wonderful dinner with Mark and Debbie, chatting, laughing, and talking about everything.  They generously paid for our meal too :)

Eventually we went back down, exchanged emails, and said goodbye to Mark and Debbie.  Ashley and I went to a lovely hotel in Palm Springs and went right to sleep. 

We woke up early to an amazing view.

Then we drove to Joshua Tree National Park.

In Ashley and Megan fashion, we went crazy exploring, hiking, and climbing.

Watch us climb..

This belt was a gift from my brother in law.  He braided it in such  a way that if you pull one end it unravels to a length of rope.. you know.. just in case.. And that's my pink pocket knife.. you know.. just in case..

After we wore ourselves out we drove back to Woodland Hills.

I was pumping gas when I looked up to see this guy.

In the evening I went to a bonfire at a friends house. Kind of different from the ones back home, but still fun :)

The next morning Ashley had us up bright and early.  We had tickets to be in the audience for The Price is Right, and she was determined to get us in (you see, they give out more tickets than there are seats, so you there's a chance you'll have a ticket but not be able to go, so it's first come first serve.)

When we arrived the man at the gate promised us seats and told us we had plenty of time to go for a walk or go shopping.  Out of 300 people we had the seats 13-16. We went down the block and got some breakfast, then returned to wait in line.

Ashley's aunt sent us Eat n Park cookie t-shirts which we painted with, "travel nurses" a stethoscope.  They also said "come ahn dahn, yinz guys!" on the bottom, in classic Pittsburghese.  

This day was entailed with waiting.. line after line, hour after hour... just waiting.  

They take your picture, the producer gets groups of about 15 people at a time and goes down the line, briefly interviewing each person individually (mine was about bedpans??) , and then you wait some more. 

Finally we got to go in - no cameras allowed :(

There is so much energy there! Even though these people had been waiting for more than 8 hours without food and half of that without phones, people were jazzed to be there.  Drew Carey is very funny and a good host. Even though I wasn't picked to be a contestant, in the end I can say we had a lot of fun. 

Ashley's friends Johnny and Lindsay joined us too.

We got out of the studio during rush hour, so we decided to stay in Beverly Hills and have dinner. 

The next day, we went back to work..