In which there was finally ice cream

Lusine and I have successfully navigated through our first trip out together, without parental supervision (or interference), no less. Joshua Tree National Park is a bit far for a one day trip, but close enough that we could do it when I tacked on the two days to my weekend. Lucy came over on Thursday, when we went out to get food and gas, not to mention to pack everything we may need (proper preparation prevents poor performance, heh). I got Lucy introduced to OURAH HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB, which I have just recently discovered and is a bit like a FRUITS BASKET AU (except not) that makes fun of itself and is liberally sprinkled with sparkles. (I kid you not, the anime is ridiculously sparkly.) We boiled eggs (which we didn't really eat so hey, breakfast next week's done ahead of time) and made sandwiches with the flatbread that Lucy brought over (which is oval with weird edge pieces that resulted in a running commentary, given by Lucy, while I was attempting to roll my sandwiches). Introduced Lucy to new food: yes for pineapple-orange muffins, no for the shrimp-chips and the Pocky biscuits. We also watched a few episodes of DUE SOUTH, season three (because Lucy didn't care and I missed the rubber duckies). It all went well and fine until Lucy pointed out that Kowalski had very pointed features and is, actually, rather Mike-like. From that point everything he did become doubly hilarious as we tried to stick Mike in various situations and facial expressions. (Spiky.)

We switched off on driving on the way there and discovered that our height difference is enough for seat adjustments. There was snow on the mountains at one of the rest sites...and also horses, which distracted Lucy. We also swapped our music. A lot. I was introduced to Bon Jovi and got Lucy to listen to the entire RENT soundtrack. The rooms weren't ready for check in until later in the afternoon, so we went to the park (lovely roads weren't really marked, so navigation was super fun), where there was a visitor center with park rangers and an entrance booth that was empty. Given that the entrance booth was where we were supposed to pay our park fees we were slightly confused. Nevertheless we continued on until we started encountering Massive Piles of Rocks. And lots of "Exhibit Ahead" signs that are possibly a lot more useful as road markers than road signs, if we ever bothered to keep track of how many of those exhibit signs are between each hiking trail. As it was we pulled over next to a Massive Pile of Rocks and proceeded to climb around it, over it, etc. The sky was very, very blue. It was very, very windy. I discovered that the weird brown things that skitter around the windshield while driving were actually kamikaze moths, as evidenced by the number of death moths we encountered by the side of the road when we were returning from our hiking trails. (Hiking trails very nice. We do seem to go against the arrows a lot, though. It's mildly perplexing.)

Oh, and no matter what the signs tell you, there is no water in this season. The lake is a lie. The rocks were a lot more inspiring. The Joshua trees were very spiky. I think I'm developing a fondness for spiky things. Though admittedly it's mixed with a healthy dose of wary suspicion, since my sense of self-preservation hasn't completely deserted me.

We had lunch in the park. Dinner, however, took place as a local diner called Carousel Cafe. The place is, as you might've inferred from the name, carousel-themed with the main room being octagon in shape. It's a little shabby but very homey, and served food in very generous proportions. (As in, the dinner became lunch the next day and I just finished off the last of it today.) Lucy said that a lot of the day felt like something from the movie, with us driving in the car with the music blasting away and nothing but the desert on either side / us in the trail feeling that there's nothing around except for the rocks, local vegetation, and bottomless sky over us / eating dinner in a kitschy local diner that had red vinyl booths and served fries and fried chicken in a basket. Then she mentioned that in all the movies she could think of something horrible usually happens afterwards. Despite of that, we went for a walk after dinner and discussed the Lunatic Sims in detail. (Lucy wanted another baby. Because of the crib. It made sense at the time.)

I was planning to drag Lucy up early to see the sunrise in the park the next morning. However, our attempts to go to bed early were thwarted by misbehaving children that weren't even ours. They were next door and very LOUD. You could hear the thumping very clearly. After a much shorter night than we anticipated, we got up at around 5:30 the next morning, looked at each other, and decided that after sunrise we were coming back to the hotel for a nap. (It was either that or drive into a Joshua tree. Napping seemed safer, and less likely to end in fines for destruction of natural property.)

We saw still more rocks the second day and I discovered that the winding drive through the park (very large, something like 30 miles?) was actually very enjoyable with the music and scenery (the entire place was incredibly scenic in a stark, clean kind of way). We also saw a lot of bikers, which was a little alarming because--well, national park and biker parade just doesn't seem all that compatible somehow. During our hike in another trail (no water, no spring, despite of the name, but we did see five mile's worth of rocks and hills and plenty of wildflowers, which made me happy) we also saw a bunch of kids in bright orange shirt hiking with giant packs on their backs (some of the packs look larger than the kids, I swear). Lucy and I were both very glad that we never had to do something like that.

I made Lucy drive the entire way back, because I was lazy and unwilling to drive anymore than I have to. At least on roads where there are other cars and not nearly enough rocks & plants on either side.
(We also saw lots of lizards. No scorpions though. Nor tarantulas.)
When we got back we decided that we'll sleep in by Sunday morning, by which I mean that both of us were up by 8 in the morning and contemplating the merits of different types of cereal and geez...the quarter starts tomorrow, doesn't it.


...k then.