San Marcos to ...

... Las Vegas. 

Since we really weren’t in any rush to get back to Las Vegas we were able to spend a little more time with my mom this morning.

Right up the road from moms is one of my favorite places to visit while in this area …. Oceanside.  There is a lovely pier here that I simply love.  I mostly love it for all the gulls … but also for watching all the surfers in the ocean below.  (Top two pictures in this collage … just in case you couldn’t tell!)

When we got back to moms we had a quick lunch before packing up the car and heading back to Las Vegas.  We had discussed either going back the way we came or making a slight detour and going through Joshua Tree National Park.  Joshua Tree won out … and this make for a much longer trip back! But Joshua Tree National Park was absolutely gorgeous and so worth it! We don’t regret making this detour.

The two bottom pictures show some sights along the way from Joshua Tree to Las Vegas.  On the left is a picture of just a few of the many, many wind turbines we saw today.  There were hundreds … if not thousands … of them! I’m sure they are good for generating lots of energy but all I see are bird killers.

From Joshua Tree back to our condo seemed endless!!  Most of the roads were one lane roadways with nothing to see but dust devils (bottom right) and beautiful blue skies! We didn’t make it back to the condo until close to 8:00 pm. 

When we got back I did a load of laundry and then we packed a bag for our trip tomorrow to Utah!  Tomorrow’s travel time is thankfully much shorter but there is an hour time difference!  The road time is only two hours but we gain an hour so it will appear to be three hours!  Even with that I still can’t wait!