Time to visit the Desert again!
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| Anza Borrego Cactus Trail 2023 |
We been planning with 2 other couples to visit them in the desert and finally we managed to get a weekend where it work out for all 6 of us =)
It has also been a really wet winter in California and flowers are blooming everywhere creating a superbloom condition.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/us/california-superbloom-flowers-climate/index.html
I am excited to see the desert through the eyes of someone who live and love it there. Going there as a tourist for a day trip, I just never seem to find the appeal of the desert.
But after seeing the stars at night, knowing how the local live, and hikes/nature are a few minutes drive away, I can see why people love it there.
We got there after work on Friday and settled in our friend's new place before we head out to Gene/Mary's RV site.
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| Finally! we got together in Anza Borrego! |
Gene and Mary had bid and won a French dinner for 6 and arranged it on Friday night and we are all looking forward to it. After relaxing with some champagne, we had our first course of marinated wild salmon with brown sugar, dill, vodka etc.. Served with frozen vodka
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| Table setup by Mary and our first appetizer course with the frozen bottle of Vodka |
The 2nd appetizer course of shrimp with tomato that's very good.
Main course of duck with potatoes and carrots with Inuit bread (which taste very similar to soda bread)
A cheese course of brie and cow milk cheese, followed by blueberry cheesecake (heard it's kosher but not sure what that mean)
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| Yummy dinner |
The 2nd day we had breakfast at home with Matt and Colleen (lovely strata with homegrown grapefruit juice) followed by a hike at cactus trail and another area
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| Matt and Colleen on the cactus trail |
We saw a lot of blooming flowers in the cactus trail and it's just amazing to see the choyas sprouting beautiful flowers while still looking deadly.
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| Blooming cactus |
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| More flowers and ocotillo blooming |
The entire hillside has plants sprouting yellow flowers that transformed the desert hills to yellow
After the hiking, we beat a hasty retreat before it gets too hot and spend some time at the pool cooling off.
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| Cosmo on a floating pad in the pool |
For dinner, Matt and Colleen had a zinfandel tasting of 4 wines and it's very interesting seeing Primitivo from Italy that has the same DNA as Zinfandel tasting so different than Zin from the Sonoma Valley, central coast and Fiddletown.
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| 4 wines Zinfandel tasting |
Matt and Colleen has prepared an authentic Santa María tri tip roasted on a traditional Santa María grill, served with traditional sides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria%E2%80%93style_barbecue#:~:text=In%20the%201950s%2C%20a%20local,of%20Santa%20Maria%2Dstyle%20barbecue.
