VISITORS FROM HOME

(Click on any photo for a large view)A view to Loma Linda

After being down here for over two months, it was great to have Bill and Peg come down for the weekend from  San Francisco. We celebrated their arrival by eating at BJ's, a recently discovered micro pub, where we had some great fish tacos accompanied by a good IPA. The next day we ventured to Palm Springs which has become a winter favorite for us (and a few others!) where the ladies checked out the galleries on a long hike while Bill and I found a great running trail into the mountains starting just below Bob Hope's 50,000 sq ft mansion in which he never even slept one night! 

After Sunday brunch in Redlands just down the road from us, we checked out the local architecture which features many Victorian era homes along wide palm lined boulevards finally ending up in their classic 100 hundred year old library which is a real throw back to an era when people actually read books and newspapers. Do we know how to show visitors a high time? 

Sadly, they were off on Monday morning while I celebrated the 2/3 mark of my treatments with 15 to go but still hanging in there with good energy and spirits. It's amazing how fast the time has gone as we approach the home stretch but, as you have noted from this blog, we haven't been idle. 

Unfortunately, Marianne's dental work at the University Dental School may necessitate a few days' delay in our scheduled departure. 

PALM SPRINGS REVISITED

(Clicking on any photo will show the large view)




After several weeks of 80+ degree weather, the temperature has now dropped 40 degrees with rain, hail and snow on the mountains around us! However, we need it and it IS February after all but it does threaten to dampen our Valentine's Day weekend in Palm Springs.

I am now just over half way in my treatment with 24 down and 21 to go. Interestingly enough, I'm meeting an average of 2 new guys per day with bad prostates so I figure, by the end, I will have made 90 new friends! Also, Marianne and I are both getting our teeth worked on at the dental school while we're here so one could say I'm getting fixed top to bottom.

We kicked off our stay in Palm Springs with a ride on its world famous tram that goes from the valley floor to 8,600 ft. With the forecasted rain holding off, we had a beautiful clear day in the snow at the top and some spectacular valley views.



In the afternoon we met our friend, Lorraine, as she finished a 100 mile bike ride around the area with 10,000 other pedalers. We were all in the need of a little hydration which a local IPA satisfied nicely.

Sunday AM found us rising at 4.30 to do the Palm Springs Half Marathon with our new neighbor, Peggy. After 13.1 miles of pavement pounding, I was surprised to find that I had finished 3rd in my age group. After all, I hadn't run a half marathon in years and had no idea how I'd do.

In the afternoon we had a great time checking out The Living Desert which features a spectacular array of plants, animals, birds etc. spread over many acres - much more realistic than any zoo we've ever visited. The impending storm did in fact curtail our planned visit to Joshua Tree National Park as we now look out at the downpour on Presidents'Day.

SEEING THE SIGHTS, INSIDE AND OUT

(Clicking on a photo will give you the large view)

With much needed rain finally arriving in SoCal, we were treated to a view of the snow capped San Bernardino mountains upon awakening. Since the weather didn't encourage freeway driving with the CHP reporting three times the normal number of accidents, we headed ten miles down the road to the city of Redlands to check out the sites as it is noted for its Victorian era homes.




As you can see, some were spectacular with many offering a full gamut of styles and sizes from 100 years ago. We also visited the Lincoln Shrine and museum which, fortunately for us, was celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth with a number of Civil War buffs sporting Confederate and Union soldier uniforms.

After another wet run Sunday morning (one of the nice features of running here is the availability of ripe Naval oranges and grapefruit along the way) we were given a tour of the LLUMC Proton-delivering cyclotron and all the complex delivery systems backing it up. We certainly gained a new appreciation of the operation as we were lead through the inner workings of the beast. What an amazing piece of ingenious machinery! We are in total awe of the brains that thought this up. Loma Linda is the world leader in this type of treatment for 50 different types of cancer since it was introduced in 1990 with the majority of the treatments being for prostate cancer at the moment but new robot aided systems are in the works in the not too distant future. NASA is even using the system to learn how to deal with protons in space. Unfortunately, they weren't big on us taking photos probably fearing that we'd use the knowledge to build our own @ $200,000,000!

LOMA LINDA LOCALE

This is an interesting small city of about 22,000 inasmuch as it is built around and oriented towards the University and Medical Center and Seven Day Adventist Church with its "making man whole" concept. It certainly puts my situation into perspective when we see little kids in wheelchairs, bald heads, hooked up to IV's being trundled around the hospital with their parents in tow but with smiles on their faces. Also, LLUMC is the trauma center for Riverside and San Bernardino counties so ambulances and the medivac helicopter ("Mercy Air") are frequent sites and sounds. Another frequent sight and sound are the freight trains often more than 100+ cars in length and sometimes even double-decked with containers coming from the east and west it seems like every few minutes as this is the freight corridor between LA and the southeast.




Saturday we visited Palm Springs and the Indian Canyons just outside the city. The latter is actually the tribal land of the Agua Caliente Indians and boasts some unusual canyons among the arid cactus covered and rock strewn hillsides. At the bottom of these canyons are hundreds of fan palms where there's water and they look like an oasis from the top. I had a great run in 85 degrees heat and, as you can see, Marianne got some of her usual excellent photos depicting the scene.

Today I'll have my 15th treatment and, since Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, I'll have six more weeks of treatment! Happy Groundhog Day.

In case you want to see more photos you can check here