Finally, Some Vacation Pictures As Promised... and then I'm gonna' get all intropective or something up in here...

So first things first-  I needed some sun.  I got some sun.  My husband and I took a little jaunt to Palm Springs.  We had never been there before.  We were there for over a week during New Years and the temperature didn't get over 65.  People in town couldn't remember a New Years this cold in at least 10 years.  Most of the time it was only about 55.  I know, poor me.  But really, next time I put in a request for sun I'm going to be a little bit more specific.  Anyway, as you know already if you've read my stuff before, I enjoyed the sunshine and I drank in as much as I could.  So here's the proof:

Yes, Palm Springs is a desert.  It is surrounded by mountains and is full of beautiful golf courses.  No, we don't golf, but the views are nice.

This is the pool that I intended to spend a lot of time in.  This is the hot tub that I actually did get into.

After seeing this pet area, we really wished we had taken at least one of our dogs with us!

We visited a 'Cactarium'.  It was actually pretty cool.

Some of the cacti were just beautiful.

Some were scary lookin'!

Some were fodder for my husband and his weird photography humor...

(Palm Springs really did have some of the bluest skies I have seen in a long time.)

Speaking of weird humor-  Here is how one of the signs in

Joshua Tree National Park appears to most people:

Here is how my husband sees it:

Yeah, you're welcome...

More photos to come, if you can stand it!



So here's the deal.   Along with having a good time, which is what we truly did, this trip served to remind us of two very different and distinct things.  1.) that we are really fortunate to be able to get away and just kick it around and be forced to shop in cool boutiques and eat at yummy restaurants in town because it's too cold to swim.  Especially when others around us are struggling so mightily lately- our friends with the special new little lady have discovered that her diagnosis will require MUCH more treatment than doctors had initially thought before she was born.  For many people we know, this would be a dream trip of a lifetime.  Or they may never get to do something like this at all. 

So..... that makes the second thing we learned seem like small potatoes. 

Still, here goes 2.) that we really need to move to a warm weather place, ASAP.  The time has come and that's all there is to it.  We are happiest in the bright warm sunshine.  My husband and I want very badly to be in Texas.  We have visited many places and that is the one that feels most like home to us.  However, the current economy, housing market and job market are complicating our plans.  We have had many leads for jobs evaporate on us.  Employers end up deciding that they want a different type of position in the end, or none at all.  Worse, they want a person who is more local.  Hello, we'd be local, if you'd let us!  We don't even care if moving expenses are not paid for.  We just want to get there.  We can't sell our house without taking a huge loss, so we have made plans to rent it out using a management company.  Yes, we have heard the horror stories of what renters will do.  We're willing to live with that too. 

So it seems as if it all comes down to this-  What are we really willing to do to change things?  Staying here in the cold, long, rainy Northwest winter is yet another reminder that this is not what we want.  It seems it's time to go out on yet another limb of this here tree of life.  After much discussion, a decision has been reached.  My husband is going to greatly expand his job search to include many other warm weather type places!  Who says a stop along the way in some other city for a year or two would be a bad thing?!  After reading other blogs and seeing what many of you have done, by choice or not, I figure we need to give this more of a real try.  What do you think?  Are we nuts?