Author: Abe Darais

Today we revisited one of our favorite places in Palm Springs, Shield’s date farm. This time around we were very struck at how finnicky date trees are how incredibly difficult it is to raise fruit from them. First of all, they can’t pollinate themselves, so humans have to manually collect pollen from male tress and brush them onto the female trees. You’d think that would be easy, but these trees grow insanely tall, so people have to climb large ladders, and the trees put out spiney thorns that are very painful for the people trying to work on the trees. Then, they can only live in dry, arid deserts, but they require an enormous amount of water. So Shield’s periodically floods the date farm so the trees can get enough water. And although they love water for their roots, they are basically allergic to rain, so the workers put rain coverings over the date fruits when it rains. It’s pretty amazing what all has to be done for these dates to come to the market, and they are so so delicious!

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After the date farm, we went to tour the windmill farm in Palm Springs. I think the correct term is wind turbine. We learned a lot on our driving audio tour:

• Denmark for a long time has made the best wind turbines (by a long shot), but the US and other countries like Sweden are starting to catch up.
• Wind power had a very rocky start. Early turbines broke easily and had a lot of problems.
• Wind turbine size is limited to what is allowed to be transported on highways. The future of wind turbines is having them in the ocean. There are already some and they are HUGE.
• Wind and solar are about the same efficiency to make. Coal burning produces WAY more power per area it takes, but obviously has very negative consequences for the environment.

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Back at home we had fun in the pool. I enjoyed doing some fun tricks with the kids where they would stand up on my shoulders.

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Also, Lily has still been enjoying veggie Pho from a nearby restaurant and it feels great as she is still sick, and she and I have also been playing a lot of wingspan, which we love so much!

Today, we explored downtown Palm Springs as a family.

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We LOVED our time in downtown Palm Springs. Back at the place, we served spaghetti to the kids, then Lily and I had a date night while Lydia babysat.

Lily and I went to the art museum and we loved it!!

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Then Lily and I wandered to downtown, where there happened to be a street fair going on. We got some great Mexican food, rugelach, and juice.

It was so fun to go out together!

Per Mary’s request we started the day with another fun bike ride.

We then went to Sunnylands. Lily found out about it through research and it was such a delight. It turns out a wealthy media family, the Annenbergs (invented TV guide, owned stations etc), built Sunnylands as a retreat in Palm Springs with the specific intention to spread peace to those who came. Both the husband and wife served as ambassadors and they were highly connected to US Presidents and top political leaders. They were close with Nixon and Nixon came to Sunnylands to decompress and find refreshment after Watergate. Obama met with the leader of China to have talks. A trade dispute with Japan was resolved here. And the list goes on. They also famously had a New Years Eve party every year that drew dignitaries (such as Regan) to attend every year. It was awesome to learn about this beautiful place that I never knew existed.

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The kids had fun playing tag on the grass.

Lily and I LOVE labyrinths! The kids seemed to enjoy it as well.

Then I played tag with the kids in the beautiful weather while Lily checked out the china and table setting pieces from Mrs. Annenberg. She was a master hostess, very detail oriented, and tried to use hosting as a means for building bridges and diplomacy with people. I got a chance to peak into the exhibit as well and I especially loved the yellow settings. Lily was so inspired that she bought a book about Mrs. Annenberg’s table settings.

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We then walked through some additional gardens and headed home.

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Back at the AirBNB, we thoroughly enjoyed the pool. Lily got a lot of sun which was great because she has still felt sick and we hoped all the sun would help. I had a lot of fun doing obstacle courses with the kids. I also spent a lot of time just floating on three noodles. It was unbelievably comfortable and highly soothing.

We also found an amazing Pho place that could doordash giant portions of veggie pho, which Lily went crazy for. It was especially soothing since she was still sick.

The drive to Palm Springs was very intense. It was extremely windy for most of the drive, and at times the wind got up to 75 miles per hour. When I filled up the car at one of the gas stations near Yermo, the wind blew gasoline out of the nozzle of the hose and gas sprayed all over my shorts. It smelled in the car, and we were concerned about a combustion hazard, so I changed and tossed my old shorts at the next stop in Eddie’s World. The wind got stronger the closer that we got to Palm Springs. We pulled in late and the last five minutes were the most intense. In parts of Palm Springs, there is nothing, but sand on both sides of the road. On one of those stretches, the sand was blowing so violently, that we could barely see in front of us, and during some gusts, we couldn’t see at all. Cars put on their hazards and drove at 5 miles per hour and stopped when there was no visibility. It was an intense stretch, but we made it.

Today we woke up to a beautiful AirBnB, perfect weather and no wind.

We started the day with a fun game of Twister.

Then we used the host’s bicycle. I called it Chitty-chitty-bang-bang. One tire was half flat, but the pump was broken so I couldn’t pump it up. And a screw was missing from one of the chain guards, so the chain guard banged into the chain making a constant steady clanking sound (that was fun to beatbox with). Lily steered because my legs were too long to peddle under the steering wheel. But all those quirks only made the bike more endearing. We loved our bike ride. Mary especially loved it, and was the one who would ask for more bike rides on subsequent days, and we did do one more.

We then went to the Botanical garden. As expected, Ammon started a conversation with strangers almost immediately, and we pulled him away eventually so as not to burden them with an unexpected conversation that was too long. The cacti, Yuccas and other plants were amazing. The first sign we saw encouraged us to go slow, and it was a mindful experience of beautiful desert plants.

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We then went to Elmer’s, a fun diner in Palm Springs that serves delicious German Pancakes and other great food. They had great things to take the kids attention while we waited for food.

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At home, everyone enjoyed the pool, and then Lily, the girls and I played Wingspan.

What a great day!

We fell in love with our Tiny Home! Here is a tour!

Today we had breakfast pastries from a nearby bakery. We loved eating in our tiny home!

Lily was feeling really sick, but she rallied so that we could go to Kodachrome Basin, a state park that we have been wanting to see for a long time.

The kids had fun in the swing seats and on the rock climbing wall at the visitors center.

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When we embarked on our hike, all the kids were very excited about their water backpacks that Georgia gave them for Christmas. Our hike was the Panorama trail and it was about three miles. Below are some pictures and videos from our adventure.

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Lily barely made it, as did Clarissa, so it’s really good we didn’t do the 6 mile Calf Creek trail I originally proposed. The trail was beautiful and it was really good to see Kodachrome Basil. We then drove to Boulder, UT (30 minutes North of Escalante), and visited Long Canyon. The name is really funny because it is the shortest canyon I’ve ever been in. You walk 100 yards and you are at the end. It is very beautiful though.

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Below is Clarissa making cinnamon rolls (probably inspired by the cinnamon roll she had for breakfast).

Then the kids and I did some bouldering. We had such a good time and it was the kids’ favorite part of the day.

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We then went to Hell’s Backbone Grill and ordered dinner to go. Lily was inspired by their cookbook and bought a copy. They have an incredible story building up this restaurant in such a rural place, but they did it and now they’ve gotten acclaim, and for good reason. The food was delicious!

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Driving home, we saw one of the most incredible sunsets we’ve ever seen. The pictures don’t quite do it justice, but it does give an idea of the vastness and richness of the orange glow we presenced.

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At home Mary and Ammon played Chess, and then the adults played wingspan. We completely fell in love with our tiny home and we loved every second we spent in it.

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Today Lydia went to Salt Lake City with Lily, Mary and Annamae and found a harp that was perfect for her.

Then they went to Gourmandise and Lily got this cute photo of Lydia and Mary hugging.

After lunch, they all went to Annamae’s and Lydia recorded more songs for her national music competition submission. Annamae was so nice to not only take time to let Lydia record at her house, but also to help Lily choose which videos to submit. Later in the day, Lily submitted everything for Lydia’s competition. Good luck Lydia! (Here are some of her recordings from today):

I’m so proud of both Lydia and Lily. Here is a text I sent to Lily while they were at the harp shop:

“Tell Lydia she earned her harp. I’m so proud of how she has taken ownership of her practice and become so amazing at it through her hard work, initiative and dedication. Lil, I’m also beyond grateful to all you put into her development. You should be very proud.”

On my end, today was totally insane. It’s 12:16 AM (Saturday morning) and I’m still up standing by to make sure our finance team invoices our deals correctly. I had one call with our finance team at 11PM and there may be another one since two deals still haven’t invoiced yet. But we got all the deals we were hoping for and I’m very grateful for that. I’m also very grateful to be on vacation next week.

Lastly, Georgia had a very hard day today and was not feeling well at all. Georgia, we love you so much and we are sorry today was so hard for you!

Lily was feeling very low that past couple of weeks, but all of that deep feeling has culminated into a burst of creative writing, and Lily is now well on her way to a hilarious, inspiring, profound and raw book based on her life’s experiences. The writing has been flowing and flowing, and she has found the process deeply therapeutic and inspirational. It’s been awesome to see her so inspired lately and I’ve loved reading what she has been producing.

Also, our pictures from our February family photo shoot are not ready, but here is a sneak peak of one of them that is:

Lydia recorded more songs for her submission for a national harp competition. Here is a sampling below:

This has been a very intense quarter for me with my two most important deals coming down to the wire. I worked until 9:15, and then fell asleep in my clothes, only to get up after 11:00, change into my PJs and go right back to bed. I’m assuming it has still been difficult for Lydia to record in peace because of the below note I found from Ammon the next day.

I love that note so much, it really tickles me. I’m so proud of Ammon for taking more responsibility lately. Earlier this week, he sat on the upstairs vanity drawer that holds all the toothbrushes and toothpaste, and it will be very difficult to fix. I was very upset he did that, and said, “why did you do that?” With misty eyes he said, “I don’t know, there was no good reason, I just did it.” I was so proud of him for taking responsibility and not making excuses or blaming other people, and I praised him greatly for that after I came down on him for breaking the drawer. I love my little guy!

Lydia spent a lot of time this evening recording pieces in preparation for her submission for the National Harp competition. It was a lot of effort (and frustration when home noises ruined her recording despite our efforts to be quiet), but in the end she turned out some great recordings. Here is a sample: