La Quinta Vacation: Animals and Lights

Yesterday, we packed up the car and set off for our favorite vacation spot: La Quinta! Aunt Marisa, Uncle Mike and Cousin Ella joined us this time. On the way, we stopped for lunch at Bob's Big Boy in Calimesa. Here I am with Daddy and the big Bob outside the restaurant.
I call him "Bob Bob" and of course I had to touch him. Afterwards, I said that he was very dirty and had to wash my hands. Yuck!

After lunch, I took a quick nap. I still had my headphones on that's how asleep I was.

Later, we headed over to Tutu and Sir's clubhouse for an awesome animal display from our friends at The Living Desert. We saw all kinds of desert animals, like this cute little tortoise. Do you know the difference between turtles and tortoises? Well I do! Turtles like the water and tortoises do not (the docent from the zoo says they would sink like a stone if they went swimming). See you learn something new every day.

Ella loved the animals, too, but like all good toddlers, we both tired very quickly of the slow pace of the docent's explanations and had much more fun running on the grass. Here's Ella and Aunt Marisa checking out the flowers.

And here I am running down the hill. I did this about 50 times at least. It was fun!

OK, back to the animals. Ella loved seeing this sweet little falcon.

And I thought this hawk was amazing.

I also loved sitting on Daddy's shoulders. I could see much better that way.

After dinner, we were in for a big treat! We headed over the the actual Living Desert for their annual light spectacular. They open up the zoo at night and set up millions of lights. Ella and I bundled up and took in all the sights from the comfort of our strollers.

It's a bit tough to take photos of lights in the dark but Mommy tried her best to capture a few moments. Here we all are (minus Sir who was taking the photo).

And here are Mommy, Daddy and I in front of a big teddy. He was so cool.

Here's a shot of just how neat the displays were. There were sooooo many lights. It was amazing!

Mommy liked this one. It says "Happy Zoo Year." Cute, huh?

They even had a few displays shaped like desert flora and fauna. There were long horns and cacti and even this bobcat.

Ella and I especially loved seeing people taking camel rides. Neato! We also viewed Santa from afar (not quite ready for that experience yet).

We ended our evening watching the miniature train display that the zoo is famous for, Even the trains were covered in lights. It was quite spectacular!

By the end of the night, I thought it would be nice to share my stroller-built-for-two with Cousin Ella. We snuggled in together and took a nice ride back to our cars. Am I a peach or what?

Back in the warm car and ready to go home for some pie and cocoa. I had a blast!

What a day, huh? Looking forward to more fun on Saturday...