パームスプリングスは広い一軒家が多い地域になります。
広いリビング
寒い日は暖炉で暖まります。
広いキッチン。鬼ごっこができそうです。
nap time
細長ーーーいプール
温水にする機能がついているので、外が少々寒くても入れます。
携帯電話から温める操作ができるそうです。ハイテクですね。
とうっ！！！
splash!!!
夜は外の暖炉を囲んで、おしゃべりに花を咲かせます。
５日間のパームスプリングを家族と堪能することができました。
次はサンディエゴへ車で移動です。
The Palm Springs Air Museum
Americans love air museums and all over Southern California you can find museums featuring collections of military and civilian aircraft. The Palm Springs Air Museum is one of the better ones that I have been to over the years. Most of the airplanes on display are from WWII. The SBD ("Scout Bomber Douglas"), pictured above, was the US Navy’s main carrier-based scout/dive bomber from mid-1940 through mid-1944. It played an instrumental role in the Battle of Midway in June of 1942.
Side view of the Dauntless.
The Vought F4U Corsair (above) was an American fighter-bomber which saw service in WWII and the Korean War. I love the design, particularly the shape of the wings. It was flown by the Navy and Marine Corps.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed and operated by the United States Air Force. It was the first operational aircraft to be designed with stealth technology.
The F-117 was widely publicized for its role in the Gulf War of 1991. The U.S. Air Force retired the F-117 in April 2008, primarily due to the fielding of the F-22 Raptor.
For an extra twenty dollars you could fly a simulator. Yu-kun managed to shoot down two of three enemy fighter jets, but unfortunately crash-landed his jet.
Rikkun is ready for take off.
Palm Springs with the Boys
子供たちはパームスプリングスの広い公園が大好きです。
アメリカの公園には必ずバスケットゴールが必ずあるから、長男は幸せのようです。
歩いて公園に向かうのは、僕たちぐらいです。
アメリカは車がないと生活が成り立ちません。
公園はだいたい小学校の隣にあります。
小学生の運動場でもあります。
やったー！ゴールを独り占めできる。
また歩いて帰ります。
Our neighbor’s home
The Architecture of Palm Springs
Two main styles of architecture predominate in Palm Springs—Mid-century modern, as I have mentioned in a previous post, and the “hacienda” style. I am a big fan of both.
Homes designed in the Mid-Century fashion in Palm Springs are usually single-story, with geometric rooflines. Most of these houses were built in the 1950s and 60s.
According to Wikipedia, the movement behind mid-century modern architecture (1950s/60s era) in Palm Springs is backed by architecture enthusiasts, designers, and local historians to preserve many of Palm Springs' buildings and homes of famous celebrities, businessmen, and politicians. Stores sell furniture and gifts that feature a mid-century modern theme. The city holds a Modernism Week celebration every February, along with several related smaller events during the year.”
The other style is called hacienda.
Again, Wikipedia, “The term hacienda is imprecise, but usually refers to landed estates of significant size, while smaller holdings were termed estancias or ranchos . . . In Mexico, as of 1910, there were 8,245 haciendas in the country. In Argentina, the term estancia is used for large estates that in Mexico would be termed haciendas.
“In recent decades, [however] the term has been used in the United States for an architectural styleassociated with the traditional estate manor houses.”
The hacienda style that you can find in Palm Springs typically have reddish brown tiled roofs, white or beige stucco wallswith plants growing up them, colorful shuttered windows, and covered patios.
Palm Springs 1
Our first destination on this trip was Palm Springs.
Palm Springs is a small city of about 40,000 people, located about 2 hours east of Los Angeles.
When I was a child, my father bought the home pictured below with some of his coworkers who were all in the real estate business (不動産業界). During the spring and autumn months we would spend about one weekend a month at the Palm Spring house, swimming in our pool, playing in the local park, taking walks in the evening, and eating at our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was truly a happy time for all of us.
About ten years later, my father sold that house and bought another slightly bigger one in the nicer Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs. Here, our neighbors included the famous statesmen Henry Kissinger and actor Rock Hudson. All of the houses, or at least most of them, were designed by the same architectural company, so they have a similar style that is very Mid-Century Modern.
This was the house across the street from ours ↓
Although it may look dry—and to be honest, it is—this view is one I love. Palm trees, Mid-Century Modern architecture, the mountains and blue skies.
When we had the house, most of our neighbors had laws in front of their homes. The drought (干魃) of the past two decades has caused everyone to turn their gardens into desert ones.
Here is a more iconic image of Palm Springs. Golf course, palm trees, blue skies and mountains. As you can see from the photo, there is snow on those mountains. The highest mountain is San Jacinto. It is about 300 meters lower than Mount Fuji and can get a lot of snow. The water in the local springs come from that snow.
There is a tram that goes from Palm Springs all the way up into the mountains. I must confess that I have never been on it.
We meant to go up into the mountains this time, but it was too cold and rainy.
California - Limousine
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) we took a “limousine” to Palm Springs, a small resort town about two hours east of LA. Now, a limousine may sound luxurious, but it was actually just a chauffeur-driven minivan. This was our second time to travel this way and I recommend it for getting out of the city. One, you don’t need to contend with the heavy L.A. traffic, and, two, you can sleep like my family did all the way from the airport to our destination.
The limousine service we use is called Xpress Shuttles. Although a bit pricey, it provides peace of mind when you are exhausted from a long flight like we were.
The thing that surprised me the most during that two-hour-long drive was how green California was. Thanks to record-breaking rains and snowfall this winter, the hills and mountains were greener than I had ever seen them. As the weather started to warm up, these same hills and mountains exploded with color as wildflowers started blooming.
