Palm Springs is a notable city. It is well known in the gay community as something of a playground and it has a much higher population of same sex couples than one would expect (think of it as a desert Brighton if you will). It is replete with golf courses, shopping and everything the discerning California tourist may desire.
It also has a zoo. This may not seem exciting but it is a special sort of zoo: it has cheetahs. The cheetah is Hatty's favorite animal. There are, alas, no cheetahs in any New York zoo so we travel to see them (Hatty and I made a trip to Philadelphia for just this purpose). The moment I found this out I knew we had to go so Hatty, Ben and I set off for the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens.
They are very proud of their cheetahs. Right at the entrance there are bronze statues of a cheetah and cubs - if you look behind at the ticket booth you will see the prominent Cheetah face (the black lines from the eyes down being one of the most recognizable differences between cheetahs and other cats).
The actual cheetah exhibit was large but of course the cheetahs were not doing very much in the heat. So we did get to see them and it was enough. The rest of the zoo was great too. It had many other African animals including the giraffe as well as a petting zoo full of newly born baby goats.
The jaguar was popular too but there is only one cat for her. We had stop for another picture on the way out.
In the afternoon I dropped most of them off at a shopping center while Matthew and I went to the Palm Springs Air Museum (he is learning to fly at the moment so I thought this would be interesting). This is an impressive museum attached to Palm Springs airport and has a large number of World War II planes (as well as some more recent planes, including a very nice F-14 Tomcat parked outside). The amazing thing is that many of these planes still actually fly and there were many interesting guides who told us all about the planes and their history.
When we met everyone else I could tell from J's face that was something was not quite right. He shook his head and told me I would have to ask her. Hatty excitedly told me that she had bought a leather jacket (technically it was more of a waistcoat) so she 'could look like a rock-star'. Never let it be said that she does not know what she wants.
I didn't tell her but I knew that this cheetah outing was only the starter. For the main event we were heading to the San Diego, with its world-famous zoo and I hoped that something special was going to happen there. I would not be disappointed.
It also has a zoo. This may not seem exciting but it is a special sort of zoo: it has cheetahs. The cheetah is Hatty's favorite animal. There are, alas, no cheetahs in any New York zoo so we travel to see them (Hatty and I made a trip to Philadelphia for just this purpose). The moment I found this out I knew we had to go so Hatty, Ben and I set off for the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens.
They are very proud of their cheetahs. Right at the entrance there are bronze statues of a cheetah and cubs - if you look behind at the ticket booth you will see the prominent Cheetah face (the black lines from the eyes down being one of the most recognizable differences between cheetahs and other cats).
The actual cheetah exhibit was large but of course the cheetahs were not doing very much in the heat. So we did get to see them and it was enough. The rest of the zoo was great too. It had many other African animals including the giraffe as well as a petting zoo full of newly born baby goats.
The jaguar was popular too but there is only one cat for her. We had stop for another picture on the way out.
In the afternoon I dropped most of them off at a shopping center while Matthew and I went to the Palm Springs Air Museum (he is learning to fly at the moment so I thought this would be interesting). This is an impressive museum attached to Palm Springs airport and has a large number of World War II planes (as well as some more recent planes, including a very nice F-14 Tomcat parked outside). The amazing thing is that many of these planes still actually fly and there were many interesting guides who told us all about the planes and their history.
When we met everyone else I could tell from J's face that was something was not quite right. He shook his head and told me I would have to ask her. Hatty excitedly told me that she had bought a leather jacket (technically it was more of a waistcoat) so she 'could look like a rock-star'. Never let it be said that she does not know what she wants.
I didn't tell her but I knew that this cheetah outing was only the starter. For the main event we were heading to the San Diego, with its world-famous zoo and I hoped that something special was going to happen there. I would not be disappointed.
