Paradise Cafe

On the same journey up treacherous highway 74 we stopped for lunch at Paradise Cafe.

This funky little cafe sits back from the road on the corner where one can turn left to drive 2 more hour to San Diego or, continuing  straight onward and seriously upward, one ends up in the aforementioned Idyllwild in about 20 minutes. Other than the turn there is nothing else around.  ( I actually thought the name of the place was Lost Paradise Cafe because it is to my eye out there all alone.)

The first image ( flag not half mast but attached to a telephone pole ) may suggest to you greasy fries and shoe leather steak.  I suppose, if that were the case, the trekkers on the Pacific Crest Trail that crosses 74 about 1/2 mile from the cafe would still come.  As it is, though, the food is super. 

 The trekkers, many of whom leave entries in a tattered guest book, descend on the Paradise for outstanding meals.  The burgers are significant and the San Jose Burger with onions, chilis, cheese, and about 7 other ingredients I cant remember, appears to be the one most trekked for.  Have to say Tomato Basil Soup was super too.

Palm desert - environ

 

We took a little jaunt up Hway 74 - up to around 6,000 feet, mostly winding road and a hway known as the deadliest in the US.  We went up to a Idyllwild, a little town that looks to be all about getting out of the summer heat.  There was a healthy smattering of rustic, woodsy looking motels, a few restaurants and some tourist shops.

Above is evidence of the latter, a candy, cum just about everything else that can be eaten that you can think of.  Never in all my days of being a tourist myself have I seen so buy me now stuff.

There was even those white sticks of candy that were sold as candy cigarettes when we were growing up.

Of course we walked out with packages of stuff that we thought at the time we really needed.

Palm Desert -lest we forget

midst the emphasis on food, is also a desert.

We walk everyday in place that look like the above.  I am ever impressed by how both African and Biblical it looks.  

Notice the proximity to the San Andreas Fault line.  This is where the Biblical aspect could come in handy! 

Palm Desert - Ladies Who Lunch

Here in Palm Desert for another two weeks or more and here on the blog for the first time in a long time without a photo project to pass on to you.

So, for lack of a story, here is a bit of Palm Desert, where, as you see, the stereotype of a Palm Springsian sort of glitz is alive and well.  Ladies lunch here and they lunch in a style reminiscent of belles through out time.

On the other side of the glass door above I am also lunching - alas hatless and sans strappy little sun dress - with my mate, grabbing my camera while remembering that I once told the dentist who was performing a root canal on a tooth of mine that I would rather be doing just that than be lunching with ladies.  

The proximity of this post and the one below is not particularly intentional but it does represent the two economic extremes here in the Coachella Valley.  On a map these extremes would appear about as close as the two posts here - two worlds apart and, generally speaking, neither can imagine the other.

hidden Harvest Food Bank

Brought to my attention today that I have been remiss in posts.  So.

As mentioned before I am interested in learning more about children and poverty.  I have learned no more since the previous post, nose very much to the grindstone of GNH book related detail.  Still, when I shoot at the food bank, it is the little ones that my camera finds more often than not.

hidden Harvest Food Bank

This woman, when I came upon her was reflecting on the line of people before her.  They were all waiting to sign in for free food.

HIdden Harvest Food Bank

Poverty appears to be no respecter of age.  

Hidden Harvest Food Bank

As I have mentioned I am sincerely interested in the children living at or below poverty level.

The mother of these children who waited in the truck bed as their parents collected the box of dry goods and fresh greens was exceptionally beautiful and gracious. 

Hidden Harvest Food Bank

Some of the strong faces I encounter at the Food Bank.