Monday, February 16, 2009

2-15-09 Agua Caliente Casino Resort & Spa Pool Area Part 3




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2-15-09 Agua Caliente Casino Resort & Spa Pool Area Part 2




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2-15-09 Agua Caliente Casino Resort & Spa Pool Area Part 1

These are the images taken with the smaller, Coolpix, Nikon of Agua Caliente Casino Resort and Spa mentioned earlier, in the "2-15-09 Big Morongo Canyon, Part 1" post. I only photographed the pool area as I wasn't sure they'd appreciate photography in the Casino.





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2-15-09 Big Moronga Canyon Preserve Part 4




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2-15-09 Big Moronga Canyon Preserve Part 3




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2-15-09 Big Moronga Canyon Preserve Part 2




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2-15-09 Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, CA Part 1

Sunday was a full day for Don and I.
We began it with Bible Study at Harbor Trinity; made a quick stop at the neighboring Starbucks where I changed into Jeans while Don bought our coffees; made another quick stop at Ace Hardware on PCH in Newport Beach where we purchased some bathroom caulking tape before heading to the Dana Point Harbor to apply the tape to the topside of Sadalsuud around the hatch in hopes of stopping a leak we discovered on our visit to her last weekend.
After I applied the tape per Don's instructions, we headed back West toward home, detouring from the 5 freeway, at the 133 North Toll Road, to join up with the 142 Toll Road for a quicker arrival on the 91 toward Riverside--and beyond, in hopes of finding bluer skies. When we got to the vicinity of Bob Hope Drive in Palm Springs we decided we reached our destination, stopping to eat at Agua Caliente Resort and Spa...pictures later--they were on the small camera and it seems the large camera is the one whose photos I've downloaded first.
We stopped in one of their gift shops where I couldn't resist the sparkles of a ring AND a necklace! Shameful, I know.
Our buffet lunch was a $25.00-a-peice Champaign Buffet (I was still collecting my lunch but Don tells me our server was visibly surprised when he declined the Champaign--that's probably a good part of the reason for the high price.) but the food really was quite delicious. I had beaf fajita makings (bell peppers, beaf, refried beens and rice), properly dressed in cilantro salsa, pineaple salsa, guacamole and sour cream; a tangy mushroom salad; a sweet crisp sprig of asparagus; a couple of iced shrimp; a chocolate covered strawberry; and a lovely little chocolate truffle dusted with powdered sugar. There was so much more to choose from it was hard not to pile it all on my plate, but this combination was perfect and I went away satiably content.
We visited the pool area where I took a few photographs, and Don won back a little over $15.00 of our dollars on a slot machine before we headed West again.
It was about 3:30 pm and though the sky was overcast and the wind was cold, we figured we probably had enough daylight left to take another detour. So we veered off highway 10 at the 62, and drove 11 miles to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. Picasa wisely only loads four pictures to Blogger at once, so I'll load these pictures four at a time in a few more posts.

After strolling the boardwalk loop we again headed toward home. Our last stop was Barnes and Noble at the Tyler Mall in Riverside where we briefly sat with coffee and a book--mine being a lovely little book of Saints--one for each day of the year with accompanying art. Those sly Starbucks marketers...You sit down thinking you'll browse through some book like you're in a library while you enjoy your coffee (which you can't do in most libraries, and why you are in Starbucks instead) and then, bam! you're buying the thing. So yes, we went home two books richer.





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