As the season is changing, so is my mood. I would call myself a social person for the most part, but then I have days like the past three weeks where I just want to be, live in the moment, experience things but not necessarily share right away. The one constant though, is my yearning to create and work. I am not sure how people who have a full time job & a side hustle, manage to be consistent with their blogging- truly admire their efforts, but also recognize that's not me. I don't want to be a slave to this lifestyle, but want to do it when I feel inspired and have something worth sharing or writing about, so I hope I haven't lost you yet. Also, I watched Julie & Julia yesterday and it definitely made me want to write & share again, so here it goes! :)
This past week Arsh (my husband) & I had a wedding to attend in LA. In the last two years, we have been to California more than four times for various occasions, and at this point we think we have seen most of the obvious parts of Cali. One thing we hadn't seen or experienced together was a desert setting in Cali. Thanks to instagram, I had been subconsciously wanting to go to Joshua Tree and the interior design accounts I was following based in Joshua Tree kept popping up on my feed, enticing me enough to pull the trigger. Working like a beast on various projects this past month, I didn't have much time to do research and just booked a cute cabin style home in Joshua Tree and figured we can figure out the rest on our 2.5 hour drive there from downtown LA, and that's exactly what we did. I also want to thank AirBnb for opening doors and experiences that we could have never had before. When I say we stayed at a cute little home, what I didn't realize was that it was in a VERY secluded area. Not something I had planned, but didn't realize how much we needed it and now hope to do more of such experiences moving forward.
This Airbnb was in the Mohave desert and very close to the Joshua Tree National Park. The next home over was probably a mile away from it, and it took us 5 miles via a dirt road to get to this home. It felt like we were in a movie, driving our rent-a-car through the dirt road, with no cell service, following the directions the Airbnb host gave us once we left the main streets. However, as soon as we made it to the house, all our fears dissipated and we both knew this was going to be an adventure for the books. The house was fenced in and there were a few cute areas to hang out outside- a fireplace setting, a shed with benches and hanging lights and also an outdoor tub.
Here's a picture gallery, unfortunately I can't add videos on here, so I'll add those on my instagram if you'd like to check it out! :)
Things we did:
Joshua Tree National Park
Breakfast at Frontier Cafe
Brunch/Lunch at La Copine
So many cool shops to check out, here are few of my favorites: Moon Wind, The End Boutique, various antique stores around town...
Dinner and live musical entertainment at Pappy & Harriet
This trip is not for everyone, but if you're looking for someplace remote, where you can truly disconnect then this is for you! We spent time building a fire, under the thickest blanket of stars, caught up on our reading, talked and focused on being present in everything we did. Also, brought home some items from the various shops we visited, like few beautiful sage sticks, some ceramic bowls and of course memories for a lifetime!
Notes:
Mondays & Tuesdays are not the best days to visit as many shops/restaurants are closed.
You don't have to hike or walk the Joshua Tree National Park...you can actually drive through it (it's bigger than Rhode Island and around 2 hour drive to see the whole thing. Has various sections, our favorite was the Giant Rocks and Cactus Garden!)
If you are an adventurous person, take some rock climbing lessons or a 2 hour hot spring experience.
Common misconception is that U2's album cover for Joshua Tree was shot in Joshua Tree, but in reality it was actually shot many miles away from it and doesn't have anything to do with this area.
The Joshua Tree is actually not a tree nor a cactus, but categorized as a flowering plant ;)
If you enjoyed reading, I would love to hear from you!
Sahr.