rainbow | Thinking Through My Lens

The drive to and from Palm Springs from San Diego is not a particularly pleasant one. One thing you can always count on is traffic–especially through the Riverside area. It is one of the reasons we decided to extend the trip and not drive home on Friday evening.

So today we spent the day in Joshua Tree National Park (more on that tomorrow) and got lucky enough to escape most of the weather (high winds and rain) forecasted for Palm Springs today midday.

Anticipating a not-so-fun drive home today, we decided that we HAD to stop at the quirky roadside attraction not far from Palm Springs–the Cabazon Dinosaurs. We have visited the attraction before, but who wouldn’t want to stop and take photos of a 150 foot long hot pink apatosaurus (formerly known as brontosaurus) and a 65 foot tall T-Rex dressed in a tux?

We’ve learned through the grapevine (and now through personal experience) that the dinosaurs are palnted differently during different seasons. The last time we saw the dinosaurs T-Rex was wearing a bunny suit (in anticipation of Easter, I think) and our son reported them decked out in Christmas colors when they visited Palm Springs in December.

We had relished the 85 degree days during my conference in Palm Springs and enjoyed the day in the mid-60s and sunny up in the high desert of Joshua Tree. As we drove back down from 5000 feet toward sea level we noticed the clouds gathered in a huge pile over the mountains that surround Palm Springs and water splatters began to hit the car window. Suddenly the winds increased and the rain poured as we turned off onto the 10 freeway.

Should we stop to the see the dinos in the pouring rain?

We decided we’d at least pull off the freeway and take a look. Maybe the rain would stop in a couple of minutes.

Instead of being pelted by rain, we were treated to a rainbow. Definitely made that drive home a little bit better! Moral of the story: make time for silly fun–the rewards will be many!

What quirky roadside attractions have you visited? Any that you would recommend to others?

I love Mondays. Really. There is something about the start of the week, a clean slate to write my life. The fresh faces of my students, energized and eager after a weekend at home. And this morning, a rainbow guiding me on my drive to work! A rainbow on a Monday morning commute has to be a good omen.

In my classroom, Mondays are productive. It’s the day I have the most uninterrupted time with my third graders. We flowed from learning activity to learning activity, moving from engaged conversations about the right age for children to be left home alone to small group investigations creating geometric shapes from 4 triangles. Recess times snuck up on us and the day was over in a blink. My favorite kind of day in the classroom.

I ended my day with a mind clearing walk on the beach, matching the rhythm of my breaths with the inhale and exhale of the waves. And as I reached my turnaround point, I found a message in the sand.

lrg_dsc01921-1