Putting a Berrego Spring in our step

We spent Thanksgiving in Berrego Springs, where Ralph's uncle Jack (Zach and Christina's dad) lives in the winter, he and his wife Marilyn migrate north in Spring and spend the summer in Minnesota which makes them 'snowbirds'.  It was very relaxing... great food and company, a swimming pool, shuffleboard, board games, hiking and various wheeled transportation choices such as..... (guest photos provided by Jon Zeta and Cristina)

Fiona on Ben's (another cousin) scooter

Ben had a good selection of bikes we could borrow to get around the place.

Prepared for a desert hike.

The tall stringy plant is an Occotillo.  It would be great to see the desert in the spring when all the cacti flower.

Ben's bike collection was only matched by his didgeridoos, he even had a trombone like extendible one made of drainpipe that slides to change the note.

Sadly we missed this performance, but it we all thought this was a strange name for a father and sons band (or any band at all). Equally bad were their haircuts.  Their slogan was "the way rock n roll should taste", sadly we'll never know.

What says thanksgiving more than a flamingo dressed as a puritanical turkey?

'La Casita' was kindly provided by Jack and Marilyn for us to stay in but we stayed indoors with the cousins much to the delight of the teenage girls who could escape the parents and camp out in it.

The obligatory Trivial pursuit - needless to say the boys won

what for exactly?

Out on the town with the family

A family set this out as a tribute for their father

Mass tresspass - must be a thanksgiving tradition

A poor fella's face!  It may look as though its popping out of a burrow but sadly it had very recently lost its  whole body!

In the same area were piles of owl pellets, full of rodent skulls.

Ralph being abducted by aliens, the craft can be seen in the upper left hand corner

petrified alien dropping

Alicia (Marrilyns daughter in law), Rainy (Alicia's daughter), Uncle Jack (John) and his wife Marilyn

This sculpture is a reminder of the Pleistocene megafauna which according to the Anza-Borrego State Park guide included giant ground sloths, Yesterday's camel (Camelops hesternus) and Half Ass (Equus hemonius)!

However, Dragons were not thought to be common during the pleistocene

For some reason the Underhills decided to write and perform a rap (maybe inspired by lucky tongue), luckily for the well-being all of mankind any requests to film the event were turned down..............

Sadly we didn't get a photo of the roadrunner which we saw running around outside the house.  The area is designated as a dark skies area and the stars were amazing. We stopped on the way home for one last look