One of the best parts of living in Southern California is the multitude of climate choices it presents; this time of year there are snow-capped mountains and warm desert valleys within 30 miles of one another. Being quite fond of warmth and sunshine, we took a quick overnight trip to the Palm Springs area last weekend.

The weather was awesome (mid-70′s and clear blue skies) and the drive out was beautiful. The areas ravaged by fire in the fall have risen from the ashes in the spring, with beautiful California Poppies and other varies of flowers carpeting the formerly blackened hillsides. I also got to stretch my car’s legs a little on the back roads; a welcome change after slogging through commuter traffic every day.

While we did enjoy the typical lazy escapes of lounging by the pool and eating tasty food, we also decided to try The Living Desert Wildlife and Botanical Park, which was a pretty awesome experience. Living in the zoo capital of the world, you’d think we’d be tired of them, but this place had enough of a different spin on things that it was really refreshing. There were lots of great garden exhibits with cacti galore, plus some pretty interesting animals. I made a short video of the park, which you can watch below.

(Music is the rather inaptly named “Rain in Vancouver” by Teru.)