Day 28 - Palm Springs Aerial Tram

After starting the day with conference preparations, the team attended the Rotary Club of Palm Springs for lunch and a presentation. We felt particularly at home as there was lots of fun and comaraderie (mateship) and we were flattered by all the 'happy dollars' donated in welcoming us. Thank you once again to President Judy Bronstein and all members for such a warm welcome.


After lunch we headed up the Mt San Jacinto moutain in the world's largest rotating tramcar at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Once at the top, which sits 8,516ft above sea level, we did some 'ballroom' hiking and found a number of perfect lookouts over the Coachella Valley and Santa Rosa Mountains.



Joining us on the tram ride were visiting Rotarians from Uganda. John Kirkwood, Peter Kalbbala and Jack Ocholla are over in the US for six weeks promoting the Tofta Educational Trust which provides quality education for disadvantaged children. While here, John, Peter and Jack will be attending District Conference and the Rotary International Convention in Salt Lake City in Utah.

Special mention to Eric Broomfield, outbound GSE team member, for managing to ditch work and join us for lunch and the moutain tram ride. Given the number of GSE events we crashed back in Perth, was good to see the favour returned... like your style Eric!

Last but certainly not least, special thanks to our informative tour guide Frank Peabody. We wouldn't have made it back out of the wilderness without you!

Palm Springs Wildlife

Whilst out for an early morning walk with my host Linda yesterday morning, I saw some wildlife that I have never seen before. The first was a raccoon, hiding in the eaves of a house. He had made a little mess down the street going through the rubbish bins. The second was a coyote looking a little hungry and thirsty. Of course I didn't have my camera with me so I grabbed a couple of pics off the web instead.

Straight Talk

Today (May 29th) I had the opportunity to visit a not-for-profit organisation called Straight Talk, based in Cypress, Orange County. The organisation aims to develop and make available a variety of mental health, substance abuse, and rehabilitative services for the benefit of individuals and families in need, for whom access or utilization of such services are generally limited, restricted or otherwise unavailable. I visited Straight Talk with my host Jan Moss, who was instrumental in establishment of the organisations in the early 1970s. On the visit I developed an appreciation of the not-for-profit and 'free & sliding scale clinic' systems within the USA. I was very impressed by the range & quality of services offered, and the dedication of the staff. Special thanks to Bruce Robbins and Shelly Lummins.

Dropping 6000ft via the High Desert

Leaving Big Bear saw a significant change in both temperature, altitude and also the scenery. Our last look at Big Bear as we rounded the corner was of water, and the last vestiges of snow on the top of the snowboarding run. We said adieu to Rick at Landers (for 3 more sleeps) and began our next adventure with Jim and Stu from the Palm Springs Rotary.

Our first stop was lunch with the clubs of 29 Palms, Yucca and Yucca Sunset and Joshua Tree. There was about 40 people at a BBQ in our honour at the emu farm owned by the President Lib and with AG Sandy also in attendance.

Then it was onwards to the Joshua Tree National Park, a climbers paradise. It was amazing as we travelled through 3 very different landscapes of Joshua Trees, boulders and then the Ocotillo cactus as we descended through to sea level and Palm Springs.

The landscape was truely awe-inspiring and beautiful and completely different to what we have seen before. There was the climber, the rock namer, the sleeper, chief photographer and me!

Another great day in Southern California with a whole range of new experiences.

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park is located in south-eastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994, it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It includes 1,234 mi² (3,196 km²) of land.
Straddling the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, (Mohave and Colorado Desrts) each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation. Below 3,000 feet (900 m), the Colorado Desert encompasses the eastern part of the park and features natural gardens of creosote bush, ocotillo, and cholla cactus. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park.
The team had the opportunity of taking the 56 mile drive through the park on there way from Big Bear to the Palm Springs area. The beautiful scenery was enhanced by the Joshua Tree itself.

Hey Mambo, Mambo Italiano...

Big bear has been a blast. Just wanted to add a quick post to say thanks to my great hosts Simeon and Dana. Apparently I now have part shares in a Restaurant in Big Bear - Cafe Mambo (just kidding!). One of the things that I loved best about Big Bear (aside from the awesome people) was the chance to do some outdoor activities. I not only did a little mountain biking around the lake (taking it easy drafting behind Simeon), but also two hikes up to Cougar Crest. It was fantastic to join the hiking crew (Ron, Kim, Mark, Simeon and Dana) up the hills (not sure if my huffing and puffing was altitude or fitness?).

Day 24 - On the lake

Today started with a tour of Big Bear Lake on a pontoon boat. The tour was fantastic but the fishing not so great... our excuse...? Too many boats on the lake this weekend!!

This weekend is a long weekend in the USA as Monday 28 May is Memorial Day, a day to honour fallen defence personnel who have died in the line of duty (very similar to our Anzac Day).

Memorial Day began in the United States on 30 May 1868, after the Civil War had ended. Flowers were put on the graves of both sides, in order to help heal the nation. It was later expanded to include all men and women who had died in America's wars. It is now celebrated on the last Monday of May.

Big Bear is a popular place for Southern Californians to spend the long-weekend and the valley can often expand to over 100,000 people. Just to give you an idea of what a 'holiday' town Big Bear Lake is, around 70 per cent of the homes here are holiday homes - only 30 per cent are occupied by full-time residents!

This afternoon we went 'rafting' with Big Bear Rotarians - this a great concept where everyone goes out on individual boats and then gets together on the lake and ties up to create a big floating raft. Every boat brings different drinks and nibblies and it really becomes a big party raft. As a team, we all managed to visit most of the nine or 10 boats that made up the raft... including a special visit to a truly unique vessel... the SS Relief!

Thank you Big Bear for looking after us Aussies so well. While we are a little sad to say goodbye, we are looking forward to our Palm Springs adventure.

Greetings from Big Bear Lake

It is a beautiful day at 7000' in our beautiful valley. The weather is clear and it will be about 75 degrees today. It is a perfect day to go boating which the team will do this afternoon.

It has been such a pleasure to have Jill in my home! All the of GSE team members are wonderful people. I know you are very proud of them all.

Schautzie, Mr. Circles and I have had a grand time with Jill. We all go for walks, enjoy the fresh air outside, have good conversations and of course eat! Jill is a wonderful bright woman. She is a great representative of your country and Western Australian. I will be sad to see her move on to her next destination.

My very best to each of you,
Liz Harris

Day 23: The Great Outdoors

The day started with an early morning hike for some of us, before a trip up Snow Summit on the Scenic Sky Chair.






The Scenic Sky Chair takes about 15 minutes to go from 7,000 feet to a summit elevation of 8,200 feet.

There was some time for hiking at the top which included time to smell the vanilla in the Jeffrey Pine. Jeffrey Pine (Pinus jeffreyi), named in honor of its discoverer John Jeffrey, is a North American pine related to Ponderosa Pine. It occurs from southwest Oregon south through much of California, to northern Baja California in Mexico. It is a high altitude species; in the north of its range, it grows at 1000-2000 m altitude, and at 1800-3000 m in the south of its range. The pine nuts are used in cooking - eg. salads.

In the afternoon we headed to the Discovery Centre, followed by an off-road trip to Butler Peak in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Butler Peak Fire Lookout (at 8535 feet) is accessible via an alpine, fireroad route through the mountains surrounding Big Bear Lake. The views from the lookout of Big Bear Lake and the surrounding valleys are spectacular.

The lookout was built in 1936 and is bascially a one room (12' x 12') perched directly on a rock. We all marvelled at how they managed to get it up there.

During the evening, Mayor Bill and his wife, Mary Jo hosted a BBQ for the team at their beautiful new home.






We were treated to an excellent dinner and a lovely "Welcome GSE Team" cake. And, of course Fosters was flowing which is apparently "Australian for beer" or is it?.

Thanks to everyone, especially Rick and Kathy, Bill and Mary Jo and our respective host families for a fantastic day and night.

Cougar Crest Trail Hike

It was an early start this morning to hike up the Cougar Crest Trail, a popular 4 mile hike, located on the North Shore of Big Bear Lake. We went up about 1500 feet to 7900 feet.

There were spectacular views of the San Bernardino mountains and Big Bear Lake along the way.

The Cougar Crest Trail ends at the junction of the Pacific Crest Trail, an infamous 2,650-mile national scenic trail that runs from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington.

Thanks to everyone who organised and came on the hike, and for the yummy breakfast afterwards.

Today we head up the mountain to Snow Summit and to Butler Peak which will be fantastic and provide many more opporutnities for spectacular views.

Clare Bear in Big Bear

After meeting my new hosts Carol and Darrell Mulvihill and settling into their cosy moutain abode which sits 7,100ft above sea level, Carol took me for a quick visit to the Big Bear Discovery Centre. The centre is designed as an educational facility as well as a visitor and residential information portal to the San Bernardino National Forest. It opened in May of 1998 and is the result of a unique partnership between the US Forest Service and the non-profit San Bernardino National Forest Association.



Friday started with a surprise news bulletin on radio station KBHR 93.3 that welcomed the Australian GSE team to town and outlined our itinerary for the weekend. How special do we feel!!

After visiting the local bank (got to hold US$10,000 for just a minute), the library, hospital and city hall, the Mulvihills and their friends Ted and Paula Fashenpour took me out for dinner and sailing on Big Bear Lake. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking... and the air a little chilly... as the sun went down I applied another couple of layers of clothing.

We ended the night with a drink at the Mandalin Bar listening to the groovy sounds of The Catz in The Hatz, a jazz band which has actually managed to break into Australian radio airtime.

Earthquakes and Big Bear Arrival

We have felt our first earthquake at about 11pm on Wednesday night. It measured 3.6 on the scale. Clare thought Jill was playing a trick on her, I thought the bathroom door was connected to the bed and Jeffrey saw the lights move. So we survived!!!!

Thursday morning RickHarrick met us at the hotel and whilst the luggage only just fitted, Rickey who came to say hi decided to help us move up the mountain. The scenery was amazing as we climbed the mountain and its really picturesque.

Big Bear Lake is a town on about 6000 permanent residents which swells to about 100,000 on long weekends, summer weekends and snow season. It feels wierd to see slopes without snow. We went to Hacienda Grill for lunch and then spent time with host families etc.

We attended the Big BearClub meeting which has about 90 members and Anne Zimmerman (my host sister, she looks to young to be a host mum, even though she has five boys between 25 and 13), is the first female president.

It was a great night and Kit Davis, one of the US team that came to WA was also there. I even got to see a beautiful little 4 month dacchie named Ruby.

We are really looking forward to the weekend and going hiking and boating and spending time in this beautiful town.

Big Bear

Big Bear City and Big Bear Lake are two cities in the mountain region of San Bernardino County, California immediately east of Big Bear Lake. The population of both cities is around 25 000 but it can swell to over 100 000 during holiday season. The makeup of Big Bear is mostly residential. At 6000 feet above sea level, it is a popular holiday destination for residents of the inland empire, especially during the snow and ski season.

Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountains in San Bernardino County, California, USA. It has an east-west length of approximately 7 miles (11.2 km) and is approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) at its widest measurement though most the Lake's width averages a little more than 1 mile (1.6 km). It is a popular recreational lake. It is a completely snow-fed lake having no other means of tributary or mechanical replenishment.
Following a hearty breakfast at Grisly Manor Café, the team spent their first day in Big Bear visiting some local business and community services.

A tour of KBHR 93.3, the local radio station was our first stop. The team got an opportunity to listen to the local news which profiled the GSE’s vist to Big Bear. GSE Coordinator for Big Bear, Rick Herrick is the owner of the local radio station

Big Bear Lake Community Library was the next stop. The library is part of the San Bernardino County Library system and has a circulation of around 6000 items per month. The Library has 15 000 registered users.

Big Bear Valley Community Hospital is the local community hospital. The hospital is 30 beds with 21 nursing home beds and 9 acute care. The hospital is very seasonal with around 10 000 ED presentations per year. The majority, around 100 per day, are during the snow season. The team had a tour of the hospital and had lunch with the Director of Patient Services, Ines Tedford.

The final stop of the day was a tour of the Big Bear Lake City Council. This was very informative with overviews of the Councils role in building, engineering and other local services.

Tommorrow the team is going for a tour of the mountain regions and lake.

Viva Las Vegas

As part of GSE we are scheduled two rest days.. Not ones to waste the opportunity - the girls decided to head to Vegas (also giving Jeffery a little respite from all the girl talk!). We booked a flight (24 hour turn around) and headed off to the city that never sleeps. Vegas was all that we imagined and more. We stayed at the MGM Grand - a gorgeous hotel at the start of the strip (thanks Stu and Joe) . Our top 10 for Vegas...

(1) Walk the strip - the casino's and hotels are amazing. In the 5 km you could find yourself in Paris, Venice (Venetian), Rome (Caesars), Cairo (Luxor), New York and Monte Carlo

(2) Watch the Fountains of Bellagio

(3) Ride the roller coasters (we tested out New York New York, by far our favorite, and Speed).

(4) Try your luck on the pokies (we were so sure we would win the jackpot $24m)

(5) Learn a new game and play the tables (Clare and I happily won then lost all our money on craps).

(6) Check out the shops (Tiffanies, Chanel... it was all there)

(7) Visit a Vegas wedding chapel (don't worry, no one got married)

(8) See the Lion Habitat at MGM and White Siberian Tigers at the Mirage

(9) See a show (there are 3 Cirque du Soleil showing here every night!)

(10) Soak up the city at night (views, lights and clubs - although don't forget to bring your ID).

Pictures:
New York New York (Can you spot the roller coaster?)
Relaxing at the MGM Grand

Day 19

The team visted Garner Holt Productions in San Bernardino. Garner Holt make a wide rnage of Animatronics for Disneyland and other companies and theme parks around the world.

The team was given a tour by Company President Garner Holt.

The company's skilled designers and craft persons are recognized leaders in the design and fabrication of unique animatronic, theme and show elements.

For proprietary reasons we were unable to photograph but on the tour we got to see some of the characters destined for the new ride at Disneyland called Finding Nemo Undersea Voyage and also exhibits scheduled for the Monsters Inc ride. The company alos manufacturers Chuck E. Cheese which is a Pizza Place in the US.

The team have now finished in san Bernardino. Thanks to Shab El Awar for coordinating the GSE to the host families for their hsopitality. Thanks to all the Rotary Clubs in San Bernardino and Riverside for hosting the team.

The team are now having a 2 day R & R period.

Where is Suzanne?

For all that are watching the blog - please note my first entry (actually it is my second).. I have had numerous emails asking where is a blog entry from me..... so here it is.

In Riverside I am staying with Harry and Valerie. Yesterday was a rest and relax day (R&R) with our host families. For me, this was a Tropical/Fiesta Party with Harry and Valerie, as they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with friends and family. The day involved lots of food, margaritas, games (I am totally hopeless at both hoola hoops and limbo) and a renewing of their vows. It was a great day and a fun party. I also had the chance to get in an 18 hole golf game with Harry and Tyler (which was my first 18 holes ever!). Thank goodness it was 18 holes - because my score card for the first 9 holes was terrible!! I even managed to hit one par by the 2nd 9 holes.

I am going to have to back track a little to my previous host family activities... In Corona I had lots of fun with David and Cynthia. Mother's Day was a lovely day with their daughter and family - enjoying the beautiful back yard (my poppa would love this garden!). Cynthia and David also took me to my first Tapan restaurant. It was an amazing Japanese restaurant food show - with flying food, utensils, sounds and lighting. The food was pretty good too! We topped this off with cold rock icecream (with me spending ages just trying to decide what flavour I wanted)!

My very first family was Kim and John (and boys) in Temecula. I am going to have to start this with the tale about Yoghurt (sorry John - I promised to keep it a secret, but it is just too funny). When I was collected by John, after a little chat on the way home he told me that "Yoghurt" had gone missing... Who is yoghurt you ask? Yoghurt is one of the boy's pet corn snake. He had managed to get out of his aquarium and was loose in the house. With a little apprehension I asked the boys if they could search my room first (not once but twice), but luckily he was found having a nice rest on the dishwasher. It was great staying with Kim and John, enjoying a little insight into family life in the US.

Weekend in California

On Saturday, the team traveled to Los Angeles by train from San Bernardino. The day started with a walk down historic Olivera St.

I headed up with my host Ladd Seekens to have a look at the new Roman Catholic Cathedral, Our Lady of the Angels. The Cathedral is a beautiful piece of modern architecture. It was completed in 2002. It has some beautiful pieces of Spanish and modern art. The walls are lined with huge tapestries depicting Saints and people who contributed to the development of California.

The Cathedral has a Mausoleum in the lower floor. Cardinals and Bishops along with Cathedral Benefactors are interred here. Hollywood great, Gregory Peck is also interred in the Cathedral.

The team then traveled to Hollywood Boulevard and took in the sights such as the Kodak Theatre, Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theatre.

On Sunday, I headed across to Irwindale where the Renaissance Pleasure Fair is held. This is a festival with profiles the Elizabethan/Renaissance era. It is a mixture of fun, theatrics and food and commercial vendors who pedal their wares.

Jousting, plays, sword fights and duels are undertaken by actors. Elizabeth the First holds court. There are also lots of other multicultural events that take place.