Cold in the North /Seeking Sun in the South

Come on, admit it- winter in North Idaho is long. I dream of being a snow bird (ah, someday). So, after the New Year, I went to California to the Mojave Desert with my Steves. While there, it was reported by Thomas (who stayed home with the dogs) that we had 10" of snow at home. We were so happy to have missed this little bit of winter. In celebration, we marveled at the residents of LA who wore coats and boats while we were in shirts sleeves and shorts. The sun felt great even though it was only in the 50's. We packed up our rented mid sized SUV with camping equipment (Thanks Cousin Bob!) and headed for the Joshua Tree National Park. This is a climbers' Mecca- 8,000 different routes and very popular in the middle of winter (not so much in the summer). At 3000 feet above sea level, this place was freezing at night and balmy during the day. About 3:30 in the afternoon, I started putting on the layers until I was  dressed for winter and snuggled into my 0 degree bag in the back of the SUV. Bedtime was soon after dark and up again at dawn. Around 9:30, the clothes started coming back off and it was summer clothes time again. The snow in the shade never went completely away and when the sun went behind a cloud, brrrrr.
The climbers were everywhere. Lots of tents, converted vans, a converted horse trailer and lots of Dirtbag climbers. These Dirtbags are the climbers' version of a ski bum. Adrenaline junkies- they travel all over looking for their next high (literally). The best thing about climbing (vs. skiing) is that there is always somewhere to climb- the Southern states in the winter and Northern rocks in the summer.
After experiencing the modern hippy culture of the Dirtbaggers, we headed south to Mexico to experience Mexicali- a little border town. Can't take in a rental car, so we parked and walked. Mexicali is not a border town like Tijuana- there were no panhandlers, no predatory merchants, few English speaking people and NO other tourists. We stuck out like sore thumbs. The people were very nice and the food was good. We only ordered what we knew- beans, cheese, fish- we knew few words and we made sure that we looked up bano (bathroom) before we crossed the border.
The rest of our trip was spent on the coast, driving back up to LA to enjoy the hospitality of Steve's cousin again (Shouldn't be so nice; we keep coming back ) before we climbed back into the big birds that took us back to the Frozen North.
One side note-  restaurant food in California is really good (or was I just really hungry?).