Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 156 of the Listening Time Podcast.
I hope you're all doing great.
I'm going to talk in today's episode about a trip that I just took last week.
During this period, I'm actually traveling quite a bit.
I'm traveling to two different places in two weeks, so I'm gonna take another trip two days from now, and then I'll probably record an episode about that trip as well.
But first I want to talk about the trip that I took last week to Palm Desert in California.
So this trip was a gift from my aunt.
My aunt is very generous and she often gives me these little vacations, um in different uh areas.
Sometimes i get to choose, and we usually stay in a resort for a few nights, and so that's what happened this month.
Uh, my aunt gave me this trip, um for me and for my family, of course.
And so we decided to go to Palm Desert.
And so we're going to talk about that today.
I'll describe this place and I'll talk about a couple things that we did when we were there.
And I'm excited for this episode and I'm sure you'll like it.
It's been a while since I've recorded an episode about a trip that I've taken because I haven't traveled in a while.
So I'm sure you'll like hearing about vacations and travels again.
So I'm sure you'll like it.
And before we start, remember that if you want my advanced podcast podcast episodes in which i speak at normal speed, then make sure to sign up to become a listening time family member and you'll get two new advanced episodes every month.
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The link is also down below.
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Alright, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about my trip to Palm Desert.
I'm sure that most of you have never heard of Palm Desert.
Maybe some of you have, and maybe a couple of you have been there before.
I don't know.
If you've ever been to California before and you've taken a road trip through this part of the country, maybe you stopped by this area.
Who knows?
But the more famous city, I think, is Palm Springs, which is right next to Palm Desert.
It's almost the same city.
If you look at it, on the map.
It's kind of like one big city.
One of the cities is Palm Springs and the other one is Palm Desert.
So we stayed in Palm Desert, which is about two and a half hours to three hours driving from where I live in San Diego.
And I think it's probably a similar distance from Los Angeles.
So to get there, you've got to go east.
So more inland.
Inland is a word that refers to direction, a place that is not in the direction of the coast right.
So if I go to the coast that's the opposite of going inland, right?
So to get there we had to drive a little less than three hours inland to a part of California that is very dry and desert-y.
It's a desert.
That's why it's called Palm Desert.
But let me describe this area for you because it's not a typical desert in my opinion.
Of course, it's hot and dry like any desert, right?
I think in the summer it's pretty typical to see temperatures in the low 40s Celsius.
I'm using Celsius here because that's what all of you are familiar with.
So in the summer it's typical to have afternoons where it's 41 42 44, maybe even higher than that, and of course this is celsius again, so summers are definitely hot here, and at the time of recording this it's april, so it's not summer, and we went last week, so in the first half of april It was already pretty hot.
However, it wasn't that hot.
It wasn't in the 40s.
The temperature was lower than that.
But it still felt hot, which I love because I love the sun and the warm weather.
And lately...
It's been a little bit cold and it's rained a lot here in San Diego and I don't like that.
So it was nice to escape from this and go to a nice warm desert environment.
However, as I mentioned, this is not your typical desert that you imagine when you think of the desert.
Why?
Well, because this desert is surrounded by mountains and a lot of these mountains had snow on them.
It was a little bit surreal.
Something that's surreal is something that doesn't really seem real.
It doesn't seem like reality.
I say that it was a little surreal because I had never had that experience before, being in a really hot, dry desert area and then seeing snowy mountains next to me.
It was really strange, but I loved this.
It was such a cool contrast.
The sun was out, there were no clouds in the sky, It was blue skies, perfect weather, hot, dry.
You could feel that dryness in the air.
And yet you look out the window, or you just look around you, if you're outside, and you see these beautiful mountains in the distance, with snowy peaks.
By the way, the word peak refers to the top of the mountain, the pointy part, like the corner of a triangle right.
These are peaks.
So these mountains had snowy peaks in the middle of April, and it was right next to this hot desert.
And like I said, that was a really cool contrast.
And not only that, but this area is very famous for its palm trees.
That's why these cities are called Palm Desert and Palm Springs.
So there are palm trees everywhere, all throughout this area.
So It's a really cool environment.
You have a desert, but with palm trees and snowy mountains.
So I really liked that.
I really enjoyed just being there and taking in the scenery.
We use the phrasal verb take in to talk about views or sceneries, things like that.
What we're saying is that you're uh kind of consuming it.
You're observing it and just enjoying it, enjoying what you're seeing.
So i really liked taking in the views uh, the scenery around me.
That alone made this trip worth it.
So I really liked that.
And we stayed at a resort thanks to my aunt.
And this resort was very peaceful.
There were a lot of married couples on vacation there.
To be honest, there weren't many kids and it was very quiet.
So we felt a little bit out of place because we have kids and they're noisy.
So that was a little bit uncomfortable, just because I always feel uncomfortable when my kids are making noise and we're in a quiet place and they're kind of disturbing the peace around them.
So that wasn't my favorite aspect of staying there, because it's a little bit uncomfortable, and we didn't end up going in the pools there because I knew that we were going to make a ton of noise and I didn't want to disturb the people on vacation there who were just relaxing by the pool.
And so we didn't do that, but we still enjoyed the resort.
We were on a golf course.
That's pretty typical for resorts in the US.
And in Palm Desert and Palm Springs, there are golf courses everywhere.
So you see these golf courses all over the place.
And so we were on this beautiful golf course with the view of the mountains in the background.
So it was nice.
We definitely enjoyed this resort.
And we just did a couple of activities while we were there.
We didn't do too much.
One of the things that we did was we went to the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens.
This zoo is a zoo that has a lot of animals and plants that are kind of like desert wildlife.
So this isn't a zoo with monkeys and polar bears and things like that.
It's a zoo dedicated to the deserts of the world.
So a lot of the dry places around the world.
So some of the animals that they have there are cheetahs, and rhinos and warthogs.
If you don't know what a warthog is, this is that animal that you have probably seen in the movie The Lion King.
The one named Pumba.
He's a warthog, if I'm not mistaken.
So we saw warthogs.
The coolest thing that we saw there were the giraffes.
The giraffes come really close to the fence, like where you are, and you can pay to feed them.
So some people paid money and then they fed the giraffes.
I think it was lettuce, if I remember correctly.
And the giraffe eats it out of your hand.
And it's really cool that you can get that close to these huge animals.
So that was awesome.
My son loved watching those giraffes. eat lettuce out of other people's hands.
I highly doubt that my son would have done that if we had asked him, because I think he would have been a little bit afraid because these are huge animals and it probably would have been a little scary for him.
So he didn't feed them.
But one thing that he did do was he went into the petting zoo.
This is a little area where there are usually goats and sometimes sheep, and kids can go in and pet these animals, sometimes feed them, and my son loves this, so he got to pet a lot of different goats And that was a fun thing for him.
And another thing that's really cool about this zoo is they have this big like train set.
It's not a real train.
It's a small model train, but it goes around these tracks, through this little model town.
That is like an old style town from 150 years ago or 100 years ago maybe.
They built this little mini town with these old buildings that you would typically see in the US, maybe around the year 1900 or so.
I don't know about the exact year, but it seemed like that.
So this was really cool for kids, because kids love trains, and it was also cool for us to see these little model buildings that were like old buildings from the past.
So that was really cool.
And one other unexpected thing that we saw at the zoo was we saw two snakes, but they weren't animals that the zoo had in exhibits.
These were just wild snakes slithering on the ground.
The word slither refers to that movement that snakes make to move.
So we got a little bit scared because we were walking and suddenly this long snake slithered out from the plants and crossed in front of us.
And then we saw another small snake moving really fast across another part of the sidewalk and it was just a reminder that we were in the desert, because when you're in the desert here in the US you have to know that there are snakes, especially when it's hot outside.
So that was a little bit scary for my wife, but I knew that this wasn't a rattlesnake.
So it startled me just a little bit.
But when I saw that it wasn't a rattlesnake, I knew that it wasn't a problem.
So that was an unexpected thing that we saw.
And one other thing that we did when we were there was we went outside the city.
So this is not in the city itself, but we went outside the city to the Cabazon Dinosaurs.
So this is a big roadside attraction in that area.
A roadside attraction refers to some place that is right off the highway in the US that you can stop at when you're driving between different cities.
So this was a really cool roadside attraction.
It has a lot of different dinosaur figures and some of them are pretty big.
Others are smaller, but they have a couple huge ones, really big ones.
And one of them you can actually go up the dinosaur because inside there are stairs that you can climb up.
Then you can go all the way up to its mouth.
So I took my son up there and it was very high above the ground, but it was really cool to see his face, knowing that he was inside this big fake dinosaur.
And all throughout this park there are different types of dinosaurs, a lot of the really famous ones that people know about, like triceratops and stegosaurus and those types of dinosaurs, And I thought this was a really interesting roadside attraction that is really cool for families with kids who are taking a road trip through California.
This is a cool place to stop.
Even me as an adult, I enjoyed this.
It was cool to be among all these dinosaurs there.
So that's something that we wanted to do with my son because, like most young boys, he loves dinosaurs.
So that was great.
And then besides that, we just went to a big park for my son to play at.
And we also took him to the playground at the resort where we were staying.
And Besides that, we kind of just relaxed at this resort.
And this is something that's hard for me, to be honest.
I know that sounds crazy to some of you, but I'm the type of person that is very... manic, anxious, neurotic, you might say.
And sometimes my brain just doesn't cooperate with wanting to relax and just do nothing.
So I don't like when I feel pressured to relax.
Like okay, we have this relaxing vacation and now I need to try to relax, especially now that I have kids.
I don't like that pressure because I feel like I end up not relaxing as much as I should.
It's kind of strange, but that's what happens when I feel pressured to relax.
So I'm trying to get better at this so that I can enjoy these types of mini vacations where we just go somewhere for a few days and stay there and don't do much.
I'm trying to learn to enjoy those types of trips because it's not natural for me to do that.
I don't usually choose to go on vacation specifically to relax.
I usually travel to explore and experience things that are interesting for me and, of course, to eat good food.
That's usually why I travel.
However, i think it's also good to just take these short trips during which you can just do nothing and enjoy the view around you, and i did this a little bit, but of course uh, I had a little bit of trouble relaxing, because that usually happens with me when I feel pressured to relax.
But I was able to do this a little bit and it helped me to have that amazing view of the mountains with the snow on them and the palm trees and the beautiful golf course as well.
So that was definitely nice.
And one other thing that I really liked about taking this trip was that it made me remember how big my country is, how big my state is, and how many beautiful places there are to explore and how many beautiful drives there are and beautiful landscapes.
I only went three hours or less from where I live and I got to see a lot of beautiful places along the way, as I was driving and when I was there.
Of course, and it's great to remember from time to time just how beautiful this country is and how many great places there are to visit here, and it makes me want to explore more and see a lot of other beautiful places here as well.
So that was really cool.
Just to take that trip and remember that there are a lot of cool places that I want to travel to.
And this was a good experience going there and enjoying that beauty there in Palm Desert and on the way to Palm Desert as well.
So that was great.
And that's pretty much it for this episode.
We didn't do too much.
Like I mentioned, we just did a couple things.
But I'm going to take another trip this week and I'll probably record an episode about that trip later.
I won't tell you where I'm going yet.
You'll find out in that episode.
But hopefully that's a good trip for me and my family as well.
And I hope this episode was good practice for your listening.
And remember that you can join my membership and become a Listening Time family member if you want my advanced podcast episodes.
And you can also sign up for my US Conversations podcast if you want to practice with my conversations with other native speakers.
So those links are down below in the episode description.
And, as always, please share this podcast with anyone else you know who's learning English and give it a five-star rating and write a review, if you can.
All right.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
