After passing Joshua Tree National Park we arrived in Indio and after 4400 km from home, found our way to Sun City Shadow Hills. The owner of the house we are renting was there to meet us and give us a briefing on all of the amenities of the home and a tour around the community. It looks like the community will be lots of activities for us to pick from. Two golf courses, three pools, two large recreation/club house facilities and about 50 activity clubs/groups available to join if we wish. http://www.scshca.com
The street view of our house....
Looking down the street at the snow capped mountains....
The back yard complete with fire pit, outdoor kitchen and pergola....
And the view of the golf course.... the par 3 17th hole
We spent a couple of hours unpacking before hopping in the vehicle to get some essential groceries at the local Walmart. It gets dark here at around 5pm this time of year so it was time to find the outdoor lights and fire up the grille for a New Years Eve BBQ. I managed to get supper cooked despite the unusual rain that started as I was grilling. We didn't make it midnight as we had another time zone shift today.
New Year's Day was spent getting organized and taking a walk about the neighbourhood even though it was cool and windy. We had a visitor in the back yard, a roadrunner which are pretty common around here.
We were invited to our friends John & Judith's for supper, just a few blocks away. Nice to have some friends to get us oriented.
Monday was major shopping day with a morning trip to Winco, Costco and Ralph's. I think we have enough food for a month now! In the afternoon John and Judith took us for a driving tour of Indio, Palm Desert and La Quinta. All three cities are essentially one and appear to have just about anything you could want. On our way home, a hot air balloon almost landed on the highway!
Tuesday the HOA office opened and we were able to get our resident passes and vehicle transponder so we can get in and out of the unmanned gates and use the recreation facilities. It is still unusually cool with morning lows of 6 C and highs of only 15 C. John took me to the Shadow Hills Golf Club to get signed up for the Men's League and the CanAm Tournament in February. With our resident pass, we get reduced green fees at both of the golf courses here.
Chris and I took the golf cart out for a spin around the community. This will be handy. I can take it to the golf course and Chris will have the Highlander available to her so she can go to other activities while I golf on Thursdays. It's also handy to take to the pool and hot tub at the club house. We are about four blocks away.
We signed up for the "Tuesday Night Putters" not knowing what it was really all about. It was fun. There is an 18 hole putting course at the golf club. There were about 150 people taking part. Essentially you play your 18 holes then retreat to one of the banquet rooms in the Club House for buffet supper and whatever drinks you brought. They have a bunch of prize draws and food for $10! What a deal. I won $4 for getting a hole-in-one (a one putt).
That's about it for this post. We are planning on doing some hiking and golf later this week and I will update early next week.
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