With the manicured green lawns, giant palm trees lining the streets and the beautiful coastline in Southern California, it’s easy to forget that it’s predominantly the desert. But the beautiful thing about living is California is the variety it provides. Where else can someone go surfing at the beach, skiing in the mountains, or find sand dune in the desert all within a 2 hour drive?

Recently we had a solid week of intense rain (well intense for California – probably mild by hurricane prone states) and even though it forced most of us to dust off our umbrellas and raincoats, the residual effect was a fresh coat of snow on the mountain tops. For a perpetually shorter and shorter winter season, the ability to see snow sends many of us racing into the mountains to pretend we live in a winter wonderland every so often.

Below are two pictures of us frolicking in the snow, which judging by the plentiful of Joshua trees and lack of large pines shows we really are in a desert rather than lush mountainous valley.