Did you catch my last post about Joshua Tree? I showed off our desert digs at the Airbnb rental Dome in the Desert. It was our home base for our trip’s daily adventures like thrifting/antiquing, dinner at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, a drive out to 29 Palms, a sound bath at the Integratron, followed by a drive out to Giant Rock, and an unsuccessful trip to meet Shari Elf at the Crochet Museum, all of which I’m talking about below. 
Our first day at the Dome, we relaxed in the morning and the early afternoon before heading out for some thrifting/antiquing in Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley. I’m not gonna lie, it was a bit of a let down. I found some vintage ribbon at a thrift store and we hit the mother load of awesome vintage records (Herb Alpert, Bert Kaempfert (he’s got the mad hits), Canadian Brass, etc.) but, otherwise, it was an afternoon spent looking through junk. (Also, can we just point out JHOP below? Mister hoped it stood for Jesus’ House of Pancakes. It doesn’t. Prayer. House of Prayer.)
Then we drove out to Pioneertown for some exploring before dinner at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace. 
The next day, we drove out to 29 Palms just to see what was there. I have no clue where the Marine base entrance is located, because we didn’t see that, but I did see a lot of motels, fast food chains, and some murals. Oh, and a lot more than just 29 palm trees. 
Then we drove out to Landers for our sound bath appointment at the Integratron. Some say the sound bath is just an expensive nap (a sound bath is $25 per person for 1 hour of quartz bowl-playing which is really like 30-40 minutes plus an Integratron explanation), but it’s an experience … AND a nap! When the bowls first started playing, I really did NOT like the sound. It was loud and disconcerting and I really did NOT like the feeling, but I told myself it wouldn’t hurt me and to just lay there and deal with it. Well, he was just warming up and those were G notes (or F notes? I don’t remember) and they were a bit hard, but it got better and at some point, I totally fell asleep and had some weird, weird dreams. The Mister fell asleep, which is is weird because he has SO much trouble falling asleep at night and can never take a nap. So I guess we were both Integratronized. I didn’t take any photos of the inside of the Integratron where the sound bath occurs because there were already people inside, laying down, eyes closed when I got there and I didn’t feel like laying there awake in silence until everyone left, and I didn’t want to be rude and snap photos while people were meditating or shit. 
After learning about Giant Rock at the Integratron, we decided to drive out to it. It’s a dirt road drive, and it can be really bumpy, so I caution you to only take the trip if you know your car can handle it. When we got there, we were greeted by two friendly dirt-biking kids. I say kids because I’m old and they were probably 17-19 y.o. One of them told us a story about a Japanese spy who hid out in a dug-out bunker under Giant Rock for years before he was caught by police who had to use dynamite to blast him out. Yeah. That was wrong. The real story is that a prospector named Frank Critzer dug a single, large room under the rock where he lived in the 30s/40s, but he died in a self-detonated dynamite explosion while being investigated by the police. He was also telling us about a Japanese hideout camp from WW2 which is still in mint condition … I thought he was getting his spy confused with the Manzanar Internment camp, but there ARE some hidden desert camps near Landers which may have been used to hide Japanese people in the 40s. 
We then drove back to Joshua Tree for a stop at the World Famous Crochet Museum to hopefully meet one of my favorite artists, Shari Elf. Unfortunately, the museum was closed. Next time. 
So we ended our day with a pizza and a root beer at Pie for the People before heading back home to Los Angeles. 
Have you been to Joshua Tree? The Mister and I intend to go back (I need to visit the World Famous Crochet Museum and meet Shari Elf!), so let me know in the comments below what we missed so we catch it next time!
