My mom recommended and brought us to this place – The Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. It was quite a good find. Em got in touch with her green thumb, and I found a bunch of native California flora that reminded me of days gone by.

The prickly pear cacti reminded me of the cactus that occupied the entire front yard of my childhood home. Everyone in the neighborhood got needles stuck in their fingers at some point, and the neighbor’s mom learned the trick of letting glue dry on her daughter’s hands and peeling it off. Strangers used to come by and ask to take a cactus pad to use in cooking. Another neighbor’s mom cooked some of the prickly pears for us. I remembered them being bland – maybe it was just that I expected something amazing for such a difficult to obtain food. After I moved out and my mom moved to take a new job, the new homeowners had the cactus removed and replaced with grass. I wonder what became of it.

The joshua trees reminded me of my roommate, Josh and also of the fabled backpacking trip with my buddy, Chris to Joshua Tree National Park. Chris thought we wouldn’t need much food since he had a theory that people have a lower caloric requirement while backpacking. I thought it was hogwash, but I reluctantly followed Chris’s advice. We ran out of food halfway through the trip mainly because of my insatiable appetite. This would become a theme of our adventures together.

Also, my mom has these cacti in her backyard. Em has referred to them as “old man cacti” due to their senile gray hairs. The people tending the gift shop told me it was a “bearded cactus”, which, as it turns out, is also called “old man cactus”. Nicely done, Em!

Bonus find(!): This duck pond near the entrance had a water supply that was controlled by parts from the cistern of a toilet!