The next morning the three of us went for a hike. Out Nikki’s front door, to the end of the street, and voilà! Desert. Here’s a photo movie of our hike, including some snapshots from Palm Springs.

And the windmills? Thousands of them line the I-10, the route we took in and out of Palm Springs. ☼

Palm Springs is renowned for its mid-century modern architecture. We stopped at the visitors center and picked up a map of notable mid-century modern buildings in the city. Most of the buildings we drove past turned out to be lackluster apartment complexes and drab business offices. “I want to see the houses,” pouted Kirk. (In all fairness, we didn’t exhaust all the stops. On the other hand, why would the maker of such a map include two stops that are locked away inside a gated community?) We decided to ditch the map and take off on our own tour instead.

Not every house in Palm Springs is triumph of mid-century modernism. Many different (and not as cool) architectural styles can be seen including (some real, some self-described) hacienda, southwest pueblo, modern factory pop-out, mid-century knock-off and trailer park classy (aka gated trailer parks).

After getting our creeper on — driving much too slowly through residential neighborhoods — we found a jackpot of mid-century modern houses.

I developed a theory about their address numbers: the bigger the numbers, the cooler the house.

This house is cool. Those decently-sized (and nearly sans-serif) numbers give it said cool. The red door helps, but imagine that red door without those numbers: clown house.

Now check these out: word numbers. Even larger than the red-door house’s, these numbers trump those in height and width simply because of their alpha-ness. Double coolness factor.

Now this house. This house is cool. Look at that 0, it’s bigger than my head, if my head was four times the size of my head. This house is so cool, I had to take two photos of it: one with my camera and one with Kirk’s iPhone so I could use Instagram to highlight its coolness.

If you want to take a mid-century modern tour through Palm Springs, a stop at the visitors center is usually recommended, but I don’t endorse it. Instead, I’d suggest calling Kirk and inquiring if he’s for hire. Although, I don’t imagine his rate is cheap. ☼

If you like art museums, the visitors center is actually worth swinging by. They hand out free passes to the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Read more about Palm Springs mid-century modern architecture and desert modernism here.

We are embarking on our first weekend trip since… last year, maybe? I grab the door handle, then look back at Kirk. “Are we bringing the tent?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think so. I thought we were sleeping in the back of the car.”

“What? I thought we were going to try to sleep in the tent.”

“What?”

“Remember, last night at REI when I said, ‘Oh I really want to sleep in the tent again, outside, under the stars’?”

“Yeah. But where? We don’t have a campground to go to. Unless you found one. Did you find one?”

“Well, no…”

“Yeah. So. Where are we gonna pitch a tent?”

“Well, I don’t know. On the side of the road?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Okaay… so… we’re gonna sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot?”

“No, come on. Someplace a little nicer.”

“Target parking lot?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, perfect.”

…

…

“We suck at this.”

“Maybe.” ☼

Attitudes & Latitudes

www.seafaring.com

Editor/Publisher: Bob Bitchin

Address: PO Box 668, Redondo Beach, CA 90277

Email:  editor@seafaring.com

Submission Guidelines: ‘Feature Stories’ are stories of interest to cruisers and sailors about the cruising lifestyle or specific events, adventures or mis-adventures. Must include good digital photos, slides or prints. May be from two to ten pages of text.

Formatting: Preferred submissions should be on CD. Documents should be in Microsoft Word or simple text.

Helpful tips: Submissions can also be emailed, but stand a greater risk of being lost in the “system.”

Pay rate: $100-?

Full submission guidelines

Sailing Breezes Online Magazine

www.sailingbreezes.com

Managing Editor: Alan Kretzschmar

Address: 3949 Winnetka Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN 55427

Email:  alan@sailingbreezes.com

Submission Guidelines: Submissions for feature consideration (main or cover stories) should be written in the first person and range from approximately 1,000-3,000 words. Manuscripts submitted for non-features such as: boat/book/product reviews, technical, and general interest articles, should not exceed 2,000 words. Enclose an author’s bio, including sailing experience, and type of boat.

Formatting: Files sent by e-mail should be MS Word, or compatible text. Copying and pasting the text into the body of the e-mail is a good way to avoid any compatibility issues. Picture and artwork files should be in TIFF, JPG or PDF.

Helpful tips: Including artwork and caption sheet with your article will increase your chances of getting published. Northern Breezes accepts numerous articles that have been previously published elsewhere. If your manuscript was previously published in part or whole, let them know when and where.

Pay rate: $50-$150

Full submission guidelines

SAILING

www.sailingmagazine.net

Editor/Publisher: Bill Shanen

Address: 125 E Main St., P.O. Box 249, Port Washington, WI 53074

Email: editorial@sailingmagazine.net

Submission Guidelines: Short news stories for ‘Splashes’ range in length from 100 to 500 words. ‘Features’ range in length from 1,000 to 3,000 words. SAILING does not accept poetry, first-time sail experiences, fiction or log-type stories.

Helpful tips: SAILING‘s readers are experienced sailors, so articles should be written with that in mind, using proper sailing terminology and avoid undue explanation of basic sailing jargon.

Pay rate: $50-$500

Full submission guidelines

Blue Water Sailing

www.bwsailing.com

Managing Editor: Valerie Adams Meffert

Address: 747 Aquidneck Ave., Ste. 201, Middletown, RI 02842

Email:  valerie@bwsailing.com

Submission Guidelines: ’Destinations’ articles focus in on great and interesting cruising grounds from near and far, whether it be San Francisco Bay or Botany Bay. Blue Water Sailing offers readers good first-person stories about sailing to a new place, encountering a new land, meeting new people and learning new things. Sidebars on local knowledge, resources, etc., are helpful. 1,000 to 2,000 words.

Formating: Word format, sent on CD/DVD or via e-mail as attachments.

Helpful tips: Because the magazine is planned months in advance, it is helpful to query with story ideas prior to sending a completed article.

Pay rate: Not stated.

Full submission guidelines

Cruising World

www.cruisingworld.com

Managing Editor: Elaine Lembo

Address: 55 Hammarlund Way, Middletown, RI 02842

Email: cw.manuscripts@gmail.com

Submission Guidelines: Manuscripts submitted for Feature consideration (center of the magazine) should be written in the first person and not exceed approximately 2,500 words. Manuscripts submitted for consideration as Non-features (technical articles and general interest, front and back of the magazine) should not exceed 2,000 words. “Log style” articles are generally unacceptable.

Formating: Word format or as text files. Digital artwork or photography must be in separate files.

Helpful tips: For technical articles, please query first. If we like your proposal we’ll offer guidelines for making it fit within our editorial requirements.

Pay rate: $25-$200 for short, newsworthy items; $300-$1,000 for technical and feature articles

Full submission guidelines

Things got a little sticky when my chain fell off. During the several attempts I made to put it back on, the grease gunked up my hands. A lot. My camera was in a perilous situation. I couldn’t touch it without ruining it. I imagined my camera — the dramatist that it is — telling me that, rather than watch me lose out on the amazing photo opportunities around us, it would shoot and die for me. I imagine replied, that’s a very sweet gesture, but I wasn’t about to commit pre-meditated camera murder.

The last time I was so careless with a point-and-shoot it received death by drowning because I jumped into a swamp and forgot that it was in my back jean pocket. Oops.

No, no, I wouldn’t knowingly operate my camera with bike-grease covered hands just to get one more photo of a beach with a palm tree. (Thus, end today’s photo roll.) I should look into greasing that chain. ☼