Season's Greetings from All of us at Pinecrest!

Christmas Time is Here

(From the Charlie Brown TV Christmas Special)

Christmas time is here,
happiness and cheer,
fun for all that children
call their favorite time of year.

Snowflakes in the air,
carols everywhere,
olden times and ancient rhymes
and love and dreams to share.

Sleigh bells in the air;
beauty every where;
yuletide by the fireside
and joyful memories there.

Christmas time is here;
we'll be drawing near;
oh that we could always see
such spirit through the year,
such spirit through the year.

What to do in Winter? Let's go the the Agua Caliente Hot Springs!

Wondering what to do at Pinecrest once the pool is closed and the temperature drops? Well, have I got a well kept secret for you! It's called the Agua Caliente Hot Springs, County Park. This is a great, easy day trip from Pinecrest. It's about a 45 minute drive through some of the most beautiful, most remote parts of the Anza Borrego Desert. Make sure you arrive early in the day and spend a few hours here as it takes some time for the minerals to soak and seep into you body and soul.

Seriously! This is a well kept secret, and let's keep it that way. Because it is a county park, for some reason nobody but well read German tourist seem to know about it.

HERE'S THE SKINNY: There are two pools: one indoors with warmer water and one outdoors with cooler water, but also a nice breeze of pure desert air. Also check out the somewhat primitive but restorative showers, located up by the outdoor pool.

Be sure to bring your own Spa Treatment Kit: including but not limited to nice soaps, salt scrub, mud/clay mask, some big fluffy towels and your own ipod, iphone or other musical device to add to the soothing experience (the inside pool can be loud when busy so headphones add a calming touch).

Soak in the water, sit in the sun and relax, then have a light picnic at one nearby picnic tables. Allow time to rest and regroup before rushing back up the hill to Pinecrest. If you do it right, you'll find you body will be tingling all the way home!

Here's a little more information:

Spring Synopsis: An indoor therapy pool and shallow, outdoor kids pool both fed by several warm mineral springs in the above hillsides. Located 111-miles northeast of San Diego.

Seasonal Accessibility: Open Labor Day to Memorial Day, elevation is 1,350 feet.Adult visitors can use the pools for $5 per adult.

Restrictions: Clothing is required.

Pools hours vary, check here to see the schedule:www.co.san-diego.ca.us/parks/Camping/agua_caliente_pools.html

Services: There’s a little store at the park entrance where you can get most things, including equipment for shuffleboard. The park also offers an amphitheater, horseshoe pit, picnicking, playground, restrooms and showers, a pavilion, hiking trails and dump station.

Additional Information: Soakers at Agua Caliente swore by the health benefits of the mineral water. One woman said that after spending a year and a half in a wheelchair due to arthritis, bursitis, and other ailments, she began making the trek from Yuma, AZ to Agua Caliente once a week. She would soak all morning, retire to the outdoor pool and do calisthenics, then back for another hot soak. Now she walks dances and does yoga, things she hasn’t been able to do for a decade. With a new lease on life she encourages others of the benefits from the mineral water at Agua Caliente.

GPS COORDINATE: 32.9498°N X 116.3025°W
www.co.san-diego.ca.us/parks/Camping/agua_caliente.html
www.desertusa.com/caacv/caacv.html

How to Tell if you Have a Vintage RV

Special Guest Article Submitted by Anneliese Hinds.

Read more by Ann here.

Vintage RV's are all the rage. They have been made more popular by Huell Howser and shows like RV Crazy on the Travel Channel. How old does a RV have to be before it is considered vintage? Does vintage include all RV's or is it just travel trailers? There are several different opinions but most defer to the standard set by the Tin Can Tourists.

Who are the Tin Can Tourists? It is a group that is dedicating to preserving the history of RV's in America. The original Tin Can Tourists started in the 1900's. The club was revived in the 1989. They set the standard that most Vintage RV people use as a guide.

1. Travel Trailers that are 25 years or older are considered vintage.
   

2. Truck Campers and Pop-up Trailers are also considered vintage at 25 years or older. If you run across a vintage trailer rally, campers and pop-ups are also welcomed. We traveled from California to Maine in our truck camper.

3. Motorhomes that are 20 years or older are considered vintage. I own a 1973 Dodge Openroad Motorhome. You know, the green shag carpet.

4. Teardrop Trailers are in a class by themselves. I have the 1989 Snooze Box. It doesn't qualify by age as a vintage travel trailer but it is a teardrop. Since most teardrops are built from the original plans of the earlier trailers, they are considered vintage. Teardrops are welcomed at all Vintage Trailer Rallies and have their own Teardrop rallies only. In my opinion, these are the most fun of all the trailers. Someone once asked us if it was a house for our dog.

Silene serpentinicola was added to the CNPS Inventory (List 1B.2) in 2005.
Photo by S. Carothers.

Benefits of Native Plants

Native vegetation evolved to live with the local climate, soil types, and animals. This long process brings us several gardening advantages.

• Save Water:
  Once established, many native plants need minimal irrigation beyond normal rainfall.
• Low Maintenance:
  Low maintenance landscaping methods are a natural fit with native plants that are already adapted to the local environment. Look forward to using less water, little to no fertilizer, little to no pesticides, less pruning, and less of your time.
• Pesticide Freedom:
  Native plants have developed their own defenses against many pests and diseases. Since most pesticides kill indiscriminately, beneficial insects become secondary targets in the fight against pests. Reducing or eliminating pesticide use lets natural pest control take over and keeps garden toxins out of our creeks and watersheds.
• Wildlife Viewing:
  Native plants, birds, butterflies, beneficial insects, and interesting critters are “made for each other.” Research shows that native wildlife prefers native plants.
• Support Local Ecology:
  As development replaces natural habitats, planting gardens, parks, and roadsides with California natives can provide a “bridge” to nearby remaining wildlands.

Beautiful natural landscapes in California, including the scenic National Parks here, display authentic California flora. Your garden can too.

PLUS: FIND OUT HOW TO IDENTIFY NATIVE PLANTS AND WILDFLOWERS HERE.

Know Your Native Plants: Perserve this precious, sacred environment.

White Sage grows wild on the hilltops of Pinecrest. We are lucky, because this plant can be choosy about where it likes to grow, is difficult to propagate and takes several years to mature. Please respect White Sage and all the native plants. Do not remove or damage these plants for the sake of an extra tent site or parking spot. Let's keep Pinecrest's native plants alive!

White Sage can be a slow growing, difficult to establish plant that can take up to three years to reach a mature size. The plant above is a three year old pictured in spring. The body of the plant gets to be two to three feet tall and can spread eight feet or more. The flower wands will add two to five feet to the height and will have tiny insignificant looking white flowers that are dotted with lavender. At least they are insignificant to us, to the bees they are heaven, which it is why it is sometimes referred to as bee sage. White Sage has highly aromatic, waxy gray leaves that are used for incense.

Native Americans have used white sage for centuries and continue to use it today. White sage has been used traditionally to purify the mind, body and spirit before praying. Native Americans also used white sage in ceremonies of birth and death. Sacred objects such as pipes and eagle feathers were passed through the smoking of burning white sage in order to purify them.

When clearing the land of dry brush and weeds for fire safety, be mindful of the plants that should never be removed: native american plants such as the white sage.

October Weekend, At the Lookout. (Pinecrest)

Everybody makes their trailer their own through a combination of personal nick-nacks, candles, cozy-comforters, easy to move chairs, photos, art and every quirky specialty item that "doesn't quite fit at home". Every trailer also needs some kind of instrument lurking in a corner, or at least a ka-zoo tucked away in the kitchen drawer.
Weekends are for resting, cooking, cocktails, bird watching, raking leaves, moving rocks, painting, planting, watching the sun set and the moon rise, slowing down, and enjoying the company of loved ones.

DWELL Magazine re-evaluates "Trailer Parks"

For decades, trailer parks have been increasingly marginalized to a strict set of stereotypes. They might gleam as well-manicured retirement communities to some, but in their most iconic state they are perceived as the province of the unfortunate. The question of whether design can save or even improve trailer parks is preempted almost immediately by “Why bother?”

The latter question is easier to answer. Allan Wallis, author of Wheel Estate: The Rise and Decline of Mobile Homes and an authority on regional housing, calls trailer parks an undervalued, endangered resource. “Hundreds of thousands of living spaces” have been zoned out of existence, Wallis says, warning that “we are losing a certain niche in the housing market that the market left on its own would not really replace.” Trailer parks, he explains, put workforce housing where communities desperately need it. Drive these inhabitants to suburbia’s outer rings, and freeways get clogged while households become severely strained by car and gas payments. Wallis welcomes innovative design: Trailer parks could use a face-lift. “You need to create a visually attractive package,” he says. “I would ask the designers of the iPod, ‘Could you do that for a mobile home?’”

For the rest of the story go to: http://www.dwell.com/articles/upwardly-mobile-homes.html

The Pinecrest Website has been Redesigned.

Photo: Interior of Lynn Reinstein's trailer, Pinecrest.

The Pinecrest Website has been Redesigned.
Check out the new site at http://www.pinecrestretreat.com/

How to build a Wind Turbine with PVC Windmill Blades

The Pinecrest pool season will be
E-X-T-E-N-D-E-D!
Now open through Sept. 27th.
Ya-Hooo!

"The best weekends are at PC" Brandon Fender

Slipping away to Pinecrest is as easy as can be. Grab some friends, make a stop at the market for some BBQ items and a bag of ice, then head to the mountain.

Re-Learning how to be Carefree: La Bella Vita.

Eva Shines!

Eva and guest are down for the week-end. Eva has made this cute little trailer her own by adding a very unique collection of funky-vintage kitchy kitchen items. These clever details make visiting her trailer an extra fun experience. Welcome to Pinecrest Eva!

The pool at Pinecrest is 9'6" deep, so cool off this summer by diving into the deep end!

What to bring:
a thermos filled with an icy beverage
the biggest fluffiest towels you can find
a few (well behaved) friends
a bag of fresh cherries and other picnic delights
googles
some swim trunks
plastic cups
your laptop computer (we now have wi-fi at the pool)

THINK SMALL

Matthew Adams outside his 120-square-foot house by Modern Cabana on his 160 acres near Red Bluff, Calif. He wanted a well-designed dwelling that would have the least effect on his land.

Thinking small is a big part of the vintage trailer mindset. Read the New York Times story at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/realestate/greathomes/16tiny.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1

ReThinking Vintage

Pinecrest Evolves.

Pinecrest is a gathering place for like-minded creative people who value the ideas of conservation, preservation, restoration and good taste. These concepts are epitomized by the vintage travel trailers Pinecresters own and enjoy. There is a special element of "recycled eco-chic" which is at large in the park, and with that sensibility there is also an emerging community.

At Pinecrest, living well doesn't mean having a lot of money. Living well means cooking with friends, spending time in nature, having room to breathe and perhaps an occasional moment of tranquility. But more that that, Pinecrest is a work in progress. Blending old ideas with new: solar power, camp fires, swimming, yoga, napping, music, board games and conversation are all a part of the mix.

Pinecrest is unique because it is a "members only" retreat, with room to spread out and the freedom to make your space your own. It has one of the largest, cleanest solar-heated pools in all of Southern California. Pinecrest is a safe place, where members may come to find personal solitude or bring their friends and family to enjoy quality time together.

But best of all Pinecrest is an evolving community, and the evolution is you!

Frank and Kathleen enjoy their poolside location.

Being close to the clubhouse has it's advantages,
including access to the new poolside WI-FI service!

Pinecrest, tucked into a tree-shaded canyon high in the Cuyamaca Mountains an hour’s drive from downtown San Diego, is the wooded homeland of nearly 100 vintage travel trailers and motorhomes. Call it a yacht club for RVs, where owners have permanent spaces to park their rigs and set up for outdoor living. You can spend as much or as little time as you want with your RV. You can entertain friends and family, cocoon yourself with a book, even meet some new friends who love old trailers as much as you do.

A walk along the wooded paths of Pinecrest reveals the long and colorful history of trailering going back to the 1930s when the first streamlined “land yachts” moved onto the nation’s highways. You’ll find elegant Airstreams that may have traveled to Africa with Wally Byam, a silver streamline Prairie Schooner affectionally dubbed the “toaster” with porthole windows, tiny Teardrops and mini Fans, where whole families snuggled in Midcentury. Many trailers are under renovation, loving projects of a growing group of vintage trailer owners and enthusiasts, who love to share ideas and suggestions for sources of parts and materials.

Pinecrest is more than just camping. It's community.

Sharing ideas and telling tall tales, pot-luck dinners, stopping by to say hello, or just exchanging songs around the campfire... it's all part of the Pinecrest Resort experience.

It's all about "chic workwear".

Lynn R, shown here in front of her refurbished trailer, has done a lot of work on her PC site, transforming it from a dusty corner at the end of the park to a hip and happening "hang spot" great for grilling and star gazing.

Making dinner at camp just tastes better.

Although it is a little more work, preparing food in an old time camper always tastes better.
Yes the sink is a little smaller and the counter space is almost non-existent... but the results are, as they say, priceless.

Hanging out is half the fun.

After the trailer is open and all the little things you do to make it homey are done, it's time to hang out with your guests, and catch up with the neighbors (if they're around).

Park Managers Richard and Sydney

Richard and Sydney are full time residents at Pinecrest Resort. They are always around to answer questions and keep things in order. Regular security patrols of the property ensure the safety and privacy of the annual site-holders and their property.

The Winner of the Secret International Outdoor Art and Film Festival held at Pinecrest 2008.

Something Special

There's something special about people who are into vintage stuff, be it trailers, cars or old time technology. They know that by preserving the ways of the past is the best way to stay connected to the future.
http://www.pinecrestretreat.com

Poolside.

After tidying up the trailer, head down to the pool and cool off!

Pinecrest: More than just camping.

Pinecrest Resort is the best place to camp, if you have a vintage trailer. But Pinecrest Resort offer more than just camping, you can swim and hike and stargaze, even do yoga poolside!