February 25, 2025

By Simon J. Lau

Hung out with the boys on the patio in the morning. They sunbathed while I soaked in the hot tub. Benny, in particular, loves to sunbathe—he’ll sit outside soaking up the heat, then walk inside to cool down on the floor, only to head right back out again. It kind of reminds me of polar bear therapy, where people at a spa alternate between cold water plunges and hot tubs. I’ve never been a fan of cold showers, so I’ve never tried it myself. Just the hot tub or hot springs for me.

In the afternoon, I brought Bruno with me to visit Pioneertown. (Given Benny’s age, he can’t hike around as much as he used to.) Built in the 1940s by a group of Hollywood investors, Pioneertown was designed as a working movie set that also functioned as a real town. Dozens of Western films and TV shows were shot here in the ’40s and ’50s, and today, it remains a popular tourist attraction with its preserved Old West buildings, shops, and live reenactments.

We’ve been here once before when we visited Pappy & Harriet’s, a popular restaurant in town, but this was my first time exploring other parts of it. It’s a neat little Old West-style town—kind of reminds me of Tombstone, Arizona

In the evening, we decided to relive some ’90s nostalgia and go bowling at Yucca Bowl. Surprisingly, it’s a really nice bowling alley. We played two games—both of us were terrible the first round, but by the second, we had improved a lot!