Palm Springs

March 16 – 19, 2014

Ok, if we’re being totally honest, we didn’t really know why we were going to Palm Springs and hadn’t researched it particularly well (I know… surprising… since I usually research things until they can’t be researched anymore!) We decided we wanted to see it, pretty much based on the fact that it is a popular vacation spot. We are more ocean people than desert people so weren’t sure how much we would enjoy it. That being said, the King and I quite often have a good time wherever we end up!

We traveled down from Santa Barbara on the freeway, and the drive was pretty easy. You do go back through L.A. on the way. I can see why Palm Springs might be a weekend spot from L.A., it’s basically a 2 hour drive.

The first thing we noticed was the desert. It wasn’t the sandy kind, but the rocky kind of desert. The second thing we noticed is that a lot of businesses had desert in the name. For our own amusement we decided to always pronounce desert as dessert. This made “Desert Village” seem like a much more interesting place to visit!

First we found our hotel which is in the old Palm Springs. Old Palm Springs is the original Palm Springs. The other areas like Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage are sometimes referred to as the Coachella Valley or Greater Palm Springs. We like to be in the thick of things, and assumed that is what original Palm Springs would be.

Our hotel was The Horizon Hotel. I chose it for a couple of reasons. First, it looked like the old style Palm Springs buildings, but was newly renovated. Second, there were no kids allowed 😉 Don’t get me wrong, we like kids… but we also like NO kids!

Anyway the first thing we noticed was that our hotel was lovely. It had lots of glass walls (including the shower!), neatly landscaped common areas, a pool, a hot tub, and a gas fire pit.

Here's the pool!

Steve liked this as a spot to relax. It looks like a helicopter landing pad with the big H,
but then I realized it is a Handsome Man landing pad!

The units were set up in blocks of three surrounding the common area. We also noticed it was VERY quiet. We actually found ourselves whispering as we looked at the pool area. They were playing soft music… Frank Sinatra and the like… which is kind of cool because of the area, but after a couple of days got a bit boring for us. Conveniently Steve had brought his own music, which kept him amused, and I am pretty much the queen of ignoring things so didn't hear the music anymore after awhile. 😁

Breakfast on our patio

The final thing I’ll add about the hotel is that they did provide a complimentary continental breakfast. You put the card on your doorknob the night before with your selections and the time you would like it and they deliver it either to your room, your patio or by the pool. Steve and I enjoyed eating on our patio in the sunshine in our hotel bathrobes. Chalk that up as another reason to love vacation!

The shower with a wall of glass

Our room was very spiffy with a nice big king bed, a long wall of windows, desk area, closet and a bathroom with a complete wall of windows in the shower. There was a wall built up outside the window. Probably about 5 feet tall so people couldn’t look in at you, but Steve and I tested it and you could easily see in if you wanted. Now, nobody did look in (to my knowledge) because the people staying in this hotel are grown ups 😀 The property is gated, so it isn’t like people off the street are coming in to look. We both really enjoyed the “shower in the sunshine” as I like to call it. They have a lot of memorabilia up in the main lobby building showing famous people who stayed at the hotel back in the day… even Marilyn Monroe.

Our next job was to find food. I was starving… and it was my birthday! We drove downtown and parked on the street (2 hour parking. Don’t overstay we saw the parking guy out there religiously ticketing). We ended up at a restaurant called the Alibi, which we mainly chose because it had outdoor seating and lots of people inside. The food was good and we had a very enjoyable birthday dinner!

Happy Birthday to me!

We did spend quite a bit of time at the pool while we were in Palm Springs, but the two other things we did that were worth mentioning were going up the aerial tram and driving out to Joshua Tree Park.

I didn’t do my usual copious amounts of research, but these are the two things that stuck in my head from the things I did read. I think they were both worthwhile.

The original 1963 tram car

The aerial tram takes you up a mountain to a viewpoint. We’ve done this in other countries and enjoyed it. The experience outweighed my absolute fright of heights when the idea occurred to me to check it out.

I can tell you that it certainly looks much scarier in real life!

When we arrived I looked up the mountain and almost changed my mind. It was tall and steep! However, I had dragged the King all the way out there and didn’t want to be a jam-tart (right Mom?). The tram starts at the Valley Station (2643 feet) and stretches two and half miles up to the Mountain Station (8516 feet). In my head I just kept telling myself… people go up there all day long every day… it will be fine… and it was 😀 Scary, but fine! It costs $23.95 per person to go up, which doesn’t seem like a lot when you try to imagine the cost of building, maintaining and staffing something like this. I can not even imagine how it was built, but it clearly has to involve helicopters as the only station reachable by road is the first one and there are five.

At the top!

The tram is quite large and can hold up to 80 people! They count as you enter, don’t worry they won’t overload it! 😀 The other thing that surprised me is that the floor revolves as the tram travels up and down. It doesn’t matter where you end up in the tram you will get a view all the way around (just a note that you will be standing the whole time). There is a recorded message that plays as you go up (and down), and depending on the operator they will tell you a few interesting facts as well. As the tram passes over each of the towers there is a bit of swaying or bouncing, which is met by almost every passenger making some sort of surprised noise!

Surprise! The top is about 30 degrees (Fahrenheit) colder than the bottom. Take a jacket! There was actually snow at the top even though it was about 82 degrees at the bottom of the mountain. 

My wet hair was physically cold! Not frozen, but definitely cold!

At the top there are some viewing decks, restaurants and even a bar for those of you who need it! You could apparently go hiking if you are more adventurous… but we weren’t! The ride back down seems easier (maybe because it is almost over!) and the tram sways less as you go over the towers. At the bottom there is a viewing area out the back where you can look back out at the tram. This is a good spot to take a picture of it.

There is also a sign that says watch out for rattlesnakes. As I read it a leaf blew across the top of my foot scaring the pants off me. It took me a few minutes to recover from that!

Still recovering from the leaf snake!

The other memorable thing we did was a trip to Joshua Tree National Park. We headed out on the Twentynine Palms Highway through the Yucca Valley. It was a little under an hour drive from our hotel. It was amazing to see all the windmills on the drive. Some people think they’re ugly, but Steve thinks they look cool. I’m not sure how it is any more ugly than miles and miles of rock, and on the plus side they provide clean energy! 

When you enter the park you pay $15 and this allows you to go in and out with your vehicle for 7 days. They also give you a map and an information pamphlet at this time if you ask. If for some crazy reason you are entering this park without a vehicle (bicycle, motorcycle foot or on horse… I swear the website says “horse”) you can pay $5.

Joshua Tree National Park... with a snow-capped mountain in the background

There are many things to do in the park including bird-watching, rock-climbing, hiking and camping. For most of you day-trippers I would suggest picking just one of the hikes and doing a bit of the drive. The park is huge… about 800,000 acres so don’t plan to see the whole thing.

Definitely a unique landscape!

When you drive into the park you see people pulling off the road to take pictures. You don’t really need to do that as there are plenty of pull-outs and parking lots to stop at. We took oodles of pictures (yes, too many!) without stopping on the road 😀

We stopped at the first pull out which had people climbing all over the rocks. We took some pictures and wandered about for a bit. There are also bathrooms here, but they are the outhouse kind with no sink. (Translation by Lisa – only use if absolutely necessary – and if you can hold your breath.)

Check out this crazy tree!

We decided to drive down to the “Hidden Valley” hike as I had read on Tripadvisor that if you are only going to do one to do this one. It is about one mile, relatively flat and an easy and beautiful walk. You basically go up a short way and then can go left or right to complete loop. This is a valley encircled by rock all the way around. It is known as a place where cattle rustlers hid their cattle because it was a hidden sheltered area. The land formations and the vegetation are the main attractions here.

I don’t think we’d ever seen yucca trees before, and we enjoyed their uniqueness. Apparently Joshua Tree is one of the species of Yucca trees named by a group of Mormon settlers (or so the story goes… some people with much time on their hands like to debate this on the Internet… so believe what you will!) You might see some wildlife, we did see a few lizards… but keep your hands out of crevices and rocks because apparently that is where the snakes like to hide! We had an enjoyable day in the park. It was nice to get out for a walk and see something different. I would definitely recommend this as something to do in (I guess around) Palm Springs.

I did snap some pictures on the way back to Palm Springs as things are just so different from home here. I almost missed the street sign for “Kickapoo Trail” because the camera battery was dying… but luckily didn’t miss this gem. Who names the streets out here anyway? A seven year old boy???

 

A saloon with a hitching post for your horse!

For a change of pace we decided to check out the El Paseo Shopping District which is in Palm Desert (short drive from the original Palm Springs). The girl at our hotel had told us it was the “Rodeo Drive” of Palm Springs. Having just seen the real Rodeo Drive we thought we would check it out. I would like to say that anyone who thinks this is Rodeo Drive has probably never been to Rodeo Drive… or perhaps has an active imagination. This was a nice shopping area, but doesn’t in anyway compare to the actual Rodeo Drive. There were lots of shops and restaurants and it was also an enjoyable walk 😀

I think if we visited Palm Springs again I would like to go on one of the architectural tours. The mid-century modern style is quite aesthetically pleasing and you can really imagine it being a celebrity playground back in the 50’s and 60’s. Apparently the movie studios had a rule that actors under contract had to be available within two hours in case they were needed, so a getaway in Palm Springs fit into the two hour zone! Steve was chatting with another guest at our hotel who said they did an architectural driving tour and it was quite interesting.

Not sure if we’ll come back to Palm Springs (there’s no ocean!) but we did enjoy the few days we spent here!