Vacation: Palm Springs, CA

Let me start this one by saying Palm Springs in mid July...ugh! This trip was taken with a few of our friends as a fun get away weekend, and we did have fun...just mostly inside. The trip began well by find

Photo From: http://www.desertisleresort.com/

ing a great hotel/condo, Desert Isle of Palm Springs, for around 700 for 3 nights for 6 people. The room had two large bedrooms, a living room, dining area, and full kitchen, a patio w/ barbecue and was right upstairs from one of the two pools.

My Love and I got there a few hours before the others and had an easy check in. The man at the front desk was very nice and told us there are no pool hours "just don't be too loud" and "there are movies for free in the foyer". I grabbed some of the "things to do" pamphlets as I always do and we headed over to our room. We scouted out the bigger room, the one with a private bathroom, and settled in. It was refreshingly chilly in the room so we probably stayed in for an hour until our adventure bugs were nibbling at our ankles. We grabbed our suits and jumped in the pool, which was uncomfortably about 85 degrees. Then we search for the second pool and found an outdoor ping pong table and a more tropical pool area. We decided after a little swimming we should drive in to town for lunch. We found this little Mexican

Restaurant on the main drag called Maracas the food was good enough but the service was not very good and the price was a tad high. The atmosphere was nice and like any store/ restaurant in the area getting out of the heat is a huge plus.

After lunch we walked around just a bit and headed back to the hotel. Our friends began to show up soon after we got back, there were six of us total. We walked over to the grocery store to buy some food, to eat in a few meals, and had McDonald's for dinner (everyone was too hungry to wait to cook). The first night we all jumped in the still warm pool for awhile and then watched a movie and went to bed. The next day someone made breakfast (I can't remember who) and then we went down to the pool again. After we got too hot, in about 30 minutes, we went upstairs to play some games. We had a great time playing Cranium, and mixing up the teams a few times, it was hilarious. Lunch came around and one of our friends knew just where to go, apparently our group really likes Mexican food. La Casuelas was very festive and had great food. The only downside was that they didn't have any true hot salsa, just the bland Tabasco every place has, which wasn't enough for me (I like food HOT). After lunch we spent a few hours walking down the main strip and checking out all of the great little shops. You can basically find anything you are looking for, there is so much variety there.

Back at the hotel we ate in for dinner and played another round of Cranium. Around midnight we got in the pool and met some crazy foreign guys who had some interesting girls over. After we had the pool back to ourselves (it was so great not having to abide by pool hours) the boys sat around smoking cigars as us girls chatted in the pool trying to dodge their blowing smoke.

The last day we spent in the cool air conditioned room. Then at the pool and ping pong table, and finally

we went to see Angels and Demons at the local theater.

The next morning everyone else headed out early but I really wanted to check out the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. My Love and I headed up and enjoyed the beautiful ride. Once we reached the top of the mountain we were happy to feel the 15-20 degree temperature drop.

We took in the views and did the short 3 mile hike. We ate lunch in the little cafe, just hot dogs and chips priced fairly. We spent about 2 hours at the top and then headed back down. When we reached the bottom we jumped in the car and headed home.

Destination: Palm Springs

Points of Interest:
Desert Isle of Palm Springs http://www.desertisleresort.com/
Maracas http://www.maracas-restaurant.com/
La Casuelas http://www.lascasuelas.com/
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway http://www.pstramway.com/