{dear friend}

Palm Springs! What a perfectly colorful, wonderful place.

A little back story: The original idea for this trip came when Zan had a work assignment in Las Vegas for the same week as my April Vacation. He works in clinical research for anyone wondering and his company does clinical trials all over the county. He knew about his site visit a few months before my vacation so he thought it would be fun for me to come too and we would make a trip of it. I was sold instantly ! Travel! Wahooo! It is one of my love languages.

We decided to make a detour on our route to Las Vegas and head to Palm Springs for breakfast and then Joshua Tree for an afternoon jaunt through the desert. Because of some last minute stuff Zan had to do for work, and rotten timing (I think I may have (gasp) tried to pack too much sightseeing into one day), we never ended up making it to Joshua Tree, which was certainly a disappointment. I had eagerly booked tickets to a show in Vegas for later that night and because of that we just ultimately ran out of time! The sadness! I have been wanting to see that desert for many years but our luck was just not there for that adventure on this particular day. I guess it just means we will have to come back to this area again anther time, which in the end isn’t such an unlucky thing at all.

Anyway. Onward!

We did happily get to spend a good amount of time in Palm Springs and man do I LOVE that town. We were visiting between Coachella weekends — on Monday morning, so it was actually pretty sleepy when we were there, but I imagine it was a pretty hopping place the day before we arrived. A blast, I’m sure!

Here are some photos from our time exploring…

Right before your come to Palm Springs on the highway from L.A. you pass by a massive number of windmills. It was an amazing sight!

Then, suddenly– you are in a in a wonderland of Palm trees. Those mountains in the backdrop are something to write home about too. And skies so blue!

We first try to stop at Cheeky’s because it had amazing reviews and I’d read several “guides to Palm Springs” that raved about it– but the wait time was super long and at this point we wanted to move through the sites rather quickly. We decided to try to Ace Hotel instead and were very happy we did! Lots of space and not too many people. Plus, it’s the Ace! You’ve got to love it, right?

I definitely did…

This weaving is HUGE AND PERFECT!

It was while we were at the Ace that Zan found out he needed to do some work, so he went back to the car to get his computer and we camped out at King’s Highway for awhile– Zan typing away and me wandering the grounds of the hotel. The whole place is magnificent! I would really love to stay overnight some day.

When Zan was done we decided to do a bit of the Palm Springs Modern Mid-Century Architecture Tour — I was able to purchase the app so we could do a self guided tour. It was fun, but I kept wanted to go inside the houses! If I decided to do it again, or had more time I would definitely try to look up if there are any tours that bring you through the inside of homes. (Fun fact: my favorite thing to do as a child was to go inside model homes in new neighborhood developments and also to visit the RV exhibits at the State Fair and the local mall. HA! I remember just LOVING touring the inside of houses! And I still do!)

I loved this street and the flowers and the succulents and the palm trees! So pretty.

Our last stop was a walk through the colorful Saguaro Hotel. How fun does this place look?? It’s supposedly a hot spot for Coachella weekenders and I can totally see why.

And that’s it! Our bright visit to the most rainbow magical land. So colorful. So fun.

STAY FABULOUS, PALM SPRINGS. xo