It was the week for our annual (hopefully going forward) trip to somewhere warm during our cold Nebraska winters. Anne, Rene and I were heading to Palm Springs, which was my idea because I didn't want to give Florida any of my tourist dollars and I wanted to go to the Salton Sea again, which my good friends were OK with.
We ate breakfast and headed out to our first stop - Desert Shores. I knew that the water had receded but was shocked by how far out we had to walk from what used to be the water's edge. Next stop was Salton Sea Beach then Salton City. We took lots of pictures and Anne and Rene seemed to be having fun. We drove completely around the southern end, which is all ag land, stopping at the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge where we didn't see much. By the time we we heading north up the east side of the sea, we were hungry and I was thrilled that the Ski Inn in Bombay Beach was open. We had great burgers and my favorite tots before exploring the art instillations on the sea side of the berm. The end of a fun Salton Sea day found us at North Shore, where the community center was closed but the director saw us looking in the windows and gave us a private tour, telling us all kinds of history along the way. What a fabulous day! Since lunch was so late, we ended with cheese and crackers for supper, a soak in the hot tub and working on the puzzle we'd brought.
The next day was Shield's Date Garden. Their movie was down but we walked the gardens and had a nice lunch in their restaurant before buying some treats in the gift shop. Next stop was the only yarn shop in the Palm Springs metro, which was small but we all still managed to find yarn to buy. We had been in search of a lemon tree to pick some from and found one on our street. The nice man who lived there let us pick some so we'd have those to take home. At home, we had more cheese and crackers and got so busy finishing our puzzle that we never went in the hot tub.
Thursday was our last full day and we were taking the aerial tramway up Mount Jacinto. There was snow on the ground up there and we did the long version of the nature walk. It started out on a clear, wide path but the higher we got, it became picking each step between ice, snow, tree roots and rocks. The ranger had told us to go from view point 5 to 1 so we'd be going uphill on the worst part but the signs weren't helpful so we ended up doing it in the other direction. Between points 4 and 5, Anne and I both fell. My knee bent more than it has since it was installed and there was some swelling but I lived to tell. We were up there a LONG time considering the hike was only 1.5 miles so got back down late afternoon. We went to Sherman's Deli for a very late lunch (I think it was 4:00). My knish was delish (ha!) and we all got a dessert to go. We had our last soak in the hot tub, snacked and watched the date garden movie before heading to bed.
Our flight wasn't leaving until mid-afternoon so we had the morning yet to go on Friday. I had wanted to do a mid-century modern architecture tour but at $125 each, I had explored for other options. I found a self-guided car tour that was only $17 so we checked out of the house early and started that. I wasn't very good with lots of stops like "between those gates you can see a sliver of a house through was (fill in old celebrity name)'s house" kind of things. We gave up after doing most of it and went downtown for the Birkenstock store (Anne and Rene bought shoes) and a slice of pizza for lunch. Rene googled an MCM neighborhood and we spent our last hours going up and down streets were regular people live in MCM houses, critiquing each one as we went by. We returned the car and were ready for our uneventful trip home. We got to Omaha late and were still driving at midnight so Anne and Rene sang happy birthday to me. I unpacked, showered and got to bed around 1:00 am. It was a great trip!
I had never really acclimated to Pacific time so was awake every morning at 4:30 despite staying up late each night so was a zombie on Saturday. I happily sat in my chair with my cats, chatting with friends and streaming/knitting the day away. I felt much better on Sunday and got some laundry done, scooped boxes and got back on track.
It was a wonderful winter break and I'd happily go back to Palm Springs. As always, even with such a short trip, it was good to be home. I also was able to forget about my diagnosis for awhile but would be right back on my cancer journey with an MRI Monday. At least I got the break to forget about it for awhile.
P.S. Photo credits to Anne and Rene since a few of these pics are theirs. : )
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