We had never been to Palm Springs so when Doug had the
opportunity to go for business I jumped at the chance to tag along. We flew to Palm Springs on Saturday June 9th, arriving at about 3pm. Since we were not actually staying in Palm Springs we headed over to our hotel which was the Hampton Inn in Banning. For the first night we were staying there. The next two nights we would be staying at the Morongo Resort in Cabazon, where the conference was going to be. Cabazon is about 17 miles from Palm Springs.
Once we got to our hotel, got checked in and settled we headed out to find something to eat. I used my phone to find suggestions for local eateries and settled on Thai food. The place was not memorable, even though rated high. Maybe the small town was why. The food was good when we finally got it. The service turned out to be very slow.
Since Doug didn’t have a lot of time that was not conference
time, we decided to do a little sightseeing.
We decided to go on the Aerial Tram.
Riding the gondola through Chino Canyon to the top of the ridge was a
great experience with awesome views. The
gondola is designed to turn slowly as we climb the mountain to give 360 views
to everyone on the ride up. Once we
reached the top there were several observation points, a lodge, restaurant
etc. We spent about an hour checking it
all out before we headed back down. The
sun was setting while we were there so we got some beautiful sky pictures. 
After we left the tram we drove into Palm Springs. The main street was very busy with tourists
so we walked around a little then decided to head back to our hotel area to eat
dinner. It was nearly 10 pm when we
stopped by Ruby’s for dinner.
Sunday morning we at breakfast at the hotel and took our
time checking out. We couldn’t check in at the other resort until 3 anyway so
there was no rush. I went to the pool
while Doug worked for a while. Of course
it was not heated! What’s with
that? Although the weather was in the
80s early in the morning, it still would have been nice to have a pool that had
a least some warm water. There was a hot
tub which helped. Around 1pm or so we
headed over to Cabazon to the Morongo Resort and Casino.
Doug had to check in for the conference around 3pm and get
his booth ready for the early morning meetings so he went to do that while I
checked out the pool. The weather was extremely
hot (110) and the pool did not have a lot of shade. That evening we ate dinner at the buffet at the
casino and played a little in the casino. (Lost, what’s new?) 
In the morning Doug headed to his conference and I went over
to the Cabazan Outlet stores which were less than a mile from the hotel. It was too hot to walk so I drove over. I spent some time checking out the stores,
several designer stores, but I ended up empty handed when I left. It’s a really nice mall and I wouldn’t mind
going back sometime.
Once I got back to the casino I decided to go down to the
pool area with my book. I was able to
find room in a shaded area for a few hours.
Around 5pm several other sponsors for the conference met down at the
pool bar for drinks, before heading to dinner.
Although the weather was hot it got windy by the pool. After a while we headed back into the hotel
and ate dinner there again, rather than leaving.
Tuesday Doug went back to his meeting and I requested a late
check out. The pool opened at 8am so I
went down and found some shade by the Lazy River and spent the rest of the
morning enjoying that. It was so
relaxing both in the Lazy River, and just resting on a lounge chair and
reading. The shade was nice as again it
was approaching 110.
I checked out around noon, got our things to the car and
waited in the area for Doug to finish up.
We were planning to leave about 2pm to head to the airport. We wanted to drive through Palm Springs since
we hadn’t spent much time there originally.
We stopped in town and walked around for a little while before we had to
leave. There is a new statue of MarilynMonroe in her famous pose with her dress flying up. Of course Doug wanted his
picture with her… J
