Palm Springs, June 2012

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 9^th, 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

Our trip was short and sweet.  Really didn’t get much time to enjoy the city.  I would like to come back in the early spring or fall when it’s not so hot to really enjoy it.