Soaking up the sun at the pool

Hotel Pool with snow on Mt Jacinto
Originally uploaded by bonbayel.

All through the trip, Hanne was looking forward to a "real vacation" sitting by a pool soaking up the rays (so she could show off her "sun vacation" to her friends, I think) and reading. We had brought along a lot of books to read poolside! So that is why Palm Springs was on the itinerary. Sun, and a trip to all the malls at Cabazon on the way home.

Unfortunately, the winds were blowing fiercely when we arrived at the hotel, which is somewhat obvious in this picture - although the winds had died a little by the next day. As we approached the "desert cities" everything looked rather misty - but that was because of the sand storm. Nevertheless, we got into our bathing suits and went down to the beautiful and long hotel pool. But the wind was blowing so hard that sitting with a book was really out of the question. So we swam a number of laps, stopping now and then to remove chairs that had blown into the pool (raised backs proved to be great sails!) and also stopped the large bin of used towels from rolling into the pool. Afterwards we warmed up in the whirlpool, and left to check out downtown Palm Springs. We found a great Italian restaurant, the Tuscan Grill set back a little on Palm Canyon Drive, walked around a bit and then went back home.

Taquitz Canyon - upper waterfall
Originally uploaded by bonbayel.

The next day we took a 2-hour hiking tour of Taquitz Canyon so we did get a bit of nature and exercise in. I have annotated the pictures on Flickr to some extent, so you can read about it there. I have wanted to see this canyon ever since our first visit to Palm Springs, when it was closed. It had been pretty much trashed by hippy types (like my cousin, I understand) who grew pot and skinny dipped in the lovely pools. The pool in the picture was also the site of one scene of the movie Lost Horizons.

For the second evening, I suggested a movie, and eating at The Nest Restaurant, which John and I had discovered in Indian Wells a couple of years ago. It has been popular with Frank Sinatra's crowd back in the early days, and lies in connection with the Sands Hotel, out in an area that must have been way out of town back then. I had forgotten that it, too, (of course) was Italian, making it at least the 5th Italian restaurant of the trip. Then we went to a second run movie theater in Cathedral City, where one adult and one senior cost a total of about $3.75, followed by a trip back downtown where we got enormous concoctions at the the Coldstone Creamery Ice cream store!

Dinosaurs
Originally uploaded by bonbayel.

On the way to the malls at Cabazon (and home) the next day, we pulled off at the Cabazon exit of Interstate 10 - officially in the town of Banning, which I have always wanted to do. (The malls are at Fields Road.) The picture shows what we saw there. The dinosaurs have been bought up by some fundamentalist Christian (see the Questions and Answers page,) to make an amusement park to "prove" that there were people around along with the dinosaurs (just like in the comic books of my childhood.)

And that was the end of our wonderful road trip, as Hanne had to leave the next day. The next week or so I spent going through all the stuff that had collected in my absence (and writing all these blog entries) but I didn't get any exercise at all. I really miss having my walking partner to get me up and exercising. And it was of course great that we had such varied places for our walks as well. Back home I walk around the block, or down into town, or up the old trolly line in the middle of Euclid Ave. But I've walked them so many times, I miss the variety and comradeship, and challenges Hanne gave me. And I miss being with my daughter, who's back in Copenhagen, busy at work and with friends.