The first adventure of my stay in California was a three day "R and R" trip to Palm Springs. We bundled up swimmers, sandles, hats and suncream and headed off. My first cultural shock of course was the Freeways around LA!!! OMG!!! Of course being on the "wrong side of the road" added to the confusion.
On the way through we stopped in at Riverside. This is a town that was famous in the last century as a place where lots of the Western Movies were made. (As we were driving along, you could easily imagine a group of cowboys riding from behind the rocks). We stopped off at the Mission Inn Hotel, a famous old spanish style hotel. Really was beautifully restored!!
Our next stop over, was outlet city!!! Yes a huge outlet centre, all by itself in the middle of the desert (accommpanied by the inevitable group of takeaway chains and a huge gas station). My friend wanted to check out one of the kitchen places for some equipment for her restaurant.
Before too long, we arrived in downtown Palm Springs. The old centre has a lot of character. I just loved the restaurants with the misting(fine sprinklers spraying all over you to keep you cool). When we got out of the car, the reason for the misting was obvious!!! Boy was it hot. You certainly could have fried eggs on the pavement.
We were staying at the Chase Hotel, very close to the main street of downtown Palm Springs(you can check out the pool on this web page). We quickly unloaded the car, and sought the comfort of an airconditioned room, donned swimmers, sunglasses, cream, grabbed a good book and headed to the pool for 3 days of doing nothing!! (The wine and nibbles came later in the afternoon). Of course we ventured out for dinner each night, but that is another story!
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