How the other half lives

This isn't an upscale shopping mall, it's the inside of the Palm Springs Airport at 9:00 am yesterday.  Kind of a surreal place to finally touch down, after getting out of bed in the middle of the night to catch our 6:45 direct flight to Palm Springs.  As the weary planeload of Seattle passengers disembarked, I told John we looked like moles blinking in the bright sun.

What a nice feeling to have the day stretching ahead with no particular plans, so we took a short drive to visit the date gardens near Indio and Thermal.  The retro feel was the same, but each time we come back there's more urban sprawl.  Forty years ago, it seemed like the date gardens stretched on for miles on each side of the road.  Still, it's fun.  We didn't have a famous date shake, but bought some of our favorite giant Madjools.  They taste like soft, luscious caramel.

 

 On the drive back to Palm Springs, we stopped for a short walk at 1,000 Palms Canyon.

A beautiful little pocket oasis in the desert...

 

And at last, our home sweet home for the next few days.  Three hot mineral pools right outside the door, and a tame roadrunner for entertainment.

He is not camera shy!  John took this great picture of him on the doorstep, begging for cracker crumbs.  So our first day of vacation came to an end, and we slept for 10 hours listening to the wind whip through the palm trees all night.   I can't remember the last time I slept so long and well.  

The only plan now is to soak up the water and sun.  Although I'm thinking of having something called a "water massage" where an older Swiss gentleman swirls you around the the mineral pool for an hour.  Ah. Wish you were here.