Palm Desert, CA, March 21 - 26, 2007

Aviva and I had to expend some effort to get to Palm Desert this year. We originally had a flight through Dallas on March 20th, but that flight got canceled so they put us on the later, non-stop flight. Weather in Chicago canceled that flight. American put us in a Delta flight on the 21st, but they didn't ticket it right apparently. Luckily the Delta desk clerk took care of things and we ended up flying through Salt Lake City (a reasonably nice regional airport) and into Palm Springs. The last leg of the flight was very bumpy - there were some short strong rains in Palm Springs. We reached Aviva's mom's house without further incident and slept soundly.

On Friday we had arranged to meet a friend of Aviva's in Palm Desert, so we decided to walk around and shop on El Paseo Drive, the main (read expensive) shopping street in Palm Desert. We saw a number of people walking their dogs in baby strollers. One person told Aviva that their paws get sore from walking on the hot pavement (although this day only got to around 80 degrees).

One store had a cool pair of sphinxes outside the door.

We bought a nice Danish blue delft plate of a schipperke at a little pet store, and a couple more perfume bottles from Debbi's of Palm Desert.

While we walked back to the car we saw a big crow in a palm tree.

We met up with Aviva's friend at the California Pizza Kitchen and talked for a while, visited the Palm Desert Visitors Center, and then went back to Lily's to eat dinner and relax.

We got up Saturday and headed out for lunch at one of our favorite joints, Manhattan on the Desert; its a New York City style deli in Palm Springs.

We then drove up to Desert Springs to a spa called The Spring. It was really great - we soaked in the hot tub (its at 105 degrees - they also have a pool at 99 and a soaking pool at 101, all filled with natural spring water) and then had a massage. The water is world renouned for it purity and good taste.

After that, we drove into Palm Springs to walk around. We stopped into a head shop that also did body piercing. Aviva made the mistake of mentioning that she'd always wanted to have her nose pierced - the old guy in the store started telling her how much she would love having it done. At one point he said I should take her outside and spank her and then bring her back in - I told him that if I took Aviva outside to spank her we sure wouldn't be coming back in anytime soon! Eventually Aviva tired of the banter and we went over for dinner at Shanghai Red's, a restaurant attached to Fishermans Market. On the way back we stopped again at Manhattan in the Desert to get some mondel bread and rye bread for Lily. Then we drove back and crashed.

We got up Sunday and decided to hike at Tahquitz Canyon (we had done this last year, you can see the story and photos here). Lily decided to go along. As we left we saw a roadrunner in the neighbor's yard.

We drove to the Tahquitz Canyon Visitor's Center, which is the start of the 1.8 mile each way hike; it also goes up over 300 feet. We hiked up to the falls and back down. While we were at the falls we met a family that had illegally entered the area; they left their drivers license with the ranger! We drove back to Lil's house, getting fat free yogurts mixed with dates (very yummy).

We ate dinner at Mimi's Cafe; I had the corn chowder and the chicken tostada salad, which was really good!

We had no plans for Monday and so we got up and sat in the sun for a while; my feet itch (I have some sensitivity to sunlight now) but I have a little bit of tan and feel relaxed. We went shopping in Palm Desert, dropped off the rental car, had dinner at Lil's (I had a grilled ribeye steak - wonderful!). We heard that the weather forecast called for high winds tomorrow - I hope our flight leaves on time!

The winds were bad on Tuesday but not as bad as the forecast - our flight was over two hours late but it did leave and did get us to Chicago. We had a great time - Palm Desert is starting to grow on both of us!