Long Weekending in Palm Springs -- Part 2

Well... I didn't originally intend on this being a two part vacation recap, you know, since we were only gone for like three days, but I had so many pictures that I wanted to share that I decided to break it up so it wasn't fully picture overload.



So, to pick up where we left off (like two weeks ago.... eek! sorry!), we're now on to our Palm Springs adventures on Friday.

On Friday we decided to take the Palm Springs Aerial Tram to the top of the mountain. Which mountain you might ask? Well, to be honest, I have no idea, but given the fact that the picture below this says "Mount San Jacinto State Park", I'd have to take a shot in the dark that it's Mount Jacinto. Hopefully I'm right ;)

So, anyway, we took the tram to the top of the mountain. Even though we've been to Palm Springs a handful of times, we've never done this and I've always wanted to. It was a cool 70-ish degrees up at the top of the mountain which was a nice break from the 100+ degrees that it was at the bottom. I was comfortable in my jeans though I wish I was wearing shorts. Also, I might add, I had NO clue that it was a state park at the top. I clearly should have done some research before we left (even before we left our house) because apparently there's a bunch of trails and hiking to be done at the top. I somehow thought it was just a look out point. Like you'd go up, look around, and come back. Thankfully it wasn't like that, since the tram was slightly expensive, but, had I known this in advance, I wouldn't have worn jeans (instead work out pants) and sandals (instead tennis shoes), but it worked out fine and we had a good time walking around, exploring, and then having a little lunch before we headed back down the mountain.

"Grandpa, I need money!"

Thankfully it was only a quarter ;)

It was gorgeous at the top and Mason LOVED exploring (and throwing rocks and sticks in) "every pond" aka the same pond each time that he just thought was different (lol).

"Look Mom! ANOTHER pond!"

"That's the same pond... just the other side of it."

lol

crossing the pond on the log

WE DID IT!

We were up at the top for a good couple of hours and after lunch we headed back down to go back to our rental house to swim a little.

It was Cinco de Mayo this day and I made sure we had appropriate drinks ;)

On Saturday, we visited The Living Desert - aka the zoo in the desert. I was a little skeptical and thought we'd only see plants (aka cactus), but I was pleasantly surprised at how many animals they actually had. It was also a pleasant surprise that the weather was only 80-ish instead of the 100+ that it had been the first couple days we were there.

We stayed at the zoo for a couple hours, had lunch, and then headed back to the rental house for more swimming and a dinner stop at Sherman's Deli - Seth's one and only request the whole trip. It did not disappoint.

On Sunday, we woke up late, packed our stuff, and headed home around 11am. Our niece, Emma, was having her birthday party that afternoon and we didn't want to miss it. I mean...

... nail truck!

All in all, it was a great weekend and now we've got an itch to go on another vacation... hopefully soon!

Weekending.

Alternatively titled "I should be packing, but I've done way too much of that today, so instead I'm blogging and drinking wine."

And in case you were thinking I'm a wine-o... I wrote this post last night ;)

This weekend was a good one! We mixed in some fun along with a lot of productivity which made for a good weekend that ended too soon. Since nobody is in the mood for reading lots of words on a Monday morning... here is a little weekend recap, mostly in pictures.

Saturday was for...

Pictured
- Seth's work open house
- a trip to Lowe's for more boxes and packing materials

Not Pictured
- donut breakfast
- trip to Target
- trip to Costco
- packing
- laundry
- dinner at Lazy Dog Cafe
- another trip to Target to return something

Sunday was for...

Pictured
- procrastinating packing
- a gorgeous sunset

Not Pictured
- grocery shopping
- packing
- more laundry
- Starbucks trip
- a trip to the park to play soccer
- family dinner
- wine in a Mason jar because I packed all the wine glasses


And with that, we're ready to tackle the week! On the agenda, we've got more packing, I've got a super busy week at work, and Mason's got his usual appointments and such. Business as usual with some packing thrown in there! And I'm hoping to get at least one more blog post up before I go MIA for a while due to moving. I'm still wanting to share Part 2 of our Palm Springs adventure, Mother's Day, and some more autism posts (even though April was autism awareness month...). We shall see!

Happy Monday!

Long Weekending in Palm Springs -- Part 1

A couple weekends ago (the first weekend of the month), we took a little weekend trip to Palm Springs to visit my Dad and step mom who came down from Northern California to meet up with us. I took Mason to speech that Thursday morning and then we left as soon as he was done. We were in Palm Springs from Thursday through Sunday and it was the perfect amount of time.

Every time we go to Palm Springs, we always pass these huge dinosaurs on the side of the freeway. I'm always intrigued by them, but we've never stopped. This trip we were taking our time heading in to the city, so I asked Seth to stop. I literally didn't know much about the dinosaurs expect for the fact that they were giant dinosaurs on the side of the freeway by the outlet mall and well... that's all they really are. And they were pretty unexciting. But, hey, we can say we've seen them, and we never have to stop again.

What's a road trip without lunch at In n Out? Even though we have them by our house, we almost always stop at one on a road trip since we can pretty much guarantee that lunch will be delicious. I totally pulled a "tourist move" and took a picture of the sign and a picture of my kid outside the restaurant. Hey, nobody but Seth and Mason knew I wasn't a tourist 😉

After lunch, we walked around the outlet mall (Cabazon) for a bit before we decided that we were going to melt (it was 107), so we headed back to the car and made our way in to Palm Springs.

By this time, it was around 12:30pm/1pm and we weren't meeting my parents until around 4pm to check in to our house rental. So, we drove around and visited a couple spots that I had wanted to stop by while we were in town.

mural located at the Hyatt Palm Springs

This Palm Springs sign we kind of stumbled upon by chance. I had seen Desiree Hartsock (from the Bachelorette) post a picture in front of this wall on Instagram a couple weeks ago and had wanted to stop by it but I had no clue where it was. Then we were driving down the main road and stumbled upon it.

ACE Hotel

Ever since I saw the first person take a picture in front of the ACE Hotel sign, I knew I wanted to see it in person. The hotel seems SUPER trendy and we definitely felt out of place, but before we left, Mason and I snapped a photo in front of the "M"ACE (Mase) Hotel sign. See what we did there? (Mace --> Mase --> Mason).

Everyone did an amazing job playing along with my "wall hunting" plan, so we decided to stop for some ice cream at our FAVORITE place, Great Shakes. Seriously, if you visit Palm Springs, you NEED to go here. I mean, they add a mini donut to the straw of your milkshake!

salted caramel milkshake // mint oreo fudge milkshake

After we fueled up on ice cream, we made one more stop -- the Saguaro Hotel. I had seen TONS of pictures of this gorgeous hotel all over Instagram and I was DYING to see it in person. The hotel did not disappoint and boy was it COLORFUL. This hotel was also super trendy and we felt out of place, but it was fun to walk around and check it out.

By this time, it was around 3:30/3:45pm. We found out that my parents were stuck in traffic and were running late so they called the realtor to meet us and give us the keys to the house. We had about an hour to hang out and unpack before they met us. My dad, step mom, and Seth went to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner and Mason, Leo (their dog), and I hung out at the house and splashed around in the pool.

We ate dinner, had some drinks, hung out, went to bed, and got ready for a weekend of fun!

Part 2 -- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday -- coming soon!