Perhaps Palm Sunday sounds even more appropriate, but we went to Palm Springs and Palm Desert this weekend to celebrate Easter. Julie was able to go into the office for a half day and then also work as we drove, and my calls forward wherever I am, so it was like I wasn’t away. We stopped at the outlet mall in Cabazon to see if there were any potential black suits for Jay’s upcoming orchestral concert or prom dresses for Amy. The parking lot was jammed, and after dropping the girls and making many trips around the aisles, Jay and I pulled over on one side to wait for someone to leave. On the other side, another couple of cars were lined up for the angled spaces on the other side of the aisle, so cars coming through would snake through the relatively short aisle. I was happy to see someone in front of me arrive at their car just as two other cars met. I waited for them to pass, but the one facing my direction pulled in directly in front of me, crowding the car trying to back up, and then took that space. Isn’t there some kind of parking lot etiquette that says that space was mine? That’s just one more reason that I’m not a big shopper. We decided to take off driving around the parking lot again and eventually found someone leaving just as we arrived. We didn’t end up buying anything at all. Jay and I walked into a Prada outlet and asked the price of the black suit on the rack marked at 50% off. It turned out the retail was $3000, so the reduced price was still about 15 times what we were looking to spend.
Into Palm Springs we continued, making our traditional first stop at Las Casuelas Terraza for lunch. As I parked, I looked back and saw Elvis Presley in a vintage red convertible coming down the street. I told everyone what I saw, but no one believed me until he passed, and his license plate had the name Elvis in it. This time, our table was right on the sidewalk, which is something of the main drag. We enjoyed a great lunch, and then walked around the shops of Palm Springs.
We headed to the Marriott Desert Springs, which was our big splurge destination. It’s a beautiful resort with multi-colored gardens, large lakes and rolling green lawns that defy the desert location. We checked in and headed out to the pool area for some hot tubbing and reading. We were still full from lunch, but we ended up going to Pat & Oscar’s for a chicken and breadsticks dinner. I try to avoid eating bread, because I like it too much to stop, but I put away enough to still feel stuffed the next morning. Pat & Oscar’s was a San Diego based chain that started near our old Carmel Mountain home, so it was a chance to visit an old favorite in a new location.. After Starbucks Coffee in the beautiful lobby, we just hung out by the pool again most of that day, taking a break to go to Carl’s Jr. for some spicy chicken sandwiches for lunch. In the afternoon, we got in line for the incongruous boat ride around the desert resort. In front of us in line was a young Russian family, and upon hearing them speak, Amy declared again that she would like to learn Russian in college when she beings in only a few months, but not until her Spanish is completely fluent, which it almost is. The little boats glide from the indoor lobby through the large glass doors and out for a short tour around the resort lake, which on a hot summer day might lose 91,000 gallons of water to evaporation. No hippos were shot, and playful banter was almost nil from our driver, who was just going through the motions as opposed to the usual cast member at Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise, much less a real cruise ship.
The highlight of the day was dinner at Kabobz, a Middle Easter restaurant that featured an excellent belly dancer. All the kabobs and gyros were delicious, as was the rice. I didn’t care for the vegetables quite as much, but it was a great meal overall. Afterwards, we watched on TV as Charlton Heston’s Moses have his hair and burned turn white after seeing the face of God.
Again we enjoyed Starbucks Coffee for breakfast, along with some strawberries we had bought the first day before arriving, and then headed out to the pool. At 11 AM, there was a small Easter Service at the Point, a beautiful little spot normally used for weddings. The lawn area with white chairs surrounded by the brilliant gardens, a lake with swans floating by, purple, snow topped mountains, tall palm trees piercing bright blue skies, and rolling golf course made a beautiful cathedral. Right off the bat, the singer ran into technical difficulties, but fortunately Jay was in the front row and stepped in to help her out. She sang beautifully. The minister delivered a wonderful message. After pointing out the current Newsweek cover saying Christianity was on decline in America along with President Barrack Obama’s recent comment in Europe that we are not a Christian nation but a secular one, the minister brought up President John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,” and contrasted that with the way the bailouts and financial crises have played out recently. He brought it back home with the message that we must have faith in God, who is the true source of all good, no matter how many people turn to government for their salvation.
After church, Jay and I played mini-golf on the challenging little course on the resort grounds, and then it was time to head back home. We stopped at Las Casuelas Terraza for a late lunch on our way out of town. A great jazz and Latin band was playing on the patio stage as we ate our farewell meal. Overall, we enjoyed a great land cruise, although staying at a nice resort involves dipping into your pockets a lot more frequently than on a cruise ship. As you may have noticed, we took a lot of “shore excursions,” limiting out hotel expenditures to those $3 cups of coffee at Starbucks. If we had spent freely at the resort property, it would have easily cost more than a weekend cruise, but we had a great time without spending a bundle. Surprisingly, the traffic back to LA wasn’t bad at all. We didn’t bring our camera, so there are no photos of our trip, but I thought the included video by the Red Elvises, which Jay told me about a few months ago, was strangely appropriate.
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