Saturday, September 14, 2013

Palms Springs

Shanna and I returned home from our week long vacation to Palms Springs yesterday. I was really hoping to do a blog post every day or two from our hotel. But alas, free wifi was non-exsisting and even if you paid the daily $5 fee, we heard the connection wasn't all that great. So I'm just going to sum things up with some photos. (Although I'm sure you have seen the majority of them on Facebook)

We left Saturday the 7th bright and early, around 6am. We were stoked. Please remember that we have been waiting for this vacation since February.....that is way too long to be waiting.

After a couple of stops, we finally arrived to our destination, scorching Palms Springs. Through our week long trip it went anywhere from around 96-106 degrees. It was hot. Hot as in, we would take 1.5 hours to get ready, trying to look our very best, and then ruin it in about 1.5 minutes after stepping outside. We were instantly sweating, greasy, and I'm sure smelly. This picture basically sums all that up.
Yikes. We did manage to venture out a couple of times though. We visited the infamous Marilyn Monroe statue.....
I love that the friendly couple were willing to take a photo of us....I also love that they got us walking away. We look so proud to have accomplished this task of seeing her. And yes, she is wearing underwear.

We tried a couple yummy restaurants, did some fun window shopping and enjoyed frozen yogurt.


See my hanger strap dangling from my shirt? Classy right?

Shanna got the opportunity to visit some family while we were in Palms. Both her Great Aunt and Grandpa lived less than 5 minutes away from our condo. I took the opportunity to catch up on the food network and hgtv trash. It was delightful and I know she was happy to be able to see them. Win, Win. We also visited Palm Desert (sounds hot, right?...it was) We didn't last long and ended up in a movie theatre where we saw Despicable Me 2....we had the whole theatre to ourselves.

By Tuesday we were back on the road heading to Aneheim. We got to Disneyland minutes after they opened. So did everyone else lol. Honestly though, the lines were awesome, can't complain.

It was a nice reprieve from the heat. It was a perfect temperature, in the mid 70's. Unfortunately we were saddened to see that some of our favorite rides were closed, which included the log ride, haunted mansion and that wicked awesome space ride. We also were in line when the Toon Towne Rodger Rabbit ride broke down. We still had a lot of fun though.





After Disneyland we picked up a happy meal from Mcdonalds and checked into our sketchy hotel and called it a night. The following morning we drove a short distance to Newport Beach. It was overcast, hardly any people around, and so beautiful!!! We probably enjoyed it more than anything else on our vacation. It was so fun! Also, we got some awesome pictures!










After our visit to Newport we returned to Palms Springs. Did I mention that one morning we signed up for water aerobics? It was hilarious! And seriously kicked my butt at times. We were several years younger than most but it was a grand time. We enjoyed the pool, the work out room (well Shanna did) and our smoothies and milkshakes we created with the vitamix.

Thursday night (our final night) we attended the village fest. About 5 blocks are closed to traffic and at least a 100 vendors set up their products to sell. It was nice to be downtown with the moon instead of the glaring sun. We watched an amazing artist create a phenomenal painting with some tools and spray paint in just a couple of minutes and we couldn't have been happier to be there. It was free and a plesant time.
Friday morning we left Palms Springs close to 7am.
 We drove. And Drove. Sang some. Drove. Whined a lot. Stopped too many times. Drove some more. And finally arrived 11 hours later. Yesterday was the longest day of my life. There is nothing better than coming home though. Thanks Shanna, for once again being the best vacation buddy ever. I couldn't ask for a better best friend! Here's to hoping we can find a cooler, less sticky destination next year!

 Things we learned from Palms Spring:
  1. It is not somewhere I will ever move to. Ever.
  2. It is hot. All. The. Time. Those 3 cardigans don't need to come out of the luggage.
  3. If you make nasty enchiladas, they don't taste better the second time. Nor the 3rd.
  4. Not all mountains are created equal. Utah mountains are beautiful, majesty even....Palms Spring mountains look like scabs. No Lie.
  5. Egg roll wrappers, filled with nutella and bananas, fried and eaten with ice cream is heaven. And a great reward after suffering through those said enchiladas.
  6. Heat exhaustion is real. Stay hydrated. But prepare to wake up numerous times throughout the night to visit the restroom. 
  7. Don't eat a philly cheese steak sandwich in Disneyland. Enough said.
  8. If a random man starts swimming towards you in the pool with a glazed look in his eye, don't say, "Hello", instead swim faster than you have ever swam before. 
  9. Call the hotel before lugging a nook, and laptop. Mood drastically declines when you realize Wifi isn't available. 
  10. Check for ice in the freezer before chopping up fruit for mood increasing smoothie.

We won't be visiting Palms Springs anytime soon. But we have lots of pictures and funny memories and that was totally worth the trip.




7 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh! Your list completely made my night! I giggled all the way through it. Nailed it!

I had a random thought while reading about our pathetic attempt to make that smoothie...there was an ice machine on the 2nd floor...

Anyway, it was a ton of fun as usual, and I couldn't ask for a better travel buddy. I think that even when we're low, we're low together, and that makes things better...right?

terrah said...

What a fun time! It's always nice to get away, even if it's not to a perfectly perfect place. Plus you have great stories!

Jan DeGiulio said...

Fun post! Glad you had a great time.

Alicia said...

Sounds like you had a great vacation in my neck of the woods. I warned you about Palm Springs being hot. You might decide you want to go back during the winter. It isn't so bad during that time. I absolutely love Newport Beach.

Yes, not all mountains are the same. I miss Utah mountains. Though my mountains here are pretty in the winter time when they get enough water to turn green.

The DeGiulio's said...

Sounds and looks like it was so fun!!

Kelsey Fairbanks said...

I love so cal. So much so, that I want to move there and am secretly trying to find jobs for us so that we can actually make a living there and not live in the ghetto. I haven't been to palm springs though, looks like fun. there is a sister missionary in our area who is from Pasadena, and I actually found out that September is the hottest month of the year for California. Maybe palm springs would be better in like November or January? I'm jealous you guys got to go cali. I love it so much.

Heather Leigh said...

"Palm Springs mountains look like scabs" has got to be the best description I have ever read. Haha love it!

You guys look so great! Love the short hair, Shanna!

Thanks for sharing :)