(written 6/26)
After a full week away from home we finally arrived safe and sound after a 10.5 hour drive Sunday evening. I was sad for everything to be over, but after Murphey beds, couch diving, and many hours in the car, we were ready for the comforts of our own room. Our adventures in California were great! Not to mention that we hit perfect weather the entire time, including a sunny day in San Francisco. But without further detail lets get these posts started. I will follow the same basic outline as I did with our trip to NYC last summer. Again, prepare for hundreds of pictures and lengthy descriptions of our activities. (Though perhaps not quite as expansive since we did not hit any museums on this trip).
saturday (6/16) :: day 1
We had spent the night with Pat's family in Salem so that we would be closer to PDX in the morning. For the Palm Springs portion of the trip we stayed in Pat's Mom's La Quinta home with his parents, little brother Hayden, and Magdalena, who was visiting the US from Germany. Our flight was fairly early, so we had to get up and out the door quickly to get to the airport on time. It was all a little rushed, but we made it on to the plane, settled in, and began the first leg of our trip. After a layover in Sacramento, we finally made it to Ontario, CA, where we hoped in a rental car for the remainder of our trek to La Quinta (near Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley). For lunch we made a stop at In-N-Out Burger, our first meal of the California trip, and one of the only actual burgers you will see me eat. It definitely hit the spot.
We arrived at the La Quinta house a little later than I expected admittedly (around 3:30pm) and it was hot hot hot so we quickly adorned our bathing suits and jumped in the gorgeous backyard pool. We spent the remainder of the evening enjoying the backyard and relaxing.
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| [[ bags packet and ready to go. on the plane. the man sitting next to us commented that my nail polish matched my headphones. attempting some dollar origami and failing. ]] |
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| [[ images from the plane. ]] |
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| [[ the drive to la quinta, ca. ]] |
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| [[ lunch at in-n-out. ]] |
sunday (6/17) :: day 2
Hayden and Roger had a tee time in the morning for Father's Day, so after a quick breakfast Pats Mom Lori, me, Pat, and Magdalena headed in to Palm Springs for a little shopping and some lunch. It was sweltering and into the hundreds by the time we got in to town, so after returning the rental car and getting a mini window tour of some fabulous Mid Century homes, we headed towards Tommy Bahama for lunch. Yes, Tommy Bahama is a preppy "older people" store, but apparently in the desert, a nice restaurant by the same name resides up above the retail space. I got a delicious Ahi salad and the best Gin & Tonic I have ever had. True story. Hendrixs (my favorite), cucumber infused sparkling water, St. Germain, and a few extras. Amazing and oh so fresh. Perfect for the heat. After lunch and picking up a new bathing suit, we headed back to the house where me, Pat, Hayden, and Maggie literally spent the entire remainder of the day (and night) sipping margaritas and hanging out in the pool/hot tub.
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| [[ best g&t ever. pool time/hat time. ]] |
monday (6/18) :: day 3
We were going to get up in the morning and head for a Gondolla ride up into the hills, but the winds were too high and there was the threat of sand storms, so instead we cooked a delicious breakfast and lazed around in the pool once again. With as much work as me and Pat do paired with the fact that it is still low 60s and raining here in Oregon, nothing sounded better than hanging around a pool for a few days after all. Once the wind hit La Quinta sand storms started blowing in, so it was time to vacate the back yard. We decided to go out to a huge liquor store called Bevmo! and stock up on some goodies. We actually had to run in to the store from the parking lot because of the storm, it was pretty insane. Also, liquor in California is extremely cheap compared to Oregon, about half the price in fact, so we bought nothing but the good stuff. Once we got back to the house the storm had died down and me and Pat decided to take out my Nikon and the golf cart to explore the area a bit (their house is on a Golf Course). I took a bunch of shots, which I will post tomorrow. For dinner we had some home cooked salmon which was delicious, but ended up calling it a night fairly early to get some sleep and prepare for Joshua Tree which we had planned for the morning.
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| [[ yummy breakfast: runny egg, english muffin, tomato, lox, and avocado. ]] |
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| [[ our goodies. ]] |
tuesday (6/19) :: day 4
I will save our adventures in Joshua Tree National Park for its own post (or two) as I took hundreds of pictures, but here is a little preview for now...
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| [[ small preview of joshua tree national park. ]] |
We got back to the house sometime around 4 or 5 and were starving, as well as hot, and dusty from all of our exploring, so we made some quick fish tacos with leftovers from Sunday's dinner, hopped in the pool to cool off (and were somehow all freezing despite the 109 degree weather), showered and got dressed up for a fancy sushi dinner. The restaurant we went to was called Okura Robata and it was delicious. Hands down the best baked mussels I have ever had!!! After gorging outselves on all kinds of rolls we went to one of the weirdest... bars? I have ever been to. It was almost like a fancy hotel in size and decor, but turned out to be a country bar inside, line dancing and all, with an expansive garden outside and a very diverse crowd. Pat's mom seemed to think that Maggie, being from Germany, would enjoy seeing some line dancing... I felt a little culture shocked my self. Eventually we made it home and in to bed tired from our long day of hiking around in Joshua Tree and needing some sleep for our upcoming adventures on the second leg of our trip... which I will save for another post.
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| [[ tuesday dinner and drinks. ]] |
