weekend in the desert

hills outside Rancho Mirage ~ downtown Palm Springs

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This weekend we enjoyed a last minute getaway to the desert. We rented a great mid-century Modern vacation home with a pool in Cathedral City. You won't find celebrities here, but they have a Starbucks and the location is perfect -- exactly halfway between the two places you want to be, Palm Springs and Palm Desert.
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What did we do? We rode the Palm Springs rotating aerial tram to the top of a mountain and hiked around. There were clouds so we weren't treated to the fantastic views of the desert floor below, but the scenery at the top was just as good. Absolutely beautiful and with temperatures near 65, it was a wonderful break from the heat down below (100-105 degrees every day). I enjoyed shopping on El Paseo (said to be the "Rodeo Drive" of the desert). M played golf one very warm afternoon for next to nothing. We dined on yummy BBQ and cool microbrews from a local brewery. We picked limes and other citrus fruits from the trees in the backyard and ate them. We woke to thunderstorms one morning. And we swam in our pool every chance we got.
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When we go on vacation, Thomas talks about the place where we stayed as "our place". We have that great little beach cabin in Oregon, a vacation home or two in Central Oregon and now we have a house in Palm Springs. He already wants to go back to "our Palm Springs house". And so do we because it's just a short 2 hour drive and there are some fun things to do there, many of which we didn't do but will next time!

the mid-century Modern we rented

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inside the house ~ swimming in the pool

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hiking at the top of the tram
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star walk in Palm Springs

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lots and lots of windmills