98 Caramels: Spring Break part 2: Desert

Hello, Rancho Mirage! Our home for the rest of the week was the Westin Villas, a string of little terra cotta apartments lining a golf course. I was a little worried it would be too remote - last year our hotel was about a mile from downtown - but really the entire Palm Springs metropolitan area is one giant flat stretch of shopping centers, dotted with golf courses. It reminds me a lot of Florida, minus the mosquitos. Also, in terms of tourist agendas, our biggest decision each day was which pool to swim in.

Daddy also thought it would be fun to bring the scooters.

Great idea, Daddy!

They scooted around the fake stream in the center of the villas. They scooted along the edge of the golf course. They scooted to the parking lot every time we were getting in the car. They even scooted to the pool!

The pools were a lot of fun, and giant enough that the competition for chairs is a little less cutthroat then other resorts we've stayed at. There were usually other kids to play with, and if playmates were in short supply, the Westin helpfully sells - and inflates - a number of giant pool toys. Brennan picked out the "small" beach ball pictured below. (the large one was about 3 feet in diameter, so I appreciate his conservative taste) I have no idea what we are going to do with the event giant-er ridable dolphin that Lucie insisted on.

Also, there were water slides.

Lucie could ride this one by herself if she had a life vest. The other pool had a faster slide that required using a mat AND a partner for kids under 48 inches. It twisted around and shot riders out of a tunnel to splash down into a small pool. Do I sound like I know more about this water slide than a grown-up should? Do you have any guesses on who Lucie wanted to ride with her, until she felt brave enough to go down with her big brother?

Luckily, she felt brave enough pretty quickly, because we arrived right before a front rolled in, and temperatures dropped about 20 degrees, along with my interest in going down a water slide. Admittedly, 20 degrees cooler in Palm Springs is still fairly warm, at least during the day. But around 5 when the wind starts kicking up, outdoor time is not so fun. Particularly when the wind carries a bunch of desert sand and grit. The night we went to Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse, the walk from the parking lot felt a bit like:

Once inside, we discovered that the Japanese steakhouse schtick has not changed a bit since the 90's, Brennan will eat an entire salad if you put Japanese steakhouse ginger-soy dressing on it, and Daddy can catch at least two shrimp from the grill in his mouth.

The cooler weather meant we were willing to try things that would seem insane at 95° - like visit the Living Desert Zoo. Here the kids are posing with a hyena, which is that washed out lump on the washed out dirt behind them.

We paid a very reasonable $5 per person to ride this camel for about 2 minutes. Thankfully, neither kid had any interest in feeding the giraffes.

When real animals grew tiresome, there were pretend ones to ride.

Another thing to do when it's not a million degrees is get out and see the real desert. I managed to find a kid-friendly trail in Indian Canyons - just a 2 mile loop, not too steep. There was a little whining, but for the most part they were good hikers.