Just a few photos from the birthday trip to Palm Springs

Going to the desert in the middle of summer is probably not the best decision – it stayed in the 100′s the entire time we were there. But since several of my favorite bloggers had made posts about it in recent months, I really just needed to see what all the fuss was about.

Where we Stayed:
The Saguaro Hotel – A colorful hotel with a great pool and decent location.  About a mile from downtown – but near the ACE and a lot of really lovely little spots. 

What we Ate: 
Date shakes and lots of snacks at Hadleys Fruit stand in Cabazon on the way in to Palm Springs. Personally I wasn’t blown over by the Date Shakes, but I LOVED the dried fruit and veggies and nuts

Absolutely delicious brunch at Cheeky’s – perfect iced coffee, cute outdoor seating and beautiful art

Sweet little hippie meal at Nature’s Health Food cafe – love vegan options and I had a great red bean taco and a smoothie

There were tons of ice cream and candy shops downtown.  We stopped in a few while shopping during the Thursday evening Market.

What we Did:
Of course we had to stop and see the Cabazon Dinosaurs and take some photos

We took the Aerial Tram up to the mountains and hiked around. I highly recommend this excursion, but wear decent shoes and bring some water. The shortest hike is about 2 miles and I was totally unprepared.  It is $25 to go up and honestly it’s completely terrifying to travel 9,000 ft by tram, but once you’re up – it’s totally gorgeous and about 30 degrees cooler than it was in the desert.

A visit to the Palm Springs Art Museum is a MUST. Absolutely lovely collection of modern art and we had the pleasure of enjoying a contemporary woodwind quartet while we were there. It was one of my favorite museum experiences ever

And I’m obsessed with succulents, so we had to make a stop at the Moorten Botanical Garden. I was amazed by how many different types of cacti they had. However, it was too hot to enjoy it too much – my fault for going in the middle of the day.

Overall the trip was wonderful, but off-season when it is over 100 degrees the entire time was not super pleasant.  Even the pool was too hot to enjoy a dip in.  And shopping wasn’t happening either because it was too hot to even walk around from store to store.  NEXT TIME there will be a lot more shopping and hiking.