Weekend in Palm Springs, April, 2014

This April we drove down to Palm Springs for my cousin's daughter's wedding.  I love family weddings because it is such a happy occasion and  we can visit family.  Normally we wouldn't have seen these cousins in a long time, since they live in Northern California, but we got lucky because the older brother got married in November the wedding was also in Southern California.

We drove down Friday evening and stayed at the Travel Lodge off of Palm Springs Canyon South.  We loved the grounds because there was a huge grass area with tables with umbrellas and a huge pool area with a spa.

  After that we went to the visitor center to pick up a map that has all the mid-century modern houses on it. We had to pay $5.45 (with tax) for the map but it was worth it. The highlight was seeing the Kaufman house, designed by architect Richard Neutra, in 1946,and Frank Sinatra's house. There is a mid-century modern week in February that has tours that share all sorts of information about that time period.

 

Top row is the Kaufman-Neutra House, Bottom row is Frank Sinatra's House.

After driving around, we had lunch at Hamburger Mary's which is a long time institution in PS. 

After this Kurt took me back to the Travelodge where I read and took a quick nap.  He and Natalie went to a small Art/ Flea Market and got a card for the wedding.  We all took showers and got dressed for the wedding.  It was about 20 minutes away.

The wedding took place at the Cree Estate.  This is a quote from the estate's wedding website:

THE CREE ESTATE

This "Desert Oasis Estate" is located between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage. The property has two pools, a tennis court, and 68 palm trees within its gated walls. The Cree Estate was built in the 1930’s by developer Raymond Cree. The home has served as a “getaway” for guests ranging from celebrities wanting privacy to families having family reunions and weddings. The home offers over 2.5 acres of lush landscaped grounds. The backyard features two black-bottom pools, one that is one of the largest in the valley. The backyard area has a tennis court, waterfall, spa and swim-up bar in one of the pools.

You enter this large wood door to find a paradise hiding behind it.  There is a 

Spanish style house with grass, palm trees, and tons of desert flora and fauna.  Two days before the wedding there were ducklings abandoned on the tennis court.  My cousin's wife, instead of working out the last minute wedding details, was watching over the ducklings till the mom returned.  She was worried that hawks would get the babies.  Mom (and later dad duck) returned and all was fine.  The grounds were so beautiful.  I wanted to go swimming in this pool.  They had lights set up on the dance floor, that had a palm tree in the middle with palm trees and grass around it.  It was gorgeous!

The ceremony and reception was fun and touching.  Anne and Chris are a fun and loving couple.  It's so wonderful to see a couple much in love.  Anne's father, Arne, is my first cousin.  We went to Arne's son's wedding in November. Anne is with her younger sister, Christine, in the first picture.

They had lights set up on the dance floor, that had a palm tree in the middle with palm trees and grass around it.  It was gorgeous!

On Sunday morning we got to  try the pool out after eating our continental breakfast. The water was warm but not too warm that it was uncomfortable.  Natalie and I flopped around for an hour while Kurt watched TV in our room.  This pool is a plain Jane pool compared to the Cree's pool but we enjoyed it anyways.  It was so warm and relaxing that I wanted to stay in it forever.  We had to check out so we quickly went upstairs to shower, change and pack up to leave.

After we checked out we parked at the North end of Palm Springs and walked up and down Palm Canyon Drive.  We checked out great galleries and fun stores and even cooled off at the Hyatt Hotel.  Natalie was handing me very wet paper towels to cool me off.  She couldn't understand why I was sweating when it wasn't that hot.  I reminded her that it's all part of having an autoimmune disorder.  We drank some lemon water and orange water in the lobby.  We pretended that we stayed there.  I figured that we weren't hurting anyone and stopping from passing out from the heat.

We saw the Signature Gallery where we talked to the owner, Ryan Berit's dad and admired his son beautiful jewelry designs.  I want to go back and buy some of this jewelry that is with solid silver with different crystals.  We were amazed that the colors were natural.

We also went into the Nat Reed Gallery.  The pictures there reflect the Mid-Century time period perfectly.

This is called Fellow Traveler with watermark to see Original go Nat Reed.com

When we were walking back to our car my foot got stuck in the asfault where there was a ridge in  the road.  I ended up breaking a toe on my right foot.  I had a sprain all over my right shoulder and side and was pretty bruised up.  It took weeks for me to feel myself again.  For Mother's Day I got beautiful Clark Sandals that are better to walk in.  We had Chinese food for dinner and hit the road.

I told Natalie that there would be a surprise on the side of the road.  She finally saw the sign for the Cabazon Dinosaurs and was excited that we stopped to look at them.  There are 2 life size dinosaurs there.  One of them has a shop and the other one you have to pay to get into.  Of course we went in the free shop and didn't buy anything.

This was the perfect ending to a fast trip to Palm Springs.  I want to return to Palm Springs in the Fall when Kurt and I enjoy our 26th Anniversary.