The last two days have been quite busy. Wednesday not too bad, we took a trip to the Oasis Date Gardens. A few days earlier when we went to do our laundry we stopped in at the Indio Chamber of Commerce. Amariah was nice enough to provide us with two coupons for free date shakes at the ODG. It is about 20 mins north of us between Mecca and Coachella. Very nice stop - great gift shop. We shared a cheeseburger was very good - under the palms. Then enjoyed our date shakes immensely - way better than they sound - didn't taste like dates at all. Even Derek was sampling the free samples and of course we had to take the a box of the chocolate covered ones with us. Sorry about the flower photos - can't help ourselves.
Yesterday, as mentioned, we headed out to Palm Springs. From Salton Sea Rec area we took the 111 to PS. This road goes through all the urban built up area from Coachella to PS - through Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Cathedral City. A very busy road. If only we could show all of you what it was like - beautiful! Lots and lots of palm trees, flowers, lawns - very ritzy after Indio. It smelled just like summer.
With frazzled nerves due to the stop and start traffic we pulled into a Starbucks to get a coffee and rest a bit just before Palm Springs. Low and behold I spot a Trader Joe's grocery store which I had seen on the internet during my research. What a find! If you ever have a chance go to one do it! The items are great and really good prices. Derek and I decided to buy lunch there - among many other things. We decided to also get dessert because we spotted one of Derek's favourite items as a kid - frozen chocolate bananas - unfortunately there was 4 in the box so we had to eat 2 each - what a bummer!! :)
Rested, we headed back into the traffic onto PS. First stop was the building where Derek's friend had a business. We asked around but the shop has been closed for 7 months and no one knows where he went - so we did not find Derek's long lost friend.
We headed next to the Visitor's Center on the west side of PS close to the road up to the tramway. We were going to go up in the tram until we found out that it costs $21.95 each - a bit steep so we passed. Instead we headed downtown to stroll Palm Canyon Drive - the 'strip' in PS. Thankfully we found a parking spot really close and in the shade! Have I told you how hot it is here yet - about 30c.
We strolled along looking at the shops - lot of fun - well for me anyway. Went into See's Candies as per the photo - this is one of the candy places I have looked at on the internet. So we haddddd to go in to do research of course - yummy. For a snack we went to Ruby's Diner - a 50's style restaurant. We enjoyed floats and frings (fries and onion rings) out on the patio.
Since we still had time to kill before Villagefest we continued our stroll. Along the way an older fellow who had stopped his van on the side of the street asked us when the evening festival started. As we were walking away after we told him what we knew I looked back to see that he had a Saskatchewan license plate! We turned back and spoke with him and his wife - also letting them know where to park. Nice couple from Moosimin staying in Desert Springs for the winter.
Villagefest was lots of fun - the Palm Canyon Drive is closed off from traffic for about 5 blocks and is filled with vendors - almost anything you can think of plus food and music. It is just packed. We enjoyed this for about an hour and since it was 7:00pm decided to head home.
After a close call to an accident on the interstate on the way home because of a really really bad driver we were happy to be back at our lake front site. The Palm Springs area is nice but we wouldn't want to live there or even visit again - once was enough.
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