EL PASEO

March 22, 2018

We had lunch with some friends from Renton at Tommy Bahama's in El Paseo. El Paseo is the expensive shopping district in Palm Desert. Its compared to Rodeo Drive in Hollywood.  Right now Fashion Week is going on. It is the largest Fashion Week held  outside of New York City. Only very expensive shops are here, Ralph Lauren, Mephisto, Saks Fifth Ave, Gucci and Tiffany's, plus many art galleries and restaurants. 

It is always interesting to people watch here. There is alot of outside artwork.

Sunrise from our RV Park

One of the reasons that Palm Springs has so much sunshine is that the clouds from the west coast just hang on the tops of the mountains  west of the area and rarely blow into Palm Springs

SUNNYLANDS, CAMP DAVID OF THE WEST

March 23, 2018

We toured the grounds of Sunnyland in Rancho Mirage. It is called the Camp David of the West because  many Presidents, leaders from other Countries, Cabinet members, Judges and the very rich have been here.  Even the Queens family has been to visit. It was built by The Annenbergs in 1965.  He and his wife are the only married couple that have been both Ambassadors. He was the Ambassador to the United Kingdom under Nixon, she was the Protocol Ambassador to Ronald Regan.  They made their money in publishing an real estate. Walter Annenberg started the TV guide and Seventeen magazine, among many others.  All the Presidents from Eisenhower to Clinton have stayed here. Many have held summits of foreign leaders here. Nixon came here directly from the White House when he resigned. Ronald Regan wrote speeches and spoke on his radio show from here.  Such amazing history.  

We only took a guided tour of the grounds.  Tickets for the house tour only go on sale on the 15th of the month for the following month and they sell out within hours. Will try next year to get those tickets. It is 200 acres of beauty, it also has it's own 9 hole golf course.

This is the entrance to the estate. The lucky people you see are on the house tour.  They built the Mexican Column in 1968 to welcome everyone

The Birds of Welcome were built in 1971. They saw these in Japan and wanted a replica for the grounds

This is the view of the backside of the home. Looks smaller than it really was.

There are 11 lakes on the property

View of the golf course

The 2 palm trees in the distance are the only ones on the grounds.  President Eisenhower was the very first visitor. He commented that it was strange to be in Palm Springs with no palm  trees on the estate. Mr. Annenberg was from the east coast and wanted the estate to remind them of one of their favorite paintings by Van Gogh, The Olive Garden.  That is why there are over 600 olive trees on the grounds.  Eisenhower still thought it was strange, so he bought 2 palm trees for them.  This was in 1966

Because of the drought in the past several years, the grounds are only watered on the golf course and surrounding areas. The rest is left dormant

This totem pole was built in 1976

Another view of the golf course.

View of both of golf course and the areas that don't get watered.

This is called the Nixon Magnolia Tree.  Nixon gave the Annenbergs a cutting of the tree  in 1972 that was on the White House Grounds.  That tree was planted by Andrew Jackson in memory of his wife.  That tree was just cut down because of disease so this tree is the only one left from the days of Andrew Jackson. Quite a history of that tree.

View of the estate

GEOCACHING

March 18, 2018

As many of you know,  I started geocaching. It is an adult treasure hunt. You put coordinates into a GPS and try and find hidden treasures. It started in 2001, with the headquarters in Seattle, WA. There are 6 million  hidden caches world wide with 2 million geocachers trying to find them, There is even one on the International Space Station. That is certainly one that I will never find. I started it to give us something to do on our travels and it takes us to places we would have never seen. Denny isn't as enthusiastic as I am about it, but he is really good at finding them. 

There are many varieties of cactus in the  desert. One of the worst is the cholla, with the nickname of the jumping cactus. You can't even get close to it and it seems to jump onto you.  When we were geocaching, I stepped on one.  Eventho my shoes had thick soles, I still felt it. The barbs are hooked on the end so you have to use a pliers to get them out.  It is even worse if you accidentally sit on one or just brush up against it.  Using your fingers won't get them out at all.  OUCH!! 

Saw this house while we were geocaching. They certainly didn't have to adhere to any color codes in the desert. Notice the purple gate in front. The back of the house is painted that color. Very cheerful!!

UNIQUE RV'S

MARCH 18, 2018

On our travels thru the years, we have seen many unique RV'S. Some are very large, others, very small.  The largest we have seen is 45' with 6 slides.  Our's is 36' with 4 slides. Here are a few we have seen lately in the very small category. Can't imagine living in one, even for just a few days or a weekend.

We saw a guy over 6' tall get out of this one. Can't quite imagine him inside.

THE MOVIE COLONY

March 16, 2017

 I did another very touristy thing a few days ago.I went on another guided tour in Palm Springs of the Movie Colony. This is an area where alot of movie stars of old used to live. Interesting, but tiring. It was almost 3 hours long.

This is Frank Sinatra's home. He had it built in 1947. He would raise a Jack Daniels flag up the pole to alert his neighbors to come over for a party.  He moved to Rancho Mirage in 1969  til he passed away.  

This is the home of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. It is now owned by the lady in the driveway.

This is Jack Benny's home. Notice the B on the gate. 

This was Clark Gable's home. 

Notice the mailbox is a copy of the home.

This property is called the Christmas House. During Christmas, the house and grounds are decorated in lights with music. We have friends that went there. You walk around all the grounds. Its owner is  an artist that uses material picked up from everywhere and makes it into art.  Amazing to see. I don't think I would want to live across the street from him during the holidays. Streets are congested with traffic. 

Another unique mailbox

Typical homes in the neighborhood

WEATHER CAN'T MAKE UP IT'S MIND

February 15, 2017

Since we have been in this area,  we have had weather of all kinds, hot, cold, windy, rainy, cloudy and a sky with no clouds with a vibrant blue color.  One day it was 88 degrees, I had on a tank top and flip flops. The next, chilly and rainy. It has rained quite a bit since we have been here. It is always windy here, but in the last month, we have had stronger winds and more often than usual. One always expects it be a little windy here, but we have had gusts of 25 to 40 MPH quite often.  Right now, the gusts are probably 20MPH, but that's not stopping us from going out.  I think of the wind, like I think of the rain in Seattle. If you let the rain stop you in Seattle from  going anywhere, you would never get out. That's exactly like the wind here,  it can't stop you or you would never see anything.

The day after it was 88 degrees here, we went out with some friends for dinner to a hotel with a  mineral springs spa. Desert Hot Springs, which is north of Palm Springs, has mineral spa's. The water from the springs coming out of the ground is  so hot sometimes it has to be cooled to use.  Lots of people swear by them to help with arthritis and other ailments. I took this picture from inside the restaurant looking out at the spa's. The parents were looking on at the kids in the spa, but as you can see, they were wrapped in blankets to keep warm. A tad chilly for me to be out there.

There are several hotels with mineral spas  in Desert Hot Springs. Some for the very rich. There is one here that costs $8000 per night. Oprah Winfrey was part owner. She tried to petition the city to put in a helicopter pad so clients wouldn't have to drive from the Palm Springs airport to the spa. It is probably a 15 minute drive, if that. They turned her down. Poor rich people have to drive, oh no!  I have a friend that went to one where she saw Goldie Hawn in the elevator.  She lives in Palm Springs. Mineral Springs are a huge draw in this area.  They aren't in Palm Springs, only Desert Hot Springs. 

Denny and I had a late lunch one day in Palm Desert.  We were sitting on the patio and saw this sign. It gave us a chuckle that it's okay to smoke  at night.  I don't why there should be a difference between  night and day.  Night should still have the 25' rule. 

I was having lunch with my friend, Linda, and we ordered a sandwich. Luckily we split it. Can't imagine eating an entire one. Even then, we each took home leftovers. It was hard to even figure out how to eat it, it was so big.

It sounds like all we do is eat out, but that certainly isn't the case. 😂

PALM SPRINGS

March 4, 2017

We finally came to Palm Springs on Feb 17th. Palm Springs is our favorite place in all of our travels. We usually spend 2.5 or 3 months here, but we re doing something different this year. We are staying here 6 weeks, then going to Parhump, NV. It us about 60 miles southwest of Las Vegas. We like to see new places and we have never been there, so off we go.

Last week we did a vert typical touristy thing  in Palm Springs. We took a walking historical tour of Old Palm Springs. It was very interesting to her about how the area was settled and the history. We saw several locations that we had never seen. It gave us a real look into how things used to be. We heard about several feisty woman settlers that helped shape the town. Loved hearing that! They wore PANTS, unheard of in those days. 

This is the oldest home built in Palm Springs in the early 1800's.  A doctor settled here from Boston for the dry climate to treat his son's tuberculosis. This is the man that started it all. 

Typical views around old Palm Springs.  

Denny sitting with Sony Bono. After his singing career with Cher, he got involved in politics and became mayor of Palm Springs.  Our guide was on the City Council when Sony became mayor. He was so naive about the job that he thought it was a 2 yr term instead of 4. He didn't really accomplish much, but did bring in the International Film Festival. 

They loved their dogs so much, they built these water bowls for them all over the city