Day 1: The Day started off like any other day in Palm Springs: Beautiful blue sky, the soft whisper of clouds floating above, the rugged mountains of San Jacinto making their presence known, and me 2 hours late. I recently made the mistake of purchasing a house in Palm Springs. Not making a mistake purchasing the house, but making the mistake of thinking I can complete the repairs myself. Why pay a contractor $75 to install a lock, how hard can that be? The answer: not hard at all. But when you have to install five of them, then things start getting a little tricky. And what happens when that lock on the fourth door is already suffering from water damage so the screws strip as you try to mount the lock? And this door swings outward, the other door swings inward, so now the locks are reversed. You get the picture, homeowner nightmare.
But either way, it’s a beautiful day. So let’s enjoy this Palm Springs lifestyle and get cracking on the door locks, painting the garage door, installing the new sprinkler timer, cutting the back lawn, trimming the hedges, Oh forget it. I fixed two things on the house before I look up and notice the awesome sunset behind San Jacinto mountain. I grab my phone, and realized in the past three hours I’ve installed the locks, trim the hedges, and now I’m cutting the grass as darkness approaches. Fortunately, I’ve already planned on two days worth of work, so let’s head to the hotel for our one evening stay. We're doing one night at the Hyatt Palm Springs, for free, thanks to points on the Hyatt card. Remember when I told you about Pimpin Your Credit Cards? Well this is one of those cases where it comes into play. The Chase Hyatt provided us with two free nights at the incredible Park Hyatt Paris. And then we had two free nights at the incredible Park Hyatt Milan, and now, we’re staying at the almost as incredible Hyatt Palm Springs. Awesome! When we check into the hotel, the front desk says something about executive suite. Executive suite? I flinch, but keep my cool, I’m not saying nothing.We head up to the room and upon opening the door, we arrive at our circa 1972 Executive Suite.
A huge living room welcomes us, with a dining table separate bar area in the separate bedroom and bath. I thought I saw the ghost of Dean Martin whipping up a quick martini. This is cool. Upon closer inspection, the Pink Sand Stone marble tile in the bathroom goes all the way up the wall and encompasses the floor, the top surrounding of the wall and the counter-top. Wow, that’s a lot of pink tile! But hey, I’m not complaining. We get changed to head over make our 8 o’clock reservation for Spencer’s. Spencer's is one of those old-school Palm Springs restaurants. 
What makes a Palm Springs restaurant? Classic American fare, outdoor seating under trees in the dining area, and golfers! You can just imagine stars from the 60s hanging out here on a quiet Palm Springs evening. Casual and relaxed. Palm Springs is always been a quiet little golf and tennis town, isolated, a get-away for the LA rich and famous. Palm Springs in the 60's was the Hearst Castle of the 20's. We sit down for dinner, which was tasty, but the winner once again for me, was the banana coconut banana cream pie at the end. Yum Yum Yum!, With two torched bananas, I haven't seen this layout in a while. I sit back, look up the tree, take in the beautiful weather, and begin dreading the fact that the next day will be full day of working on the house. Why can't everyday be like this? I'm ready to retire now. What if I gotten myself into?
Day 2: What is that elephant on the wall? We wake up and Nancy calls her friends David and Francis to see if they’re in town, and David is. We all head to the Ace Hotel for breakfast today before digging and mowing. this is one of the new hotspots for the younger hipsters. Who else needs a Photo Booth in the bar lobby? Fun kids crowd the place. It's hard to tell who's a local and who's visiting. Even the kids with German accents are from West Hollywood. Breakfast was not as interesting as the building itself. could have used a little more flare, but a solid meal to start the day. And what a day. Six hours later, the 1/3 acre backyard is cut, trimmed and seeded. 2 trees have been cut down, all locks are finished, and half of the front shrubbery has been removed. Oh boy! 2 trees still stand, the other half of the shrub needs to go, the benda-border is not laid out and the branches need to be loaded for hauling. Crap...we need to stay another night! I call Hyatt and they are sold out tonight, oh no. We call David, they have guests coming to stay, arriving by 9:00p. Oh brother, what to do? I call Hyatt back, seems they have room at the Indian Wells location for only 20k points, but 20 mins away. Oh well, we book it, and start to head over. David calls and suggests that since we're staying another night, let do dinner at Birba. OK, see there by 7:00. We say we're heading to The Wells to check-in, "Oh just shower here, and Birba's right down the street."
We swing by to pick up David, shower up and head to Birba, just 3 minutes away. Could have walked actually. We have Chloe with us, so good thing everyone here is so dog friendly. Birba is a nice little secluded outdoor patio filled with overarching magnolia trees . The place is full with hipsters, young and old, girl groups, and real estate professionals. You can tell the real estate professionals, they’re the ones who walk in on their phone, sit down on their phone, eat on their phone, and leave on their phone.
The bruschetta arrives, and I’ve never seen tomatoes so red. My first thought is this has to be enhanced, but at first bite, the tenderness and sweetness leads me to believe that this is some local farmer market, organically grown, pioneering farmland that supplies these tomatoes on a daily basis. Plump and juicy, I even began eating the tomatoes without the bread. This makes me wonder why I settled for a simple pizza as my main entrée rather than following up with the other more exotic dishes on the menu. Oh well, the Modern Times amber beer goes down smooth, so I'm good to go. Afterwards, we drop David and he invites us in for another beer. We start talking on the back patio, what the hell,m a quick dip in the pool under the full moon. And this is the Palm Springs life.
We head back to Indian Wells, and trek along Hwy 111 to get there. Interesting, going from Palm Springs, through Cathedral City to Rancho Mirage, past Palm Desert to get to Indian Wells. Seeing the sights, the art deco landmarks of The Springs, the strip malls of Cathedral, the mega malls of Rancho and the emptiness of Palm Desert. Then you hit the luxury spot of Indian Wells, and this ought to be nice. And it is. It's located right around the corner from Indian Wells tennis center where the annual BNP Paribas Indian Wells Classic is held. The room is nicely appointed. A sunken living room reminds me of the Venetian/Palazzo setup in Vegas. But not as ornate. Very relaxing, and a small balcony off the room allows for some "me time" as we finish our bottle of wine and stare at the stars.
Day 3: David calls and Francis made it in, so let's meet for brunch at
Lulu California Bistro. And I love it when the title of the restaurant is a snazzy as the deco of the restaurant. Colorful walls, ceilings, chairs and flooring greet you and instantly transport us to happy time. Never mind be the nagging feeling that I still have so much work to do on this house, but forget it all, I'm heading home today regardless. Nancy orders a big sweet salad, I man up and get the half rack of ribs. Both were awesomely yummy, very tasty, and a lot of fun to eat in such a lively vibrant place. The weather is perfect and we are sitting just 2 tables rows from the sidewalk, so we get that warm Palm Springs breeze blowing in, it’s a beautiful day, let’s go shopping! Cabazon Outlets is for sure on the trail this time. interesting thing, in Milan, we were told to hit the outlets to get some great deals on our fashionables. Will we got there, they were the same stores as the US! But 10% higher! Go figure.
Before heading to the house I decide to make a couple of quick run to return some items to Home Depot. I head down some street, make a wrong turn and come across Hotel California. My immediate thought is of the Eagles and I look up for the woman in the room in the window, and then I quickly realize this ain’t the Eagles hotel. It’s just a more rustic cowboy look to it. And then next door is the InINN. This place has the most interesting door front and all the Palm Springs, something between some mid evil and Middle Eastern temple. I snap a couple shots drive down the street and realized I made a wrong turn on a one-way street and took the long way to Home Depot. We wind up driving 2 miles to get 2 blocks from our house. Why did I just do this last night, oh well. We return the items, dig up some shrubs, and since it’s still early in the afternoon, let’s go have some more fun and head over to the outlet center. Hooray! what a wild couple of days.
