It had been three years since our first trip to Palm Springs, and Aimee had the great idea of making it our destination for a brief little pre-birthday weekend getaway for me. The last time we went, it was August and 115° out, and we didn’t really do much of anything. This time, it was much more pleasant, and we had a great time seeing the town, touring its neighborhoods full of interesting houses, eating at some great restaurants, and riding the tram up into the mountains.
We had an easy drive from L.A., and were sitting down to eat at Cheeky’s before ten a.m. After a very tasty breakfast (I had the benedict, but skipped the Bacon Flight; next time), we walked around town a bit, stopping in first at Ruddy’s General Store, a recreated 1930s general store with thousands of boxes, tins, cans, displays, and other assorted paraphernalia.
We were treated to the surprising vision that is the smoke-belching, bullet-deflecting Screaming Eagle as it passed through the streets of Palm Springs, as well.
After a mis-guided attempt to ride the tram up the mountain in the middle of the day on a Saturday (by the time we got there, the wait time was an hour and a half, with 700 people in line ahead of us), we decided to try again the next day, and drive around town instead. We stopped at the Tramway gas station visitors center and got our “Mid-Century Modern Map,” and began our drive around town. We had tried to see some of the houses for which Palm Springs is known last time we were here, but didn’t know about the map, and couldn’t find anyone in the shops we went in who knew what we were looking for. This time, we had success, with Aimee navigating us through the various neighborhoods and past some really beautiful, sleek, eye-catching homes and civic buildings:
We ended our drive at the Ace Hotel, where we checked in and had some snacks at the hotel’s Amigo Room bar. The place has a great vibe, and even though it’s massive — a former Howard Johnson’s with a former Denny’s for a restaurant — it fit in nicely with the other three Aces across the country, all of which I’ve now visited. We stayed at the Ace in Seattle in the summer of 2007, visited the lobby of the Ace in Portland over Thanksgiving of 2007, and I stopped by the Ace in New York last fall.
Aimee had made reservations for us at Copley’s (in the former Cary Grant estate, though there didn’t seem to be any information on the history of the place), where we had a pretty amazing dinner under the stars. Aimee saw a huge shooting star, and we enjoyed the meal, from the ahi taco appetizer to the chocolate bars and homemade peanut butter ice cream for dessert.
We returned to the Ace, listened to a little music in the Amigo Room, tried out their photobooth, and headed to bed. After an early breakfast at the King’s Highway Restaurant the next morning, we returned to the tram, and enjoyed a crowd-free trip up the mountain.
The tram ride was a great combination: an engineering marvel that also took us from the balmy desert up to an alpine meadow, affording amazing views of the surrounding country, in just a few minutes’ time. And not only was the tram car large and speedy, but it also rotated, as if you needed something else to distract you as you rode up into the clouds. We enjoyed the ride up, and had a great time wandering through the snowy meadow, surrounded by kids sledding, many of whom looked like they’d never seen snow before.
We spent an hour and a half or so up top, learned a little about the history of the tram, and then returned down the mountain, through a thick bank of fog.
From there, we headed on our way back towards Los Angeles. See the entire set of Palm Springs photos here.
As we did the last time we went to Palm Springs, we passed through the outlets again, where I picked up a new wallet, replacing the one I bought about ten years ago at Star Market on Boylston in the Fenway. I’m amazed a grocery store wallet lasted ten years, but it’s really falling apart now, so I’m happy to move on and go a little more square this time.
We decided to hit In-N-Out store number one in Baldwin Park for lunch on the way home; it turns out that the original store number one was torn down for freeway construction, and the one you can see from the freeway, the new old store number one, was built in 1954 and closed a few years ago. The new store number one is just down the block under the freeway, and shares a parking lot with In-N-Out University and the Company Store. I enjoyed my Cheeseburger animal style and fries, while Aimee had a grilled cheese. Their chocolate shake was fine, but was the least noteworthy part of the meal. Finding out where the location was and reading a little about its history spawned an investigation via Wikipedia that lasted the rest of the way home about the history and growth of America’s fast food restaurants. Fascinating stuff, especially the little nuggets like the fact that a dozen Wendy’s stores around country continued to offer breakfast over the last 20 years, even though the national organization had given up on its breakfast experiment.
Our trip to In-N-Out proved to have perfect timing, as Huell Howser visited the very same In-N-Out, a privilege the company hadn’t granted to any other TV crew, on last night’s California’s Gold. So, we watched the show with the taste of their fries still in our minds, and learned a lot about the storied company. I should have stopped there and not watched any part of the dreadful Grammys, but oh well. It’s February, the nominations come out tomorrow, and the marathon is next month. It’s about to get busy around here.
