Palm Springs!

Ryan had a conference in Rancho Mirage (a city within the Palm Springs umbrella) and I tagged along for what I thought was going to be a few days in the hot sun warmed desert. Too bad it turned out to be SUPER windy and pretty cold.

Making the best of it, we set out to check out the sights of Palm Springs and take part of some of the conference's planned activities.

Tuesday morning, we drove into the historic part of Palm Springs, stopped for breakfast, and headed over to the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. $22.25 gets you a ticket for a 10 minute ride that begins at the Valley Station at 2,643 ft and stops at the mountain station at 8,516 ft above sea level.

Once at the top, we entered Mount San Jacinto State Park and checked out the views and walked part of some of the trails.

(The start...the parking lot)

(Half way up...here is a view of the other tram going down)

(Its a lot colder at the top! It was 41 degrees!)

(The new tram car with the rotating floor that was installed in 2001)

(The original tram car that was installed when it opened in 1963)

Leaving the tramway, we headed back to the hotel, stopped for lunch, and made it back in time to catch the start of our windfarm tour.

(Me, the wind, and some wind turbines)

Wednesday afternoon...the wind hadn't let down AT ALL. If anything, I think it got worse. Of course, that's the day of our Jeep Tour of the San Andreas Fault. The Jeeps picked us up at the hotel and we rode them for the 30 minute (or so) ride out to the desert and faultline. Yes, it was SUPER windy and cold.

(Me at the bottom)

(Ryan at the top)

Easter Weekend in LA

I finally made it back out to LA!

I got to spend a few days with my cousin, her husband and their kids this past (Easter) weekend. We ate our way through some LA "favorites", checked out some of the tourist hotspots, and just lounged around as well.

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early and started my cross country trek from the Orlando airport to the Ontario (California, not Canada) airport. After an unexpected stopover in Albequerque, I made it to Phoenix for a layover and then was off to CA.

Shou Jeh Jeh (my cousin) picked me up and we headed back to her place. A quick stop off at her house and we were off to the mall. After our shopping trip, we headed back to pick up the rest of the family and headed off to a great dinner of Korean BBQ.

(Some of the tasty side dishes that came along with our meal.)

Dinner wouldn't be complete without dessert, so we stopped off at pinkberry on the way home. I have to admit that the yogurt out in LA tastes a lot better than the yogurt shops I've tried in FL. Completely jealous! If I lived out there, I'd be eating this stuff daily!!!
No one was really sure of our Sunday plans. Shou Jeh Jeh had wanted to go check out the Carlsbad Flower Fields but the kids weren't very interested. We thought about going to Santa Monica or Huntington Beach, but ultimately ended up with a plan to go and check out Hollywood.

First though, lunch. Myles had seen Philippes on an episode of Man vs Food and we thought we'd go check it out. They claim to be the ones who invented the French Dip sandwich.

We all decided that while the sandwich was good, it wasn't as good as Adam made it out to be on the show. Looks like we'll have to take Adam's reaction to all the food he eats with a grain of salt. It wasn't THAT great of a sandwich ;)

Next up, Hollywood! The Kodak Theater, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and the Avenue of the Stars.

(This would never happen at Disney's MGM/Hollywood Studios...Shrek out of costume!)

(The Kodak Theater lists out the Best Picture winner for each year.)

Leaving Hollywood, we picked up a map of the star's houses. We were going to go find the celebrity houses, but seems that they like to live far away from Hollywood and the drive was a bit too far for us.

Instead, we decided to do some more shopping. We were off to the Grove and to check out the Farmer's Market.

Leaving the Grove, we then made our way over to Pink's Hot Dogs. What a line.

(If you look really closely, you can see Myles and his dad in line...they're directly to the left of the street lamp)

An hour later, we had 2 Stretch Chili Cheese Dogs (Myles had no mustard or onions on his), 1 Mild Polish Sausage Chili Cheese Dog, fries, a slice of marble cake and a Bubble Up soda.

Stuffed, we headed home to veg out on the couch. Other festivities for the day included an Easter Egg Hunt, dinner at a Chinese restaurant and more TV watching.

Monday, the kids were back to school...spring break was over. Shou Jeh Jeh and I headed off to Orange County and checked out a mall there. Talk about name brand shops. Looking for bags and shoes all afternoon, I ended up with a pair :) After lunch and some more shopping, we headed home to have dinner at home and then made one last dessert trip for some yogurt!

After all that, it was time to say goodbye! Hope to make it back out there again soon though!!! :)