Palm Springs has long been a haven for the powerful and famous, so we felt like it was the obvious place to spend the week. Seriously, though, Palm Springs is beautiful. It is a lush, tropically landscaped city with a combination of mid-century modern and Spanish architecture nestled within the backdrop of arid desert mountains. It developed fame because of its mineral spring oasis that provided some relief from the relentless southern California heat. Well, it was plenty hot and we certainly appreciated our little AirBnB condo‘s front and back porches as well as the gorgeous courtyard with pool, hot tub, and very curious hummingbirds.

We enjoyed the bicycle loop around the city, riding through the famous neighborhoods of gleaming mid-century modern homes with unbelievably artistic landscaping utilizing native desert plants. The neighborhoods went on for miles and each house was as unique and stunning as the last. As an appreciator of this type of design, I wished I could knock on every door and ask for a tour! I did head out for a solo hike on what I thought was a short and moderate trail out of the art museum parking lot. Thirty minutes, two times lost and almost all of my water later- I scrambled down that mountain as fast as I could. I returned to our condo beat red and jello-legged.. I was a little reassured to find I was on the “hard” trail but decided to keep my solo hiking adventures to more obvious routes.

We walked around the quaint downtown on Thursday evening as it was blocked off for a weekly art and music festival that included free entry to the art museum. We certainly enjoyed Palm Springs but had mixed feelings. We were encouraged by some of the water conservation projects, especially with no-grass lawns, that seemed to be developing. However, it is hard to appreciate all of the lush beauty without considering the cost to the Colorado River and surrounding environment. We refer to this portion of the trip as the “the guilty pleasure”.