Venturing Out

On a whim we made an overnight trip to Palm Springs. We’d never been, and we wanted to explore someplace new.



Discovery number one was that we’d been cyber-duped. Our hotel was the homely cousin of its online description. First item of business was to negotiate a room with something more appealing than a panoramic view of parked cars. Outside the lobby we met a woman with two boys who was facing the same problem. “This isn’t at all what we were expecting,” the woman lamented. Unfortunately for them, we snagged the last room overlooking the pool.



As we settled into our new room, the kids amused themselves by making sarcastic remarks:

“Is there such a thing as a six star hotel? Because if there is, this would be one of them!”

“Hey, Mom, this town looks just like home. You could’ve driven one hour up and one hour back and just told us we were in Palm Springs.”

My husband said, “Relax, guys. We’ll start having fun in a minute.” That made us all laugh, because he’s usually the first one trying to convince us we are having fun, even if we’re not.



Picking a restaurant for dinner in unfamiliar territory is also tricky. We wanted affordable, but decent. We spotted a crowded parking lot - possibly a good sign. Fingers crossed, we hoped for something trendy. Instead we found artificial flowers and early bird specials. This eatery was as far away from trendy as a mushroom is to the moon.

Still, it was affordable. The food was decent. Two out of three isn’t bad. We got our fill of trendy by strolling downtown and browsing in upscale shops.



The highlight of the trip was hiking in the Indian Canyons. As you can see from the pictures, the scenery is awe-inspiring. But the most exciting part was when a wasp flew into the car window and disappeared somewhere inside the roof of the car. We plugged up all the obvious entryways and hoped it would be dead by the time we returned from our hike.



As we drove back to the main road, I heard shrieks from the back seat followed by a *thwack!* against the window. Upon the wasp’s reappearance, my daughter had instinctively hurled a backpack in its direction. The car screeched to a halt; four people plus one wasp made an emergency exit. The people in the oncoming car (which fortunately stopped) look puzzled by our synchronized leaping and hopping.



Despite the shortcomings, or maybe because of them, we had a blast. Before we checked out of the hotel, I noticed a family arriving. A pouty teen-aged girl led the group, arms crossed. “But this place isn’t anything like it looked online.”

And the dad behind her pleading, “Well, the pool looks all right. C’mon, it’ll be fun.”