Growing up in Southern California, Palm Springs has been a constant in my life.  My mom and dad actually honeymooned in Palm Springs in the 50's.  When we were kids, we had a condo there where we used to go for a week or two every summer.  Now, summer is the dead season in Palm Springs because it's soooooo hot.  Every year, lots of businesses would shut down for the summer simply because tourists wouldn't come when it was so hot.  We would always go out for Mexican food, go the ice skating rink in the mall and then stay inside after the first few days and only go out in the evenings.  When I was in college in the 80s, Palm Springs was a hot spring break destination, but I never went for spring break.  Sometime after that, the town seems to have gone out of favor, but recently with the popularity of music festivals, the area seems to be booming again, and several of the older hotels in town are going through facelifts.  The old gems are trendy again.

I got the bug to go for a vacation when I had to drive in for a meeting one day in rainy February of 2011.  A few months later, the hub and I took a drive and spent the day driving around the city deciding to come back for some R&R as soon as we had a chance.


Then a whole year went by, and finally we decided to spend our anniversary in Palm Springs last August.  We stayed at the Colony Palms Hotel and didn't budge from the property the entire time we were there.  We basically camped out at the pool which is centrally located in the middle of the property and is surrounded by glorious landscaping and misters.  The Purple Palm restaurant opens onto the pool and the inside-outside bar has seating in the pool enclosure as well.


In keeping with my childhood tradition, we had Mexican food in town but for lunch before we checked into the hotel.


Everything we needed was on the property including the spa where we both had a facial and a massage.  This was the first vacation where I actually relaxed in almost twenty years.  I did nothing except sit, drink, read, eat and sleep.

I had so much time to think, I probably made the decision to leave my job that week even though it didn't happen for six months.