Palm Springs for a weekend

My Uncle Jim used to live in Scappoose, Oregon, just outside of Portland. His husband Tom used to live in Vancouver, Washington, just on the other side of the river from Portland. They have given up on the Pacific Northwest except for visits, and now live in Southern California in Rancho Mirage, a suburb of Palm Springs. They invited us to visit, and we accepted their offer a couple weeks ago.

We asked them, “In this tiny man-made lake, what do you do with your boat?” They said that everyone with a boat just takes them around the little lake to say hi to anyone outside, and sometimes they meet neighbors for drinks at their patios, then boat on home. That sounds like a real life of leisure.

It was such a comfortable place that I was sad we had planned so many adventures, because I would have enjoyed staying right exactly here for the entire three days. There is a pool on the side that Pedro and I swam in on our last day, Sunday. Our room was perfect with its own bathroom and away from the house. The neighborhood is gated, and quiet, and pretty much a sanctuary from the world. Tom and Jim both appreciate landscaping and gardening, and Tom took delight in showing off his favourite desert plants around the property. (The plants inside the inner courtyard above look off peak right now because their water got somehow turned off when the Uncles were away on vacation. Luckily no plants died.)

We arrived Friday afternoon and rode the Aerial Tram, that I already blogged about. After the tram, the Uncles gave us a quick tour of downtown Palm Springs, which neither Pedro or I had ever seen. It’s a pretty place and seems to have a robust night life, and so much wonderful art. We walked through the warm night, seeing the shops and museums and parks.

On Saturday, we drove to nearby Joshua Tree National Park and explored there (that will be the next post).

Saturday night we went to a free concert at a nearby casino managed by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. This land is Cahuilla land as long as there have been stories, and only recently have non-Native people moved in. Native reservations are sovereign nations within the United States. In the US, casinos are mostly illegal. But on reservations, they do not have to follow this law, so many tribes use casinos as a way to make money. People love to gamble, and so they go to the reservation and spend their money!

We spent our money at the reservation like everyone else. We bought ice cream, ordered beers and chatted, and stopped at the chocolate shop, and ate dinner, and we also gambled. All of this because of a free concert. Those Indians… they are pretty smart. ;o)

We had fun at the outdoor concert. By the time we finished dinner, the temperature was acceptable. Both bands were pretty good. The lead singer of Queen Nation could not quite match Freddie Mercury’s range, but then, that’s a lot to ask. Pedro loves Queen, and Tom loves Queen, so it was a good decision to go to the show. Jim wasn’t as excited, but he is a good man to support the rest of us.

Also! It was the Uncles’ birthday. CAN YOU BELIEVE that they have the exact same birthday on the exact same year? It’s just amazing. Their funny meet story: They decided they liked each other, and Tom gave Jim his phone number. Jim says, “Oh hey, this number is my birthday!” “No, it isn’t,” said Tom. “It’s my birthday. My phone number is MY birthday.” …and that’s how they found out they have the exact same birthday. Cute as heck.

The next morning was Mother’s Day and I had originally asked to go to brunch, and Jim had made reservations and I’m sure it would have been perfect. But everyone was exhausted. I asked if we could just hang around instead. Everyone cheered. Pedro and I went swimming in their pool. It was a better Mother’s Day present than eating more fancy meals. We had leftover birthday ice cream cake instead of brunch.

The return trip home was a fiasco. I think it’s a sign of the times, Straight of Hormuz situation reducing flights due to expensive fuel, DOGE’d Air Traffic Controllers so they don’t have enough staff, poor economy in general. Not only were these the MOST EXPENSIVE tickets I have purchased in five years, but there were problems going both directions. Going home was worst.

San Francisco had to shut down a runway because they couldn’t staff it. This delayed our flight by three hours, which was almost ok because we had a 3.5 hour layover. So people sat around the Palm Springs airport and did nothing for three hours. After three very boring hours, they loaded us all onto the plane and THEN did a maintenance check, and found a problem that some debris had blown into the AC unit and so it wasn’t working. So we all sweated on board while they turned off the air (it was 105 degrees outside and we were inside a tin can) and the babies cried and we sat and sat. Then they fixed the AC and we got going and then 15 minutes into taxiing, the plane actually pulled over, and we stopped again. They had another mechanical problem, and we had to wait for maintenance to come out where we were, and fix it. And finally they got that fixed too. This damned plane had been sitting for three hours at the gate, completely ignored until it was filled with people. They could have done the maintenance checks THEN, when there was oodles of time, but no.

On arrival at San Francisco, we still had maaayyybbee time to catch our flight if we got off the plane and ran like the wind, but we could not approach the gate because there was not enough staff to lead the plane in. We sat for a full ten minutes, just waiting. But finally people showed up and we approached the gate. The flight attendants were wonderful. The fellow travelers on the plane were wonderful and stayed sat in their seats for the about 12 of us with tight connections to get off first. We ran like the wind. Anyway, we missed our flight. But thank the goddesses, there was one more bound for Portland, and it had two seats open, which we got. We didn’t land till 1am, but at least we were home.

I blame Dump for all of it.