Travelblog de Steve-O: Palm Springs and Joshua Tree

Those of you who use hotels.com know that if you sign up for their member rewards program, you get 1 night free for every 10 nights you stay. Prior to March 1^st, the value of that free night is up to $400. Starting March 1^st, the value of that free night will be the average of the prices paid for those 10 nights, so it seemed like a no-brainer that I needed to use my free night (a product of staying in hotels during internship and fellowship interviews) ASAP. I’d always heard good things about Palm Springs and have wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park for a long time. Best of all, the area is only two hours from my house. In the spirit of soaking up as much California as I can before moving to Denver later this year, I hit the road and ended up at The Riviera Resort & Spa this weekend. Suggestions for those who wish to do the same at some point in the future:

Check out the Palm Springs Museum of Art. There is an emphasis on modern and contemporary, but it definitely merits about an hour of your time, especially if you like Calder, photography, and glass.

If you enjoy eating bacon, stop at Cheeky’s for breakfast and go on a “bacon flight.” Flights vary from week to week. My flight consisted of applewood, jalapeño, maple vanilla, and dark chocolate.

Bypass Shields Date Farm and go to Oasis Date Farm. I’m not a fan of dates (the fruit, although judging by my love life, I must not be an aficionado of the hey-are-you-busy-Friday-night variety of dates either). They are too sweet and kind of grainy. However, I now love date shakes. Still super sweet, but when you puree and mix them up with vanilla ice cream, you’ve really got something special…at least with the Medjool variety. Oasis offers over a dozen varieties of dates. Sadly, they did not have any Latter-day Saint dates in stock. Okay, so now we’re back to my love life? Speaking of love lives…

…was anyone else confused by John Mayer’s recent interview in Rolling Stone, particularly the quote that likened a certain part of human anatomy to a Joshua Tree? If John is being totally honest with us, then it seems as though he is searching for intimacy with something dry and prickly that has an expansive national park named after it. John, please don’t forget to bring water with you on your special night…hydration is key here. Also, if you stop at the Cholla Cactus Garden and wish to use your hands to explore this particular wonderland, please have the good sense to wear protection. I observed another tourist get out of her car, walk over to a piece of cholla cactus that had fallen to the ground, pick it up with her bare hands, and bring it closer to her eyes for further inspection. Shortly thereafter, she started screaming in a language I didn’t understand and tried to shake it off. Bad luck, my tourist friend. Cholla is harder to shake than an obsessive groupie, right John? She then reached over with her other hand to pull the cholla free and, well, yeah.