John and I had some SWA credits to burn (thanks Yapta), so we decided to hit Palm Springs in southern California for the weekend. We flew into Ontario airport for the first time ever… I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but as soon as we landed, I knew this was no swanky John Wayne Airport. Ontario is in the middle of “badlands” as John calls it: the surrounding area is very industrial, with lots of distribution warehouses, trucking stations, fuel storage facilities, etc.
We arrived a bit before noon, and the sky was cloudy and overcast. The heat wasn’t too bad really– in the 80s maybe? We climbed into our rental (we got upgraded to the Nissan Maximia– woot, woot!) and started heading east.
The drive to PSP was relatively easy. We started off on 60E, which was just a state route, but damn, it was still 4 lanes wide. Then, we switched over to Interstate 10, a serious highway with lots of slow-bos (old people) and speed demons (young people). Interesting mix of drivers on the road.
Once in town, we hit up Sherman’s Deli and grabbed a table outside next to the misters. We had seen misters before in Arizona… so very deluxe!! Lunch was delicious (John had a Ruben sandwich the size of a volleyball), and then we just walked around some of the shops. The heat was pretty fucking intense, and I could tell looking at John that this was going to be a problem.
After burning up from our walk, we sought refuge at the downtown Hyatt. That’s my MO… I take advantage of fancy hotel lobbies to just chill out, freshen up, use the restroom, etc. Even if I’m not staying there. The Hyatt had a super cool gallery of celeb portraits taken during the Palm Springs Film Festival. The photos were so detailed and well done. I didn’t know PSP had such a big Hollywood connection, but apparently it’s the destination for entertainers.
After we cooled down, we hopped back in the car and drove to our hotel. Yeah, I’d spent several days on and off researching lodging… in the end, I settled on the Holiday Inn Express, and I’m happy with it. You see, boutique spots are the thing in PSP, but I dunno. We just aren’t always fans of the smaller, mom and pop hotels. Plus, some had a nude pool policy that made me nervous. 😛 Oh well, we kinda prefer the consistency of the bigger multinationals.
For dinner, we headed out to Pacifica Seafood in some swanky shopping district alongisde El Paseo. The bar was hopping, and there was even a wait, which we didn’t expect at all. When something finally opened up, it was a table for four. We took our seats, but then we felt a little guilty about the two empty seats, so we did something that we have NEVER done before. And the most significant thing about this is that it was John’s idea. Yeah, I thought it, but I just assumed little unabomber would not be keen. Well, whatyda know? He suggested it, and I moved fast. We invited the couple behind us in line to join. They agreed. We did brief introductions and handshakes, and then just kind of carried on our own separate conversations, but slowly, we started crossing over, talking to them as well. Long story short, we had a great conversation with the couple from Alberta, Canada. Turns out, the lady used to run her own sales and marketing training/coaching business, and she knows about that leadership guy I follow, John Maxwell!! She and her hubby are both entrepreneurs, so they were also really interested to learn about John and his startup. At the end of everything, they treated us to our dinner!!! I mean, as someone who has NEVER had a stranger buy me a drink or anything, this was huge!! I was thrilled, and really, on top of that, they were just so nice. It was like another “flight with L” moment, you know? Complete strangers meeting in some chance encounter and totally hitting it off! And to have John be in on part of that experience was even better. We swapped contact info, and now I’m connected via LinkedIn too. And I told them to buzz us anytime they were in the Bay Area, and of course, Alberta is on my travel list, so I plan on buzzing them once I finally make it to Calgary and Banff. 🙂 Afterwards, on our drive home, John commented that I got such a high from the evening. He could see I was beaming, as if somehow my faith in humanity was restored. How right he is. I really do love when shit like that happens.
The rest of the trip was short and fast but good. We got up early on Saturday morning to hit up Joshua Tree National Park. Holy crap, that desert heat is something else. We did a short little 1.5-mile hike on the Hidden Valley Trail, and afterwards, we were so beat. We did a little bit of exploring, spent a morning at the hotel pool, and also started our couple’s “visionquest.” Yeah, I had some worksheets to help prompt us to think about our values and our future. It was a touchy exercise– John really doesn’t like to think about such things, but we made a little bit of progress, and he was a good sport. It’s just an ongoing process… First thing’s first though: we need to definitely start re-introducing activities that bring us joy into our daily lives. Bottom line.
We flew out Sunday evening after an entire day in the heat. Seriously, the temp hit 90 by 10 a.m. By lunch time, I’d been downing bucketloads of water, but I started getting all lightheaded over lunch, like I had trouble holding a conversation with Bubbey (mild heat stroke maybe??). We had to hit the mall so I could cool off. It’s pretty funny though, because we started off the day thinking, yeah, we could definitely live here: it’s so clean and manicured, and everyone has a frickin’ pool. But shit, by the end of Sunday, we were ready to eject and be back in the Silicon Valley bubble. Wow man, 108 deg is just too damn hot. For realz. Maybe next time we ought to try PSP in the winter.
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