Boxes, packing tape, packing paper is in every room of our house. Our furniture has been sold (we’re starting fresh and will buy new furniture to suit our mid-century house once we get to Spokane ). The kids are sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor. Clothes are strewn around the bedrooms in some sense of chaotic order, yes the dressers went too. With just the essentials left unpacked for our remaining 10 days, the house is beginning to not be a home but an open storage facility.
We need a break from our reality. Weeks ago, we made reservations at La Quinta Resort (www.laquintaresort.com), one of our favorite Palm Springs area resort destination with the kids. After the going away party, with emotions high, the kids need a break from the in-your-face reminder that we’re moving. We love La Quinta for the 1926 Spanish ranch style, built against the mountains you don’t feel like you’re in another hotel, large rooms to accommodate our brood, multiple pools and restaurants and beautifully groomed 45 acres.
Yesterday morning we headed to La Quinta for our final hurrah in the desert. We arrived in the area just in time for streets to be shut down for President Obama and Chinese President Xi and their multiple vehicle entourage to pass as they travelled to The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage. The kids were excited as the cars passed. My husband not so much.
Once the hoopla passed, we made a beeline for the resort. We brought our bicycles so the boys started riding around as soon as we arrived. Within moments we were poolside. Let the rest and relaxation begin.
If you have never been to Palm Springs, you really have no choice but to relax in 105+ degree temperatures. You instantly melt into your lounge chair then pour yourself into the pool to refresh, then back to the chaise rotating like a rotisserie chicken to get a perfect golden tan. That’s just the first 10 minutes. Some of you reading this post will instantly dismiss desert heat by saying you don’t like heat. I hear you. I don’t like heat either. My family will confirm that when the temperature climbs about 80 degrees I am not happy (read: I will bite your head off) unless I’m at the beach, a pool or the AC is cooling me down. That’s why you must be still in Palm Springs. The heat is relaxing and tolerable if you just stay mellow. Do not follow my husband and children around as they bicycle miles, play tennis or this wacky version of baseball using palm tree bark/frond for a bat and a tennis ball in the Palm Tree Garden, unless you are this immune-to-heat type. The added bonus for me is that while the boys are out doing their thing in the heat, I am left in peace, which for any mother, is golden.
Thanks La Quinta for the memories. You have been good to us over the years, providing this momma much-needed rest and relaxation.
multi-hyphenated-me 