Thursday, June 8, 2017

Ladies' trip to Palm Springs

Jumping back in time to the beginning of May, when I got to spend a weekend with some ladyfriends from college/beyond. We don't all live in the same city anymore, and when we do get to see each other we're usually surrounded by children and husbands (not knocking this - our group is pretty fun and their kids are adorable). But getting away for a couple days was exactly what we needed. We rented an AirBnB with a pool and movie screening room and we drank and ate and talked and re-watched 10 Things I Hate About You and talked more and generally had the most relaxing, life affirming weekend. Oh, and we got massages. It felt indulgent but was actually not too bad cost-wise, since we split the rental four ways and cooked almost all of our meals.

Palm Springs

Ernest Coffee

Mirage

Mirage

Also, Palm Springs continues to get better and better. It's always been lovely, but the food and drink offerings were lackluster. I'm happy to report that things are looking up.

What we did (besides lying around the house, which occupied most of our time):

Coffee at Ernest Coffee - we went four times over the course of three days. It's that great. The place is adorable and has legitimately great coffee (when I was there they had a date shakerato that was out of this world) but also has boozy coffee options for late afternoons (their Irish coffee was so much better than any other version I've ever had that it could have been a different drink altogether). And here's the really fun part - the back half of the coffee house is a tiny, adorable tiki bar that opens up in the evening. Which leads me to ...

 Drinks at Bootlegger Tiki - as I mentioned, it's tiny and only has a few booths, but you can also take your drinks outside to the Ernest Coffee patio. Tiki drinks are one of those things that I would never in a million years consider making at home (so many ingredients, so incredibly sweet) but I love a good tiki bar, especially on vacation. This is a good one.

Breakfast at Cheeky's - always worth a stop.

Morning run to the Doug Atkin installation, Mirage. Running up that hill was brutal, but the sweet reward was an utterly deserted mirror house at the top. When D and I went to see it back in March it was crowded and still blew me away. Seeing it completely empty was next level. The website says it closed on April 30th, but we were there the following week and it was definitely still open (there was a guard and everything). Maybe they've extended it?

17 comments:

  1. DesertX ended at the end of April but the house is there through October. We tried to go Memorial Day weekend but it was closed. Heading back in a few weeks and are going to try again.

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  2. Next time you come into town, check out Rooster & the Pig! It's viet-fusion. The wait is about 30 minutes (no reservations)--but you can always get a drink from their bar and wait outside! Serving sizes area bit small but it's SO delicious!

    I also recommend ice cream and shoppe for a quick ice cream stop!

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  3. How fun! :)

    Don't be afraid of tiki at home: there are a lot of cocktails out there that don't have 87 ingredients and aren't tooth-achingly sweet, I promise!

    The Lion's Tale is one of my favorites, and allspice dram is easy to make and keep in the freezer (I have a flat of twelve 4-ounce canning jars of syrups and ingredients - the easiest thing to do if you don't have room but want variety is to host a party and send people home with a 4 oz jar). I've also made orgeat, falernum, banana liqueur, cherry heering, hibiscus-infused tequila, and various spiced simple syrups. My brother is now addicted to cardamom old fashioneds after I turned him on to cardamom syrup.

    http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/05/time-for-a-drink-the-lions-tail-whiskey-cocktail-recipe.html

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  4. Sounds like a brilliant trip!!

    Rebecca
    xx
    www.peppermintdolly.com

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  5. Sounds fantastic & a pool and movie screening room? Wow!

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  6. Hey Rachel,
    I have just been delaying getting into the housework by dipping into your old blogs. You really have been through so much with your family, and you still so young. I read some old blogs about thrifting and since I have recently been through a down-sizing (minimalizing?) move, I kinda chuckled at the STUFF you fall in love with, I mean me too. Life is funny. Yours is full of beauty, food, drink, culture, love. I wish you the best and thanks always for the sharing.

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  7. Miss your posts! Come back please! :-)

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  8. I miss them too! I keep checking back to see if you've posted :)

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  9. Missing your blog posts! Looking for book recommendations for fall.

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  10. Hey yo! Just checking in - miss ya!

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  11. I miss your posts too. Hope you're doing ok!

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  12. Miss you Rachel! Please let us know how you are. xxx

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  13. Woops, sorry I realised I didn't properly link it in my comment above - https://how2livewithcancer.blogspot.ie/

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  14. Sorry Rachel, I seem to have inadvertently deleted my previous comment. I'm posting it here again because I wanted to let you know that I miss your posts and I hope you are doing okay. I check in here regularly as I've been an avid reader of your for a long, long time. I love the sincere, heartfelt way that you write. It inspired me to help my Dad set up his own blog. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and so his blog is a sort of diary of his musings. I am posting a link here in the hope that it may help some of your readers. Cancer is such a horrible disease that we are all touched by so if it brings comfort to any cancer patients or their loved ones it is worthwhile. His blog is at https://how2livewithcancer.blogspot.ie/. Take care. :)

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  15. really miss your posts too rachel please come back soon!!

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  16. Hope you will be posting again soon!

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  17. Hi Rachel, popped by today to see if the posts maybe just weren't making it to my feed. I've missed your writing--your heartfelt sharing, book recommendations and super detailed detailing of things that makes my nerd heart sing. The last few years have been heavy, and I hope that you're well. Please know that someone in Denver is thinking of you and wishing you well. Hugs.

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