Palm Springs getaway

Blogging has been light the past few days, mainly because I went on a quick getaway with my brother (both of our wives were traveling) to Palm Springs. We stayed at our favorite spot there, the Ingleside Inn. It's right off the main drag, and it's like a time machine to the past. Every staff member has worked there probably forever, and there are only 30 rooms. Pictures of celebrities who've stayed there are everywhere. One that I recall shows a newlywed couple with a quote from some celebrity saying "Everyone should get married at the Ingleside Inn at least once in their life." The restaurant, Melvyn's, is great, the prices are extremely reasonable, and the service impeccable. After dinner we each had a Laphroaig on the rocks that must have had 3 ounces of scotch, but cost only $10.

Friday morning we went up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to Mt. San Jacinto. As a native of So. California, I'm embarrassed to say that the last time I did this was back in the 1970s, and I just went up and then came back down. The tram has been seriously upgraded since then. It holds 80 people at a time, and rotates slowly as you soar 6,000 feet in a matter of minutes, passing huge columns of rocks.

We then spent most of the day hiking on beautiful trails at an elevation of 8,500-9,000 ft., surrounded by 10,000 ft. peaks. The hiking area is immense, and while we covered about 6 miles of trails, we saw but a tiny fraction of the state park. A late lunch at the restaurant, with magnificent views of the desert below, finished the day. This shot was taken near the restaurant. You can see the Salton Sea in the background on the right, and it is some 50 miles distant.

Highly recommended.