Palm Springs

Out in the desert, 2 hours northeast of San Diego, and past what appears to be a thousand giant windmills, lies the oasis of Palm Springs. I hadn't been there in for.ev.er and Ross took it upon himself to plan a little 2 day/1 night getaway for us to celebrate the loviest of holidays- V-day.

We didn't want to spend too much moolah on a room, considering we wanted to be by the pool most of the day and out most of the evening, so we settled on the kitschy Caliente Tropics Resort. (Resort is an interesting choice of words for the joint, but we loved it nonetheless!) The place is decked out in Polynesian themed decor- tiki torches by the pool, a bedspread adorned with palm fronds, and little bamboo accents in the bathroom. The pool area where we sipped adult beverages at noon was big gigantic- I think there may have been turf and a putting green out there somewhere- and the jacuzzi was ahhh-mazing. (Really though, it was the perfect temp- usually I have to get out after 3.4 seconds because it's too hot.) 2 thumbs up for our love nest du joir. 

We called for a cab to take us "downtown," which consists of 4 blocks of shops, bars, and restaurants and began our night. We started out at Village Pub, where happy hour was in full effect. I forgot it was a Monday night, so was stoked to get my Salty Dog for three bucks. We people watched there, then stopped for a dance at a Mexican restaurant as a live band played "Wonderful Tonight" before heading to our 8:15 dinner reservation at the dimly lit Matchbox. 

Matchbox is everything Palm Springs is not...filled with younger folk, heavily romantic, and not at all over-toured. We sat at a two-top on the balcony amongst other love birds, and decided on drinks. I, not realizing the drink menu proudly offered two sections for martinis- "Manly Martinis" and "Girlie Martinis"- ordered the Birdcage (flawless canary vodka, pomegranate, sweet & sour, sprite) off of the Manly section and then felt awkward. I still went with it, not to be duped by their marketing ploy. I was glad too because it was probably the best martini I've ever tasted. Being known for their wood-fired (as in, in the oven for 3 seconds) pizzas, we gobbled up the oven roasted tomato, burrata, and basil 14 incher. So good. Ross took off a little of the basil on his slices, but I devoured every bite of mine. I'm seriously considering getting a pizza stone to recreate the deliciousness. We also shared the warm goat cheese, tomato, bacon, and orange salad which was also extremely tasty. Matchbox=perfection. 

Pizza, you are my weakness.

After dinner, we went back to the aforementioned Mexican restaurant, which we figured out is called Las Casuelas. Not gonna lie, we spent the next hour and a half dancing with the other patrons (cough cough, the 60+ crowd) to the live band and had the best time ever. They played everything from happy Motown tunes to slow jams from the 70s, and everything in between. He even played some Van Morrison at my request. The lead singer had the voice of Neil Young- it was almost eerily similar. It was a perfect way to end Valentine's Day- with other folks in love and dancing the night away. 

Yep, that's the said band- Hot Rox.

2/21/10 UPDATE: Skimming through this month's Sunset Magazine, I was pleasantly surprised to find Caliente Tropics Resort made the mag's Top 100 in the West list. See the blurb here. (P.S. The article quotes the cost at $105/night but we got ours through Travelocity for $69. Steal!)

xo,

L