A week in Palm Springs!

Wendy and Eric headed for a week in Palm Springs California during Eric's university reading week. Adam had won two return flights anywhere Porter Airlines flies, so he gave them to us and we selected Palm Springs as our destination. This one will be a long post - sorry!

We were lucky to get out of Toronto, as a major storm was brewing and started just as we were getting ready to fly out. De-icing was necessary. It was a good time to exit - Adam was stuck using the snowblower several times while we were away.

We arrived on time Saturday just after lunch and it was over 25C and very sunny! Much of the Palm Springs airport is outdoors. Seems strange to see grass and palm trees inside an airport!

We headed over to the AirBnB we rented (a casita - mini house - with the main back yard shared with the owners). Their place was spectacular!  The hot tub was used every single day we were there! Lots of shade and many places to lounge. We also had our own small enclosed patio outside our patio door.

Our first event was the Woozy Boozy Brunch, a famous drag show at the PSAir bar. The setting is the inside of a classic airliner (seats and all). Lots of fun, and lots of Canadians there.

We wandered the downtown area and found the 40ft tall statue called "Marilyn Forever".

The back yard of the AirBnB had oranges and lemons!  Wendy enjoyed picking her first orange, and it tasted great! 

The fully enclosed back yard itself was clothing optional, so Eric took advantage of that feature every single day! One of the hosts picked an orange and a lemon and made Eric a very strong margarita.

Eric took a trip on his own to the Palm Springs Air Museum and enjoyed the displays.

Later that day we walked over to the Moorten Botanical Gardens and took in their extensive cactus display. It was pushing 30C, so we got an Uber back and did more hot tub time. 

The next day was a strenuous hike at the Tahquitz Canyon. They would not let you in if you didn't have 16 oz of water each, and that was for good reason. Some shade in the canyon, but very hot most of the time. 

We rented a car on the Wednesday and drove out of town to visit the Shields Date Garden. This famous store and botanical gardens was beautiful, with lots of citrous fruits and date palms everywhere. The date milkshakes are famous (invented here in the Coachella Valley) and the restaurant for lunch was spectacular. 

Date shake

On the way back to town we went to the Cabot's Pueblo Museum. It was hot, we were tired, but we walked around for a few minutes.

Another trip outside of the city was the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.  This gondola ride up 8500 feet was excellent and the gondola itself rotated slowly on the way - so you could see everything. The temperature was closer to 2C in the shade and there was snow up there. The views of the city were spectacular! 

We later went to some outlet malls in Cabazon (three of them close together) for some shopping. Thursday night is the weekly Palm Springs Village Fest and Market. It was also the one night each week that the Palm Springs Art Museum is free, so we took a walk through the museum then wandered in the market. It was nearly 20C and we saw people wearing parkas! As this was our last night in the city, we stopped in at a nice restaurant and had a great meal. On the way home, we just happened to walk by a sports bar and caught the final goal of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament where Canada beat the USA. The two people who were outside on the patio started cheering (they were Canadian) so we cheered along with them!

Friday morning we got up early and Eric picked a few oranges to go. After checking out, we headed out to Joshua Tree National Park, named after the famous trees that are plentiful in the park. This huge park was about an hour away, but the traffic was very bad trying to get out of the city. 

We entered the park from the south (Cottonwood) entrance and drove through to the north. It takes about 3 hr to drive through the park, but we stopped at all sorts of interesting spots. 

Teddy Bear Cholla cactus

Joshua Tree

Keys View - very cold and windy on the top of a mountain

After we exited the park at the north side into the town of Joshua tree, we stopped and did some shopping at a quaint store. Later, we headed to the next town over (Yucca Valley) and checked into a theme hotel for our last night. This turned out to be more on the tacky side of interesting, but it was an experience!

Jungle themed room

Back to the airport we went to return the rental car. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed by several hours, so we waited from about 10:30 am to after 4pm before boarding. The outdoor airport allowed us to walk around periodically in the heat, then sit in the air-conditioned gate area.  We landed close to midnight in Toronto and Adam picked us up.

Likely near the Mojave National Preserve on our climb out from Palm Springs

Toronto at night

August so far...

So far, August seems more relaxing than July, although we are still packing in the activities before Ying and Fanfan head back to China in September.  Our first event was to go to a live performance of Mamma Mia! in Hamilton. It was a great show and was closer to home than going into Toronto. 

With the weather cooperating, we decided to do a day of shopping in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Bought a few things, but could not resist going back to Cows Ice Cream again. This time, Christine was able to come with us. After the hot day of shopping and eating, we headed to our friends' house and had a quick swim before heading back home.

Only a few days later, we were on the move again. This time to Banff!  

Ying wanted to see the mountains, so that is what we did. We flew to Calgary, stayed at a hotel overnight that also had a casino and a water park, then drove to Banff the next day.  

We stayed at the same place we visited many years ago (Tunnel Mountain Resort) and had a fantastic room with 2 floors, full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, etc. 

Our first morning was looking a little overcast, but we had tickets to go up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola. We seemed to time it right, as we went through a very thin layer of clouds part way up the mountain as it started to clear and become a fantastic weather day.  The gondola gave us great scenery, but the view from the top was far better!

This layer of clouds disappeared shortly after we broke through it...

After lunch and a short rest, we headed to the Banff Upper Hot Springs. Wendy, Ying, and Fanfan went in - I stayed outside and watched people go by. The water was apparently very hot (93F).

Shopping in Banff seemed oddly familiar - like going to Niagara-on-the-Lake but with more people.  In fact, it was so familiar that we went into virtually the same candy store as we had a week ago, AND we got to visit yet another Cows location. I wonder how many more there are to visit...

We had wanted to go to Lake Louise but heard stories about it being almost inaccessible due to the crowds. We checked the shuttle bus - probably needed to plan for a whole day to do it that way. We also checked the distant parking lots with shuttles to the lake. Not practical, as they stop running around 4 (useless...)!  We decided to go there at an unconventional time - after dinner.

We definitely hit the sweet spot by arriving about an hour or two before sunset. We parked right next to the lake (ahem, not exactly in a legal spot... but the park people seemed to have shut down things for the day). The views were great and we were able to get out of there before the bugs got really bad. Took Highway 1a back for some different scenery, but sadly saw no animals at all along the way.

The light was starting to fade, but it is still beautiful.

The next day was our 'early day' - we left at 8:30 to drive 2.5 hr to the Columbia Ice Fields in Jasper National Park. The drive was gorgeous, with only a a brief bit of traffic as we passed Lake Louise. We stopped several times just to enjoy the scenery (we didn't have to be there until 12:45).

One of the best stops was Herbert Lake, a rest stop at the side of highway 93. We walked a few feet through the trees and came upon a glass smooth lake with this view.  Fantastic!

After lunch at the Icefields Discovery Centre (expensive, but hey, what can you do!), we took a shuttle up to the transfer location and moved onto one of the 'tundra vehicles' for the first part of our adventure. Ours was the only green one. Apparently there are only 24 in the world of these machines - 2 in Antarctica, 22 at the Ice Fields. Only one is green!

Wendy has previous said that she didn't want to be at work on her birthday (or at home, if possible). This birthday was spent with beautiful scenery and fresh glacier ice water!

Wendy collecting fresh glacier water to drink!

They put flags out to keep tourists busy taking photos, as well as to prevent them from going where they should not.

The final leg of the Ice Fields package was a trip on another bus to the SkyWalk - a glass floored extension 30 metres out over a canyon. Not bad views, but a little tame in comparison to the glacier. Wendy was not pleased that the glass floor moved when people were walking by...

Wendy is definitely holding on (it was windy as well), and she wasn't happy about looking down.

On the way back from the Ice Fields, we had told Fanfan that we likely would see no animals. This time, we were wrong! We saw two black bears. Below is one of them heading into the bush after crossing the road.

Having done our sightseeing, we headed back to the resort after picking up a take-out Chinese dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening. The next morning saw us head out to Canmore, to visit with Wendy's Aunt and Uncle, plus her cousin and her husband. They were staying in Canmore while on their own summer adventure. I noted that we also saw them 1 year ago when they were visiting PEI, and a year before that on our way back from Hawaii. 

Back to the airport we went (after one quick detour to pick up a lost item at the first hotel of our trip), and away we flew to Hamilton. The late flight arrived just after midnight, ending a quick but worthwhile visit to the mountains.

Next adventure? We head to Sauble Beach for a week of relaxation prior to usual rush at the end of August.