Fun in Palm Desert

My parents have vacationed and/or lived in Palm Desert for most of my life but I have never been to Desert Hot Springs. The RV parks there are considerably less expensive than the parks in Palm Desert and the reviews of them sound pretty good but to hear the people in PD talk about this place you'd think it was the crime capital of the world. They are known for their hot springs, though, and Bill and I started our research on where to visit. The choices run the gamut from the "mom & pop" 50's style to the L.A. free love all night party type (yes, Bill definitely wanted to see what that was all about!) to the new-age, mellow kind of spa that was really more our type (yes, really!). We chose the Living Waters Spa which is in a converted 70's motel called the Kismet Lodge - it's clothing-optional and small, with only one hot-tub, a pool, sauna, two massage rooms, a communal room and the most wonderful staff around. They offer a "Sunday Special" which consists of a 75 minute couples massage, all day soak and happy hour drinks and appies. Now I have been lucky enough to have had a trillion massages in many different places but NO WHERE have I EVER had a massage like this. I can't really say more than that except we came back and will continue to whenever we are in the area.

Big Bear is only about 1 1/2 hours away and there lived Bill's roommate from his USAFA days - I have been hearing him speak about Bobby Anderson for years now and it was finally time for us to take a little drive to visit him; and of course what's a day trip all about without a little detour to the local brewery?! Big Bear reminded me a lot of Tahoe, which I sorely miss, and we were lucky to enjoy a little snow storm while there. It's a cute little town I could live in.

We did a little golfing in PD - we are truly "duffers" but we know how to have fun! This was just one of my amazing drives of the day:

We managed to attend the "La Quinta Blues & Brews Festival" which was a great day of sunshine, beer and excellent music!

We were lucky to see a few friends while in town & as always had a great time making new ones on our trip to Idyllwild - another fabulous town we must go back to. We did a little restaurant/bar hopping and ended up at a wine bar where we met two great couples; one of which we followed to another hot spot in town playing Celtic music. At the end of the evening we exchanged contact info & they actually checked out our blog & found out we had even more in common than we thought - they're "burners" too! 

We will definitely be heading back up the mountain to spend more time with them!