Season's Greetings

So, we just had a great dinner on this, the eve of Isaac Newton's Birthday, and we're looking forward to the big holiday tomorrow. This year, since we went to Palm Springs earlier in the season, we have made special plans for the day, to wit:

It's Godzillarama! All Godzilla, all the time!*

Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth-Two

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah: Game of Thrones

Godzilla vs Destoroyah: The Thrillah in Manila

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla in Space

Rebirth of Mothra 1

Re-Rebirth of Mothra 2

Godzilla against the MechagodzillaMechaGod

Godzilla 2000: A Space Odyssey

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla: 2 Mecha, 2 Zilla

Godzilla vs Megaguirus, Whoever That Is

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack starring Larry, Moe, and Curly

Godzilla Final Wars: This is Final Tap

Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. P.D.Q. A.S.A.P.

Couch, jammies, junk food, and Godzilla all day: nothing says the holidays like it.

*Titles not guaranteed accurate.

PSP PS

So, on one of our warm and sunny walks through and around Palm Springs, Coco and I stopped for something cool and refreshing at a little shop that sold frozen yogurt, gelato, and Italian ices.

If you have never had an Italian Ice, it's kind of like a poor cousin of sorbet or granita - smoother than Hawaiian shaved ice, and with the fruit flavors mixed in, not poured on.

This little place had lots of flavors, including the classic lemon. This was a standard treat when I was a kid in Brooklyn, sold in pizza places and from guys with carts, and lemon was always the go-to flavor. We used to get them for a nickel, in a little paper cup, not cardboard but pleated paper. And when we were finished with the ice, we would suck that paper for any last remnants of flavor. I explained all this to the young woman behind the counter.

And which point she said "You mean cups like these?" And there it was:

No madeleine ever brought memories rushing back so vividly. I could almost smell the hot blacktop of a city summer after a rain, hear the sound of a spaldeen being hit by a broom handle, feel the soles of new PF Flyers pounding on the sidewalk and the sweaty coins in my hand, as I raced after the ice cream guy.

I paid one hundred times the price of my youth for a standard cup of lemon ice, and took one of the paper cups as a memento. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it has place of pride on my bookshelf right now, helping the memories linger.

PSP 4: Home Again

So, the nature of this trip as a high-quality vacation held up until the end.

Thursday had pool time, of course, but Coco was in an arting mood, so she arted, and we made out usual visit to the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Artist gotta art

Hmmm...

I actually look like I know something about art...

Outdoor sculpture garden, too

Thursday might we attended the premier of the new Star Wars movie - there were no lines and the theater wasn't even full. Go figure. I may say more about it on Thark, but suffice to say I was underwhelmed.

Friday was a perfect last day in Palm Spring - warm sunny, and gorgeous. We took a walk to breakfast, hung out in the pool all day, ate all the food in the fridge, and ended the day with a great happy hour.

Certain readers of this blog will immediately get the crab vs lobster reference here

Overall, another one in the win column. I think Palm Springs might be the holiday tradition from here on in. We'll see.

PSP 3

So, in a few hours we will have been here a week, and we'll have two more days to go. A most excellent trip, if I do say so. After the flurry of activity those first weekend days, Monday and Tuesday were filled mostly with hanging out at the pool, swimming (if you're Coco), walking, reading, and relaxing: totally pleasurable and rejuvenating activities, but perhaps not very generative of photo ops.

Yesterday was to be the coolest and cloudiest day of the trip, so we took the opportunity to jump in the car and make the Palms to Pines drive up the back of Mt. San Jacinto (if you consider the side that the Palms Springs Tramway goes up the front). It is, of course, a curvy road full of switchbacks, and just like it says on the tin, the foliage changes from desert palms to scruffy pines and all of a sudden you're the Pacific Northwest again. Well, not really, but the little town of Idyllwild was really reminiscent of Winthrop, out on the Cascade Loop.

Viewpoint about halfway up.

Snow!

All the critters of California

That was yesterday. Today, I was up before the sun as usual, and I just thought our hotel looked so pretty in the crepuscular light.

PSP 2

So, solo bike rides the last two mornings, another joint walk this morning once Coco gets stirring. This vacation has been swinging, ticking off all the boxes.

First of all, pool time:

Coco says she wants to tell all her troubles to the inflatable flamingo 

Now I need to get JLA trunks to balance things out

There are some things we like to do every time we come down: one of them is the Street Fair at College of the Desert:

This year: metal cactus sculpture, sunglasses, baseball cap, and veggie dogs!

I speak frequently about one the reasons I love Palm Springs: it embodies both a love of old Hollywood and a vibrant contemporary gay community, at the same time and often in the same place. Last night, we went to The Judy Show at the Purple Room, which swirled both of those themes into a fun, bitingly hilarious evening: a drag show capturing late-career Judy Garland and special guests Pearl Bailey and Bette Davis, performed in the Rat-Packiest of venues.

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We also were in the audience for The Storm Large Holiday Ordeal (no pictures allowed - classy theater), and if you know anything about Storm, you know how well she can navigate that kind of blended pop culture.

We've got some more great weather ahead, and maybe some clouds, but this trip is already off the charts.

PSP 1

So, it must say something about the state of the blogosphere that I haven't posted anything yet this vacation. As sporadic as this site has been over the past few years, I have always used the blog as my electronic postcards on trips, and here I have been in Palm Springs for almost 48 hours and haven't posted a thing. Let's correct that.

First of all, our flight out of Bham was delayed on the tarmac for about an hour for equipment maintenance. Not a real big deal, and the crew was very communicative all the way through, but here's the thing: the delay was caused by indicator light saying a deicing valve would not close; fine, we need to check to see if the valve is malfunctioning or if the indicator is malfunctioning. I get that. But the solution to the problem was to lock the valve in the open position. Which raises the question in my mind that if the plane can function perfectly well with the valve open, why was there even a need to close it in the first place?

But we made it Palm Springs just fine and had our traditional first-stop lunch at Maracas on the strip before checking into the hotel, which is pretty sweet. Restored mid-century modern, nice people, great room, and they even brought and extra table so Coco could grade. (Unfortunately, we're both doing a bit of remote work this trip.)

The rest of Thursday saw provisioning, a nice Asian-fusion dinner a short walk away, and the Thursday night street fair.

Friday started with a long walk through the neighborhoods, and saw lots of swimming and poolside reading action (between work spurts), ending with a so-so dinner at a vegetarian spot in East Palm Springs.

Today I took a nice bike ride up trough the Las Palmas neighborhood, where I fully intend to retire someday. There is something about the desert beauty and the modernist architecture of the homes that really appeals to me: maybe it just seems more clean and orderly to me, but I feel really comfortable with it.

We'll see what the rest of the day holds, but here's some images of the trip so far.

Thursday night street fair

Mural that Coco named "Monkey Punching Something"

Someday...

My kind of vacation