January 23, 2014

Our 2013 Palm Springs Vacation

Last year, Greg and I were able to head to Palm Springs during Modernism Week - Greg for the very first time! If you know me personally, you know that my heart belongs to Palm Springs, and it was fun to finally share my love for the small desert city with Greg.

I've been to visit my grandparents numerous times in the past 33(!) years, with various groups of travel companions, including my cousins, sisters, mom, friends and (finally!), Greg. And in a couple of weeks, I pack my bags again...this time with my mom and two sisters - a trip the four of us have never taken together. I've been with my mom, and I've been with my sisters, but the four of us have never gone together. And, our trip happens to fall during Modernism Week again - talk about perfect planning.

Eames & Greg will stay home while I head to my perfect desert oasis for a week. It doesn't seem quite fair, but Greg would rather fish for a week if he had to pick one week of vacation.

I never shared my images from Modernism Week 2013, so today, while organizing images on our computer, I was inspired to finally do so. This makes me even MORE excited for our upcoming trip. We have various tickets for lectures, cocktail parties & home tours (some that I didn't get to see last year...), and a couple of days with nothing on the agenda so we can head into Los Angeles and shop a bit.


I LOVE decorative cement block - this is one element I wish our home had. I have looked for a local source so we could add some, but sadly, I've come up with nothing.

I also wanted to take this full of succulents home with me. It was perfectly green and lovely!



The first tour we took last year was The Royal Hawaiian. We toured five or six condo units, and they were in the process of restoring the exterior back to its original state. Donald Wexler was there when we were, and while I felt dorky snapping a photo of him, we did see him!



We explored Palm Springs via bike a lot. It was fun doing our own tours!



We ended up getting a bit lost from downtown Los Angeles to the ocean, and took a detour to Santa Monica. The coast is quite lovely and it wasn't a bad detour at all!



I kinda love this guy!



We finally found the pier, road the roller coaster (twice!) and watched the sunset.









I hadn't been up on the Palm Springs Ariel Tramway since I was eleven years old. 21 years, and it was just as I remembered it - cold and snowy! The welcome center used to be a gas station, and I'm quite certain I actually remember it that way!



We stopped by Modernism Week's pre-fab showcase. I would LOVE a pre-fab cottage one day!



We did not stay with my grandparents the whole time, but I do think we stopped by everyday just to say hello. My grandparents are some of my favorite people - I LOVE hearing stories from my gram about when she was a teenager in the 50's.



This might be my favorite recent photo of my grandparents. My gram said she didn't love it, but I think it's so cute!



Modernism Week had a tent set up with tons of modern wares. We walked thru on the way to a lecture and stopped at the Herman Miller booth. Greg is in his DREAM chair! And I was excited to see the wood edition of the classic Eames shell chair.



We also toured five condos in the Marrakesh Country Club community in Palm Desert. There was one which was quite a time capsule - of course, that was my favorite one!



One night we went to the Viceroy Palm Springs for cocktails around the pool. We met some fun people and really enjoyed mingling with people and chatting about mid-century modernism.



One of of the last days, we went to Joshua Tree National Park, outside of Palm Springs. Apparently, I had been there when I was five years old with my parents, but I didn't remember it at all.



While cruising on our bikes, we LOVED looking at all the homes. This one was one of my favorites - a mix of the stone, beams, orange front doors and the outdoor Sputnik light fixtures made it to the top of my list!



The mountains, palm trees and blue skies get me every time!



Us on our bikes (and by "our", I mean my aunt's bikes they keep at my grandma's condo!) We loved getting around this way!



And I leave with you this house - who wouldn't LOVE all these palm trees in their yard?! Picture-perfect if you ask me!


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Grand Haven, MI 49417
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Grand Haven, Michigan, United States