Palm Springs

My friend Tammy moved down to Palm Springs last year. I finally took a long weekend and went down to visit her!

She and her husband have a lovely home in a gated community. They get to sit out on their back deck and watch the golfers play their 18 holes all day long. Sometimes they even get to see the Big Horned Sheep come down from the mountains but that did not happen while I was there.

I only had three days, but Tammy packed those days with some really fun tours, while still giving plenty of down time to just sit and relax.

Our first tour was certainly a unique one. Drag & Fly Tours took us around Palm Springs in a “mobile theatre” that seats up to 13 guests, hosted by a fabulous drag queen named Danica. We learned about Palm Springs’ rich history with comedy, live narration, and dazzling video moments. It was definitely a fun way to get introduced to the city.

After the tour ended, we walked around downtown a bit. I got to see Marilyn Monroe even! This 26-foot-tall sculpture, created by artist Seward Johnson, depicts Marilyn Monroe in her famous pose from the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch. Interestingly, city ordinance limits residential homes to no more than one story, so this statue stands taller than pretty much every building around her!

Our second tour the next day was also an architectural tour but was quite a bit less flamboyant and more reserved. The Modern Tour gave us another view of the architecture of Palm Springs, even taking us inside a few of the homes along the way.

For our third tour we had to travel out of town where we got a guided golf cart tour of a private wind farm. The tour guide talked about the successes and failures at the beginning of the “Wind Rush” in the 80’s to the modern sleek designs we have today. It was really interesting, and our guide was very knowledgeable. It’s always fun to have a guide who is so excited about his subject matter.