22/02/2022

Again I was awake as the sun was coming up, so I decided to get out and stretch the legs with a wander around downtown Palm Springs.

Palm Springs is most known for being a bit of a 50’s time capsule, with the town dominated by mid-century modern houses, as well as Spanish-style villas. So I wandered in one of the more traditional areas before getting back to the room for some breakfast.

We didn’t have a set plan for the day and what we didn’t know when we first worked out our trip was that we arrived into Palm Springs bang in the middle of Modernism Week, their annual celebration of the style and architecture of the town. Sadly, most events were either on the other days we were not here, or sold out. But we spoke with some of the friendly staff, and decided to craft our own driving tour of classic houses, with some support of a tourist office map.

Many are behind large fences, so it was difficult to see many of the “classics” but it was fun to drive around the different areas. It is quite remarkable how many of the houses have been kept true to their original style. Some included Elvis’s Honeymoon House, as well as those owned by Sinatra among other celebrities.

The rest of the day we decided to do our traditional shopping outlet run for new, cheap Levi jeans and a visit to our absolute favourite, the Shag Gallery in downtown Palm Springs. Most know that our house is full of artwork by Shag (i.e Josh Agle) and it is always a delight to see more of his work up and chat with the staff.

The weather had gone quite pear shaped, with the temperature dropping to around 12 degrees and the rain coming, so we stayed warm and dry, before heading out for some absolutely delicious Mexican food for dinner.