WIAW and Palm Springs California

This is what happens when I go to the west coast. I actually woke up about 2:40 but managed to stay in bed till 3:24am.

The good thing is that before 6am I was able to do some work and get in a 4 mile run. 

 
Breakfast was at the hotel.  The restaurant didn't open till 6. Between the time change and the run I was starving. I had a huge omelette with veggies and sausage, a blueberry muffin, fresh fruit, and coffee with soy milk.
 

The traffic in California never stops amazing me.  There are six lane highways. Every inch is filled with cars. Even when it is not rush out. Cars, cars everywhere.

We went to Palm Springs as our fun activity. I had never been to a dessert before. The landscape is crazy.  So different than anything I had ever experienced. By 9am it was already 70 degrees, the sun was blaring. 

The first thing we did was hike in the canyons. We did a two mile loop with a 60 foot waterfall in the middle. I was a little concerned when the person at the visitor center said it was rattlesnake mating season.  Luckily we didn't find any of those.  I was most excited to see a cactus. 

I was complete indecisive when it came to lunch. We finally ended up a burger bar because I really wanted sweet potato fries.  The burger was really good too. It was Tex-Mex themed with jalapenos, salsa, and avocado.

Our last activity of the day was the aerial tram. The 10 minute ride up the canyons goes over several distinct climate zones and over 8,500 vertical ft. Our ears were a popping.

I wasn't the most fond of the ride. We were up really high and tram swayed from side to side a bit.  Once we were at the top it was quite colder than in the dessert. We went from 80 degrees to 55.  We kept warm by doing the mild 1.5 mile nature walk.  There were several trails ranging from 1 to 12 miles.  Let's just say 1.5 was a stretch with all our other activities for the day.  We had some spectacular views on our short trip. .

Dinner was at a local Mexican restaurant. Happy hour beers.

Dinner salad. 

Carne verde - slow roasted pork loin with green salsa.  

It was a long day and we were exhausted by 7pm. I think we managed to stay up till about 8pm before we said good night.