Dec 3 - Travel to Palm Desert, CA

We met at the Airport of Ontario, CA on Sunday, 12/3/2017 for our annual get-together vacation. We drove our beautiful red Subaru rental car from the airport directly to Palm Desert.  It was an one and half hours ride.  After checked-in at the front office of Embarc Resort, we settled into our comfortable two bedrooms condo.

The plan for the first day was traveling, and then watch 'Judy's Old Fashioned Christmas' in the evening.  The 'Judy's Old Fashioned Christmas' is a imitation of the 1963 Judy Garland Show. It is in the Purple Room Supper Club in Palm Springs which was where Frank, Sammy, Dean, and their pals danced and played on and off the stage in the swinging 60s. The show starts at 7:00pm.  Prior to the show, we also have dinner reservation at 5:00pm.

Therefore, we rested a little bit in the condo and then hit the road again to find the Purple Room.  The dinner was surprisingly good. The show got an impersonator (performed by Michael Holmes) combines outrageous comedy and great musical of Judy Garland and Betty Davis. We enjoyed the show very much.

Dec 4 - Shop at Desert Hills Premium Outlets

After a good night rest, we got up and had coffee, congee, red bean soup for breakfast, Then we headed to Desert Hills Premium Outlet Mall.  We have been this outlet mall previously and it is one of our favorite places to shop. We stopped and shopped at Polo, TSE, Etro, Vince, Coach and Sandro. We were familiar with these stores and always have fun of shopping there, and the results are pretty impressive.

For lunch, we ate at In-N-Out Burger.  According to Helen and Mimi (the Californians), it is the best burger place in California.  

In the afternoon, we stopped at Columbia and surrounding activewear stores first and then continued our shopping fun until dust.  At that time the sky turned dark and wind starts blowing hard.  It was time to go back to Palm Desert. With our in-N-Out burger lunch, none of us felt hungry, so we decided to do some grocery shopping at the Whole Foods, and at the same time we had soup/salad for dinner there. 

After we got back, we spent some quality time to chat and to eat delicious snacks Alice brought back from Taiwan. This is our favorite time to be able to just rest, talk, laugh and catch-up with our lives.

Dec 5 - Shop at Saks Fifth Avenue Palm Desert

For breakfast, Mimi prepared Oat Bran (with prune) for us. We also have boiled eggs, sliced apples, and cheese.  What a healthy meals to start our day!

We went to Saks and found more sale clothes.  We tried them on and happy with our findings.  Lunch was at Sammy's Woodfired Pizza and Grill.  Each one of us ordered our own salad and shared two pizzas. They all tasted good.

In order to update our makeup products, we followed Mimi and Helen to Sephora. We all have individual needs and bought mascara, eye liner, moisturizer, foundations, etc. This was the beauty supply part of the shopping.

When we passed by Tommy Bahama restaurant, we could not resist to go inside to have coffee and desert. Since we don't have consensus of which desert to share, each one of us ordered our own desert.

We remembered the body massage we did last year was great, so Mimi called and booked a full body massage service for us today.  What a relaxing thing to do after a whole day of shopping.

For dinner, we ate at an Vietnamese food restaurant closed by.

Dec 6 - Shop at Desert Hills Premium Outlets

We had coffee, Oat Bran, red bean soup again for breakfast.  We felt that there are other Christmas gifts we need to buy.  So, we went back to Desert Hills Premium Outlets.  Coach had big sales on small wallets and Polo had sweat shirts and pants on sale.  We have all done our share of stimulating Palm Spring and Palm Desert's economy.  By 2:00pm, we decided to go back to our condo.

For late lunch, we ate at a close-by Chinese restaurant.  By then, we all hungry and ordered at least 7 dishes.

With the relaxing massage experience we had yesterday, we decided to go back to get another full body massage.  It felt so good.  Helen said she could stay for another hour.

With heavy late lunch, none of us felt hungry, so we decided to just go back to our condo and enjoy our leftover congee. 

Dec 7 - Visit Joshua Tree National Park

We saved today to visit Joshua Tree National Park.  There are two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park.  The Colorado Desert in the eastern portion of the park features natural gardens of creosote bush, ocotillo and cholla cactus. The higher, slightly cooler Mojave Desert offers dazzling vistas of Joshua trees and yucca. A fascinating variety of plants and animals make their homes in a land sculpted by strong winds and occasional torrents of rain. The vast park also contains spectacularly sculpted formations of a type of rock known as monzogranite and is a mecca for rock climbers around the world.

From Palm Desert, it is one and half hours drive to Joshua Tree National Park. After arrived at the park, it was about time for lunch. We ate at a small cafe next to the park entrance.

Thanks to Mimi, she brought her National Park pass with her. So, we all went inside of the park without additional fee. We started at the Visitor Center and asked for a marked map from one of the park volunteers. With limited time, we confined our sightseeing to the main park roads.  Stopped to view Joshua Tree, San Andreas Fault, Cap Rock and Skull Rock.  

With strong winds, we can't even take a hike on a short trail. Although our trip was short, we learned the fact of many plants in the park conserved moisture and beat the heat in fascinating ways.

For dinner, we decided to treat ourselves a nice dinner at Cork Tree in Palm Desert.  We have been there before, we knew our way by starting with salad and followed by main dish.  Mimi and Helen had Marinated Colorado Lamb Chops. Alice and Fei picked Seared Chilean Sea Bass. They are all delicious.  It was a nice dinner with good food and great company.  Truly enjoyed it.

Dec 8 - Travel Back Home on Friday

We left the condo and checked out around 9:00am.  There is one and half hours car drive to Ontario airport. We were talking continuously and did not feel like a long ride at all. 

Thanks to Alice and Mimi for driving during this trip.

Thanks to Mimi for using her Embarc Resort.

Thanks to Mimi of picking the show and thanks to Alice of purchasing show tickets for us.

Thanks to Helen for treating us dinner before the show at the Purple Room.

Although we added one more day compare to our previous trip, it still feels short. We treasured our once a year gathering and will continue our tradition in the future.