Surprise Vacation

 

If you follow me on Instagram you may have figured out where our surprise vacation was. For those of you who don't follow... we went to PALM SPRINGS, CA! I've never been on the West Coast before so that alone was a treat. For the most part I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (sorry, they are a little out of order, but you get the idea), but just a brief synopsis of the trip:

 

We arrived at LAX around 11:00am, picked up our rental car and cruised the two hour drive into Palm Springs. We stayed at Ace Hotel (see pictures below), one of the coolest hotels I've ever seen. I loved the vintage-modern décor and our room had its own private adjacent patio/garden area. We spend the rest of our first day lounging by the pool before cleaning up and heading out on the town for dinner and drinks at Birba. Since we were in staying in the desert, it was HOT. Averaging 108 degrees, but there was no humidity so the heat was actually pretty bearable. That and every restaurant with an outdoor eating area had these misters that sprayed the tables and kept you cool (but not wet).

 

Saturday was spent having a quick brunch at this great little spot Cheeky's, then lounging by the pool all day. We even had a celeb sighting as we saw Kristen Bell and Dax Shepherd with their new little baby staying at our hotel and playing in the pool. Around 3:00 we went back to our rooms to freshen up and hit the road for an hour long drive to Joshua Tree National Park. We spent two hours hiking and exploring and taking so many pictures. I was completely blown away by the beauty of the desert. I've never seen anything like it and the fact that we could walk out of our hotel room and were greeted by these huge rolling mountains was one of my absolute favorite parts of this trip. I took so many photos, but none of them captured just how amazing it was to see in person.  After JT, showers were definitely in order and we hit the town once again for dinner at Las Casuelas then drinks and exploring back at our hotel.

 

We were sad to pack it up Sunday morning, but made sure to have a yummy breakfast, and snap another quick photo booth (we had one in the hotel!) before hitting the road for the long drive to LAX and even longer flight home.

 

This was such an amazing trip and exactly what Jordan and I needed. We haven't done a 'real' vacation since our honeymoon three years ago. We had so much fun exploring, laughing, and eating great food. I can't thank Jordan enough for putting this trip together, planning every detail down to where we would be eating dinner. It really was a perfect vacation.