Moving Uptown!

Another sunny start in Palm Springs and following a lazy beginning, breakfasting and Skyping Jenny from our cool Spanish courtyard, we set off on another journey of discovery. This time we drove onto Highway 111 via Palm Canyon Drives, to another city in the Palm Springs area (Palm Desert, passing street scenes with a retro feel.

Only twenty minutes away, Palm Desert has a classy feel and we soon spotted swanky malls and car dealerships (Bentley, Porsche, Maserati. etc.) before arriving at our goal, The Art Museum in Palm Desert. We were its only visitors and fortunately a wealthy local benefactor had paid-up all admission charges for five years, so we got in free! The collection, set in a cool white space surrounded by a desert sculpture garden, was very appealing and our first spot was a piece by Lichtenstein. Not a huge collection, but enough to make the visit an enjoyable, particularly as the desert garden was an added bonus. We also thought that the adjacent Civic Centre was pretty neat!A nice stop!

It was now midday as we pulled into the nearby Riverside Mall, a series of shops, great movie theatre, and several restaurants st by a lake.

We headed for Starbucks and then retreated to the air-conditioned cinema, to see 'Everest'? The film was very watchable and the ambient atmosphere of the cinema provided a welcome break fro the oven, outside! By late afternoon, we were on our way back to Palm Springs, to bag the laundry, before setting off for another al fresco, early-bird, dinner at Kaisers, surrounded by a fine artificial mist, to keep things cool!. We like Palm Springs a lot! And finally a piece of music and I've chosen the piece that I almost went for yesterday: The Moody Blues "Tuesday Afternoon" (Its a good listen when driving in the desert!)