Through the Villages

In all, there are nine villages in Palm Springs and today we visited Thousand Palms, Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City, in addition to Palm Springs village, where we are staying. In fact we did little more than drive through the first two, as they mainly comprise very upmarket housing in gated communities.

We stopped at Cathedral City (where Frank Sinatra is buried!), parking in the free undercover parking at the Mary Pickford Cinema. Our intention was to grab a coffee and then see the film 'Downton Abby'. So after purchasing tickets we set out on foot past the wonderful fountain in front of City Hall, in search for a coffee shop, only to discover that most of the local business had closed down. This was hard to understand given that both the cinema and live theatre are there and its a relatively new complex. We were told that the locals were hopeful of a resurgence once the 'planned' new casino gets Federal approval. Good luck! Anyway, we grabbed a hot dog in the cinema and the film didn't disappoint, in the air conditioned setting.

Pat was right, driving through the valley, its easy to imagine what it was like doing the same in the heyday of Palm Springs.

Being a Thursday evening, come six o'clock, the main street is closed off to traffic and food and craft market stalls line the street. We walked through the colourful and varied stalls and the highlight had to be 'The Lord of the Cello' ... an elderly dude with long grey hair, a kilt, and playing an electric cello whilst facing a headwind of his own creation! His CDs weren't shifting!!

Driving back to Palm Springs, we hear the following 60's hit from 'We Five' ..... 'You were on my mind'