My husband and I joined our church’s couples retreat and I can’t tell you how beyond excited we were to go on our first long weekend away together without the baby. Life is so busy with work and the daily grind, it’s so easy to get bogged down in the minutia of day to day stresses and forget to focus on your relationship. It had been quite some time and Palm Springs seemed like the perfect mini getaway. I love the landscape of the desert and Palm Spring has a really special time-capsule vintage like quality. Our first night goal was to relax and stay cool so we hung around our hotel for dinner and drink. The scenery was splendid.
We hit the trip at the time of a super high-heat wave..temps topped at 125 one day!!! I was determined to get the most our of this trip; even if it meant melting. That meant some quality pool time. Because it was Palm Springs, I wanted to go more vintage with my swimsuit than I normally do. I settled on this Dolce & Gabbana floral print one-piece with a bustier top and a lower cut bottom. The suit material is like velvet and I was very happy with the fit and unique look overall.
I paired the look with a white wide brimmed fedora with some vintage poppy flower pins I found on eBay. I added them to the hat to tie the pattern in. I completed the vintage look with white open cat eye glassed by Quay Australia…my favorite sunglasses brand of the moment.
After I was sufficienlty water logged, I convinced some friends to join me for dinner at fantastic American Vietnamese fusion restaurant called Rooster and the Pig. I tempted them with great food and tricked them into one of my harebrained art immersion experiences. I had read about a place called Robolights…a neon light up robot art installation in old Palm Springs. This kind of weird art crap is right up my alley. I found the artist phone number and set up a quick visit. It was Dr. Seuss meets transformers meets nightmare before Christmas. Super creative and very colorful with a little bit of creepy thrown in. It was over 125 degrees and we were getting fatigued so we went through more quickly than I would have liked. I’m dying to return in the winter when its open at night for the light show.
After our lovely weekend was coming to an end, we started to head out of town and back to reality, but we had to make one final stop. I couldn’t leave without sneaking a peak at the extended installation work for the now closed Desert X exhibition that was installed this past spring. Artist Doug Aiken installed a work titled Mirage ranch style house in the hills above Palm Springs completely covered inside and out in mirrors.
We were not disappointed by the various reflected points of view of the desert surroundings it offered as you walked around the perimeter. The funhouse quality of the interior rooms offered a chance for goofiness, but then the expansive views from inside overlooking the city were particularly picturesque. I chose a graphic stripe on stripe look for the day as I thought the photos with reflections of the outfit would be punchy.
Reading on the artist website, it seems to be a commentary on the disappearance of traditional suburban American family as it was once knew with this installation taking the form of a tradition ranch style house but devoid of windows and doors and disappearing into its surroundings. Being there it was hard to feel the coldness of the artist meaning… Both with a literal heat and the beauty of the desert landscape around it. We got in to see it on their last day for the summer but they said it may reopen briefly in the fall. If that happens you shoud all go take a look. It’s a breathtaking experience. My hudband really enjoyed the space as well.
Overall the trip was so delightful and really just too short. I hope we can getaway together again very soon.
~SG
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