In the desert

Palm Desert really lives up to its name: It's in the desert and has lots of palms everywhere.

Temperatures today were about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. So, the name of the game is to move as little as possible. Or even better to just stay in the pool (or inside air-conditioned buildings). Some of the shops/restaurants have little water sprays outside to make things more bearable...



Palm Desert is part of the "valley" as the locals affectionately call this area. The "valley" includes, most famously, Palm Springs, but also Palm Desert, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City etc. - basically one city morphs into the next in this huge valley which is surrounded by high mountains on both sides.

What is surprising is the contrast between the very barren desert surroundings and the plush, green, man-made places. For example, the valley has over 130 golf courses and over 200,000 swimming pools.



Today we drove around Palm Springs and, in doing so, did a little tour of some of the homes of the movie stars who used to come to Palm Springs to "play". We saw, amongst others, the homes of - you guessed it - Elvis (see photo above; the only other home outside Graceland he actually owned), Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Sammy Davis Jr. etc.

Below is Marilyn's place - with her new fan no.1 in front of it:



Tomorrow, we are planning a drive into Los Angeles (with a possible overnight stay)...