The Goodmans: California Jan. 2013

We are just constantly playing catch-up on this blog!

The end of January brought the four of us to Palm Springs, CA. We left cold cold North Dakota for (what we thought would be) warmer weather by way of the annual Omni conference. (wholesale plumbing conference). We stayed at the JW Desert Springs Hotel in Palm Desert. You may recall that its the same hotel that the Saved By The Bell gang stayed in during the episode that Jessie Spano's dad got married to the younger gal, it had the boat in the middle of the hotel? Good news, that boat is still there and we definitely went on it!

Palm Springs was a lot colder than expected and rainy, not every day, but often enough. PS is pretty with the mountains but that was about it. We didn't do the hiking I had hoped we do, but the girls and I did a lot of walking around the hotel while Brian was in meetings and Lilly has always LOVED room service.

We spent the weekend in the LA area visiting Pe-Jim and Pe-Robert. It was an hour and a half drive Saturday morning to Santa Fe Springs and then we were off to Anaheim for ... DISNEYLAND! Lucky Lilly, she got to spend her birthday last year at Disney World and this year at Disneyland. It was an overcast day and much like the weather, our birthday girl had a pretty bad day. Disneyland is definitely do-able and meant for a younger crowd than Disney World, however it's definitely not as polished as DW. It's more of a local amusement park than the international behemoth that is DW. Don't get me wrong, DL is nice but it's no DW. (and it was cold). Finally that evening Lilly's mood was on the up and up and she enjoyed the parade - shaking her tush like only she can. The end of the evening took a sour note. When we were inside a gift shop we left a stroller with Lilly's balloon outside. When we returned, her balloon had been stolen. Ugh. Bingo LOVED Disneyland! She went on the Flying Dumbo ride, enjoyed meeting all the characters and loved the parade and music...already a Disney girl!

Our visit with Pe-Jim and Pe-Robert was great. The girls loved playing with their little dog Sugar and on Sunday we went out to dimsum. Afterwards we got to see Pe-Nang, Bomb Bomb and Ba-Tha. Then it was back to Palm Springs.

We went to downtown Palm Springs, took pictures of the Marilyn Monroe Statue, went on the Aerial Tramway (at night), and visited the Shields Date Farm and the Children's Museum. Dates are prevalent around the Palm Springs area and so we indulged on a date shake (very sweet). All in all, Palm Springs was okay. Next year the Omni conference (if the kids and I tag-along) is at.... DISNEY WORLD! (well, Orlando and technically at Universal Studios, but DW is just a short drive away!)