Every Day is a Gift: A Midwesterner in California

This is where we have been for the past week... in Indian Wells, California.

I enjoyed the clear, blue skies, eighty degree weather and no humidity.
Also, I couldn't help wondering:
1. Where did all these palm trees come from? Are they native here, or have they all been brought in and planted like the ones in the Winter Garden in New York City?
2. I thought this area was in the desert. Where do they get all the water for golf courses, pools, and waterfalls? Every hotel and restaurant we visited had waterfalls on the grounds.

We swam, we spa'd, we drank mai-tais by the pool. Alas, no umbrellas in the drinks though. (Where did we think we were? Hawaii?).

Both my husband's and his daughter's birthdays are in April, so we were celebrating. His daughter, son-in-law and their four-year old daughter drove down from Sunnyvale and met us there. Daughter and granddaughter below, faces alight with vacation smiles:

Granddaughter and I had a lot of fun in and around the pool while the golfers golfed. She was in a good mood... can you tell?

They even had a little sand beach at one end of the pool. We built a sand castle with a moat, and elephants marching around it!

One night, we had spaghetti:

She had dessert (one of the perks of being four years old!).

We toured some examples of mid-century style in Palm Springs. We learned that almost all of the homes here are vacation homes, not full-time homes. We saw more Mercedes', BMWs, and Bentleys than I have ever seen before. We had rented a convertible and had fun riding in it, but we realized that no one else here has convertibles... I guess it's just too hot. So, we rode around with the top down and the a/c running.