Post-Wedding Trip to Rancho Mirage and La Jolla

I have to say a few words about our post-Wedding trip to Rancho Mirage and La Jolla.

A lot of our good friends made a special effort to come to the wedding, including some of my Rotarian golfing buddies from Florida. Since we were in California, we thought it would be fun to do a little golfing while we were there. Initially we were thinking of traveling around the state to play different courses. Ultimately we decided that it would be smarter to find someplace to go, not too far away, that would be relaxing and where we could unwind from all the Wedding hoopla. Via the Internet I found the Rancho Mirage Los Palmas Resort, which is about 2 hours or so from LA. The summer package offering was $220 per night and included unlimited daily golf and a spa treatment of your choice. It turned out to be the perfect choice. On Sunday, June 8th, we hung around the hotel and said our goodbyes to family and friends. We had the opportunity to have breakfast with my mother and sisters before they left. Later, we met up with Linda and Maurice Oppe to spend some time with them.

Yoko and I checked out of the hotel and left for the airport Hertz Car Rental around 3 PM. We picked up a car (with GPS navigation) and headed toward Palm Springs around 4 PM. We got into Palm Spings by 6:30 PM as planned and were met there by Chris and Karen Maher, Eric and Diane Madsen, and Brian and Lori Brunderman.

On Monday morning (early) the four boys went golfing while the four girls enjoyed a spa treatment. That afternoon we hung out at the pool together and in the evening we had dinner together at the resort. Tuesday morning was a repeat of Monday. Tuesday afternoon after lunch the Brundermans and Maher's left for North California. The Madsen's hung around till later that day. When they left, Yoko and I made dinner plans to eat at a local Japanese restaurant (not very good) and then went to visit a casino (not too exciting)

Wednesday morning Yoko followed me around the golf course taking photos while I golfed. I played in the low 80's that day, much better than when I was playing with my friends! Oh well. The course was beautiful, but what Yoko remembers most about that day wasn't the golf. It was watching the Mexican workers climb the palm trees to trim them. (They use a ladder to go about half way up, and then shimmy the rest of the way to get to the top.) Wednesday afternoon Yoko and I took the tram up the mountain and had lunch at 12,000 feet, with a view of the desert more than two miles below.

I really liked Palm Springs and thought it would be a nice place to live or to be retired, especially since it is pretty likely Paula and June will end up living permanently on the West Coast. We decided to look at some model homes that Wednesday afternoon, but in the end, Yoko was not convinced that it would be a good place for her. Too hot and sunny!

On Thursday we left Palm Springs in the afternoon to make our way down to La Jolla, where we stayed with Mark and Yuko Campbell. What can you say about La Jolla. Nice town...great place to live, but better have a few bucks to live there! (Yoko would love to live in La Jolla., near the Campbells.) Yuko is a great cook and an entertaining personality. We had Indian and green curry the night we arrived. My mouth is watering now thinking about how good it was. On the second night, Yuko made Korean barbque. We toured La Jolla and had a good time visiting. The Campbells are always fun to see.

We left La Jolla for LA that Friday night July 13th, in order to catch an early morning flight. We returned the car directly to Hertz and got a ride to the Radison, where we had stayed the first night in LA. And all of a sudden, the trip we had planned for over a year was over. It could not have gone more smoothly or been better planned. Yoko and I were glad to have had time to spend some quality time with so many of our friends at the wedding and afterward.