We stayed at Emerald Coast RV resort in Palm Desert, CA. It is right next to Palm Springs if you are familiar with that. It is beautiful here, very lush and green in the middle of the desert mountains.  The weather is so warm! This RV park was packed and the spots are tight. Of course, it’s the most expensive park we’ve stayed at but it’s California- everything is expensive here!

There are 142 golf courses in this area. All the neighborhoods are arranged in nice square blocks surrounding golf courses. Everyone drives golf carts, not in the streets but in the designated golf cart/bike lane, yes that’s what it’s labeled.  We took advantage of the bike lanes and took a nice family bike ride around some of the neighborhoods.

Chris was able to play golf on Sunday while the girls and I went to the pool.

The pool

We drove over to Palm Springs, which we heard is an a popular get away for Los Angeles residents.

Elvis Presley’s Honeymoon house

 

Palm Springs is an extension of Los Angeles. I think the stars buy a house here and visit when they are tired of the hustle and bustle (mainly traffic) of LA. It has a small town feel and is quiet.

The first house- Kaufmann Desert House: This home is one of the most famous pieces of real estate in Palm Springs.  Built in 1946 and purchased by Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann as a vacation home. In 1970, the home changed ownership to Barry Manilow and then to Brent and Beth Harris in the 1990 for $15 million.

The second house-Ann Miller’s Home: The late actress’ Spanish-style house was built in 1928. It is the largest lot in the famed Los Palmas neighborhood.

The downtown area as a Stars Walk of Fame just like in Hollywood.

After walking the block to see all the stars we ate at Bill’s Pizza. The wait was about 15 minutes at 5:00 pm. It’s rated best Pizza place in Southern California. We all agreed with the reviews, it was excellent! Mackenzie discovered Hawaiian pizza here and ate the entire 10 inch herself! We brought Star Wars Family Feud game with us to dinner to play while we waited for our food. I made it a travel size by only bringing a small stack of questions. It stays in the car to play when we eat out, thanks Dupree Family for the gift!

We stopped by the Children’s Discovery Museum in Rancho Mirage after dropping Chris off at the airport. The girls enjoyed building race cars and playing in the grocery store and pizza shop.

 

We planned a lesson on freezing point depression because it’s winter and we had discussed salting roads to clear the ice. What better way to do this than to make ice cream!

We visited Joshua Tree National Park from this location but I will do a separate post on that.