Day 138 - Palm Springs, California, USA

We had a real surprise this morning when we woke up and realised our hotel and the centre of Palm Springs is right underneath a huge mountain. We hadn't seen this last night as it was dark when we arrived. Almost had a skiing feeling. 

We get ready and try to find one last laundry. Can't believe we are into "last" territory now. 

Palm Springs is an absolutely gorgeous place. It is the quintessential vision of California with the gorgeous blue sky and palm tree lined streets. 

We go for breakfast that seems to be the place in town - a place called Lulu. We sit outside on the terrace and have a very nice breakfast. 

The palm trees have been groomed into really weird shapes here.

The main street of Palm Springs which is in a weeks position with the huge mountain right behind it. Makes for an interesting contrast. 

Back to the hotel and time to hit the pool. 

We have a very relaxed day by the pool. The pool here is a lot more relaxed than the Vegas one and the weather is bubbling hot again. 

At about 6pm we go to pick our washing up and then try to find a pharmacy for Nat which very surprisingly we couldn't manage to find! They are usually everywhere. What we did stumble across though was an amazing market where they had closed the entire road and were selling mainly arts and crafts and food. The place was absolutely heaving. 

Could not resist getting myself half a roast chicken. 

Right on cue for the publishing of Nat's special reports on American service we get fantastic service from the laundry which came back wrapped in what looks like a giant present. 

And then when we open it our smalls are in a bag saying "we love our customers". Very nice touch. The owners were Chinese though!

That evening we head out to the main street to a restaurant called Trio which was lovely. I went for a very homely shepherds pie which was delicious. 

Cool water feature. 

We then make our way back down the road as there were a lot of cool American dive bars that we spotted on the way up. First stop is NYPD bar for more IPA. Love how many different varieties of IPA's they have out here. 

The bar does this thing where you can write your name on a dollar bill and they stick it on the ceiling so Nat has a go. 

The ceiling. Look forward to coming back in years time to see the Beans on the roof. 

Funny sign. Could be quite apt given the recent quakes in LA. 

Next stop is the "English Pub" called Hair of the Dog which is so un-English. I think they think because they have Boddingtons on draught makes them an English pub. It was a good bar though. 

We then head back to our hotel bar where they have a Kareoke on and some very interesting people including scary Joan Rivers look alike. It's a really cool bar though - look forward to tomorrow when apparently it is really kicking.