As my friends and I were driving into Palm Springs on Friday, we passed a bar with a big sign out front: “Toucan’s welcomes the ladies for Dinah Shore Weekend!”
Clueless, I read the sign to my friends. They said, “Oh! Is it Dinah Shore Weekend?”
Dinah Shore Weekend, as it turns out, is a huge lesbian gathering that coincides with a golf tournament named after, you guessed it, Dinah Shore. We had inadvertently stumbled into the middle of a big bunch of partying womyn.
Fortunately, we weren’t too visibly clueless, because there were other male stragglers around, too.
My friends Jerry and Christopher took me to P.S. as a belated 40th birthday present. We stayed at a gay resort and had a terrific time, even though we have very different traveling styles. Christopher and Jerry like to check in to a hotel and hang around the pool, relaxing and chatting up fellow lodgers. I, on the other hand, like to explore.
So some days, while they stayed put, I would go out walking through town, checking out the shops, stopping for coffee and taking photos. Also, I’m a ridiculously early riser, so I used the morning to sightsee, too. I did a lot of walking and running in Palm Springs, just as I’d hoped.
I really love the area - the climate is beautiful (at least, at this time of year) and the mountains provide a dramatic scenic backdrop, always changing with the light through the day. The town itself seems small and manageable, and also relatively affordable, despite its posh reputation. (Apparently it has experienced explosive growth in recent years.) There’s lots of beautiful landscaping and desert foliage, and since it’s spring, everything was blooming.
And as I mentioned yesterday, Chris and Jerry did make a major concession to my exploring by taking me to Joshua Tree, so I’m thankful for that!
All in all, I had a great time! Now I’m happy to be back in New York, where the trees have bloomed a bit in my absence, but where it’s also unfortunately unseasonably cold. Was I really in a swimming pool just 36 hours ago?
glad to hear you survived the Dinah party animals without incident. i would never have guessed palm springs to have a small feel to it and my geography skills are sorely lacking because i had no idea there were mountains.
ReplyDeleteYou really were in a swimming pool, oh yeah. And now you're back to this kind of gloomy spring on the east coast. And you're surprised you caught a cold??
ReplyDeleteSounds like a blast! A town full of gold playing lesbians sounds so FUN! If only Tina Louise had been there!
Thanks for the report and welcome home!
meant "golf" playing lesbians, but I do like my typo.
ReplyDeleteReya: I so wish I'd thought of that Tina Louise line. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat photos, Steve. Palm springs is a great place, unless it's 120. then it still a great place as long as you stay inside.
ReplyDelete"gold playing lesbians" sounds...intriguing. ( Does everybody get to drive around in a Chevrolet at Dinah Shore weekends?)
ReplyDeleteLove the pics!
wow, I've known of the dinah shore lpga open for years but never heard about this fantasy weekend - who'd have thunk!
ReplyDeleteall your pictures of ps are beautiful! the contrast of red and blue in the last for today's post is terrific. sounds as if you had a great time! I've always believed that when one hits a birthday with a zero - the celebration needs to last an entire year and sometimes even 2! marvelous that you made it out to joshua tree for communing with nature (and scrambling around on rocks - one of my favorite out door activities also!)
I LOVE Palm Springs....I LOVE the desert....I love the heat and sand and beauty....I think it's my Middle Eastern blood. My favorite time to go there is in July or August - last time I went it was 112 degrees. Paradise.
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