A couple months ago my husband came to me and said “We need to talk.” Now, generally this isn’t something you ever want your partner to start a conversation with. I immediately started wracking my brain for anything upsetting I may have done, or ways in which our world could suddenly fall apart. Had any of my annoying habits finally reached their last straw in our nearly 10-year-long relationship?

“Do you want to go to Palm Springs with A-rock* in April?” he asked.

As someone who has always had a hard time with sudden change, a surprise like this meant perhaps not the most gracious of responses. It took a while to quit asking him why, and asking myself if it was really a good idea to spend money on a trip for myself right now, but I was finally convinced that this was a fantastic idea.

When my main man, G, initially asked one of my best buds (A-rock) if she’d accompany me on a trip somewhere sunny and relaxing for a bit of a mom getaway (for myself – A’s not a mom), he found out she already had a trip planned that I could join in on. And thus, here I found myself on an airplane just over a month later, headed to Palm Springs, California for 3 nights with two rad ladies, and no children to be responsible for. For someone who has only had one night at a time without the responsibility of a tiny human’s life, a couple of times since my little love was born 3.5 years ago, this was a huge deal.

So what exactly does one do on a short-but-sweet ladies’ trip to Palm Springs?

I’m going to go ahead and disappoint you now, there are no racy tales to tell. (Well, aside from that revolting, self-proclaimed “suave and charismatic” gentleman man arse with ridiculous and lewd propositions. Seriously. Some people. What is wrong with them?)

I guess we’re all getting on in years and have come to appreciate the luxuriousness of sitting in the sun all day, doing positively nothing but sipping on bevvies, dipping in the pool, and chatting whenever we wanted to do any of the above. It was glorious. However, there were a few highlights to share with you from when we left the comfort of our hotel.

Villagefest Night Market

Every Thursday evening a street market sets up on Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs. This was something we were all eager to check out, and luckily for us, our hotel – Hyatt Palm Springs – was conveniently located on Palm Canyon Drive, in the midst of the Villagefest activity. We could even see the market being set up below us as we lounged on our sunny hotel room balcony.

There was a wide variety of things to see and buy at the market. Art, clothes, toys, produce, and a plethora more. Unfortunately, shortly after we started browsing I could feel an abdominal migraine coming on (a weird diagnosis that often plagues me, which I’ll have to explain another time). However, I did manage to snap up a few things before I had to run back to the hotel to curl into a little ball of hurt.

The items I had procured at the market were the following: a classy little grey flower hair clip for my daughter (which also works adorably in my hair, fancy that), a big pack of watermelon licorice, a “super easy” hair wrap accessory that worked amazing for the maker to put our hair up quick and pretty, and a soft, french dress/tunic that has become my new favourite nightgown.

I also stopped to grab a cob of corn from the corn cart, thinking that might help my belly, and amazed by the selection of sauces and toppings to dress up the corn with. But of course it’s an awful time of year for corn, and I ended up tossing out most of the dry, flavourless corn. I’m sure it’s probably delicious later on in the year, but certainly not in April. I should have known. Oh well.

Village Pub – Dancing in the Hip Hop Room

With my migraine business acting up, I ended up calling that first day quits and was asleep in bed by 8pm. Party animal, right? So the next day I made sure to stay away from the day-drinks, keep my body fed, hydrated, and relaxed (pools are great for this), and we made it a mission for us to get out dancing that evening. We had been given a recommendation to check out a few places nearby, but one was closed for private functions, and one just looked kind of seedy and boring, so we wandered down until we got to The Village Pub.

At first we thought we’d just grab some dinner and keep making our way, but our interest was piqued when the server told us that there were several (six?) different rooms to check out throughout the establishment. So after grabbing a drink from the outside bar (where we encountered the previously mentioned lewd dude), we headed up to the hip hop room. We spent the rest of the night grooving away and smiling our faces off.

I would definitely recommend checking this place out (especially the hip hop room – BEST!) if you want to bust a move in Palm Springs with your ladies (or dudes).

The next night we hopped on the free Buz bus to head to the ACE for a reggae event, but were sorely disappointed by it. We quickly found ourselves back at the Village Pub. We wished we would have gone straight there, as we were later the second time and ended up waiting in line for most of the night to get into the hip hop room. Next time, straight to the Village Pub (and before 10, so you don’t have to pay cover).

Shopping for Clothes Outside My Style Comfort Zone

As it often seems to happen, vacations are my special time for buying clothes that seem perfect when I’m away, but then give me huge buyers guilt once I get home and realize I will probably never wear them. This trip was no exception, although I have to admit my Konmari project really has helped me streamline my clothes shopping by having a better idea about the kinds of colours and styles that I truly like, and staying away from anything that I know is just not my thing.

So when I found myself in a women’s clothing store that seemed to be filled with a zillion items I could see myself wearing and loving, I spent a good hour choosing and trying on some styles that I had never given a go before. While I try to stay clear of fast fashion and it’s poor ethical and environmental practices, I’m certainly not a perfect consumer, and allowed myself to spend more than I should on several things I really liked.

I very rarely spend money on clothing, and even more rare do I buy new clothing (hooray for consignment and thrift), so I’m not going to feel bad about filling in my summer wardrobe on this trip. Now I’m the proud owner of a few crop tops and even a short suit thing (I think the fashion-inclined may refer to them as jumpers?) that I may never feel comfortable enough wearing, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

Before embarking on the ladies’ trip, Lizzie Lau (an amazingly adventurous blogger you should also check out) turned me on to the idea of visiting the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. We were all thrilled we went and rode the tram, even though it would have been an equally enjoyable family-friendly activity. The views from the rotating tram were spectacular, the ride has some exciting bumps as we passed each tower, and it gave us a great chance to get a better idea of the landscape that is quite different than that of our West Coast Canadian home.

We had planned to go first thing in the morning on Friday, hoping to escape the lines that were talked about on all the trip-planning sites. However, we ended up at the pool on Friday morning, then were not feeling amazing Saturday morning, so decided a sunset ride would be much better. This turned out to be a great decision as, beside the fact that we would not have enjoyed the drive out and ride up nearly as much if we had forced our poor little bodies to go in the morning, there were zero line-ups to deal with when we were there.

Palm Springs Aerial Tram at Sunset

We left Palm Springs at about 5:45, so were up at the tram by 6. There is no public transit to get to the Aerial Tram, so we arranged for an Uber to pick us up. (I do so wish Ubers were allowed to run in Canada – such a fantastic way to get around for half the cost of a taxi.) Driving through the desert was breathtaking to me, seeing mountains and landscape so different from those I know. As soon as we got to the top, we got our tickets and hopped right onto the next tram. We spent some time looking through the displays, checking out the videos about the Palm Springs Aerial Tram showing in the theatres, and grabbing a coffee to warm us up after checking out the view from the lookout.

It was stunning to see such a great area of the desert, the windmill farms, the mountains, and the city of Palm Springs far below us. At the same time, it was very cold (somewhere around 10º C?) especially with the wind, so we quickly snapped our panoramas and some selfies, and went back in the building to wait for the tram back down. We had timed it to be going down while the sun was setting, hoping for a spectacular sunset, but the sun actually sets on the opposite side of the valley the tram follows. By the time we were headed up on the first tram we had lost the sun on most of the valley, and coming down the sunset was not as spectacular as we had hoped, setting on the “wrong” side of the mountains. Still pretty, however, and well worth the trip.

I had a fabulous time with the ladies’, kicking back in Palm Springs, finding a short breather from the responsibilities of adult life and motherhood. While I was hesitant about taking this “selfish” trip at first, I feel strongly that every mama could use a break, and that taking one is not a selfish choice. Put your own air-mask on before helping your children with their’s, right? We need to take care of ourselves if we plan to take care of others. So, whether your break is an afternoon or a weekend, as far away as Palm Springs, or as near as the coffee shop down the street, I hope you can find a way to get that self-care vacation.

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