My first week in the desert flew by as my sister and I went through decorations that were our mom’s. I also spent time getting use to a borrowed bike for Tour de Palm Springs. I had some running to do to prepare for the Palm Desert Half. Those two events took up my weekend in totality. I managed to watch some football around the two and went out to dinner both Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening but I was totally beat by Sunday night.

Enter my second week of vacation and I’m basically alone. My sister left on Monday to return to New Jersey and, though her flight out of San Francisco was canceled, she managed to arrive in Newark early Tuesday morning. So, what does a single person do on vacation?

Monday I walked to loosen up my very overtired legs. I had to go to the Post Office to get priority mail boxes for all those sorted through goodies to be shipped home. Tuesday, I headed to the Post Office again, this time in a vehicle as I had eight full boxes to ship to four different addresses. That afternoon my step dad and I went to The Living Desert. There will be a whole post on The Living Desert once I am home. After that, the three of us went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Wednesday was another interesting day. We went and looked at model homes at Signature at PGA West. While the free standing homes were too close together and way too large for an individual to live in alone, I was intrigued by the model condos. There are many drawbacks, other than price, but all the models were beautiful.

Thursday, I got ready to go out for the evening but prior to dinner and a musical in Palm Springs, we went to look at model homes at the Griffin Ranch. These homes were much larger than the ones at Signature at PGA West. I had heard some of the building when I was out in La Quinta two years ago and running on the horse path as I trained for the Marine Corps Marathon. While these were gorgeous, I just could not see the cost and the size of the homes being something I would ever be truly interested in.

I headed to Palm Springs to meet up with Virginia, who went to high school with me. We were having dinner at The Terrace at the Palm Springs Hilton and then going to the Palm Canyon Theatre to see Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.” There will be more on both dinner and the musical in a future post.

Today is my last day in La Quinta. I have been to Shields Date Garden and had breakfast. I also picked up dates to take home. When I first weighted my luggage earlier today it was at 25 pounds. I’m pretty sure I should weigh it one more time as I have stuck so much more stuff in it. I still need to get my personal care items in it also. This afternoon we are going to La Quinta Brewing Company and then out to dinner tonight. I will be well in need of a nap when I hit that six hour non-stop portion of my flights home tomorrow.

How much can you pack into a vacation? The only givens when I left NY were to ride in the Tour de Palm Springs and to run the Palm Desert Half.