the desert

For our anniversary we went out to the desert this year.  

We kind of love us some desert.  

This is the third year in a row we've chosen to spend celebrating our marriage in one of the most inhospitable environments in all of California.

Usually we go to The Ace hotel in Palm Springs because it is the one time of year we can pretend that we are hipper than we really are.   They play good music at the pool (think; The Shins, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire) and the sticky toffee pudding is abnormally good.

Although, I can't tell a lie, the major drawback from staying at that particular hotel is that it does come with its fair share of d-bags.  

This year it was booked solid.

It is almost as if they did not get the memo that it was our anniversary.

Instead we stayed in a pretty crappy hotel in Desert Hot Springs.  Admittedly I am a hotel snob.  I'm not ashamed of it though.  Generally hotels sick me out because I know that even the nice ones are still germ-laden bodily fluid-filled boxes of filth. 

The one we stayed at was particularly disgusting.  

But it was closer to Joshua Tree State Park, which was why we went out there this year.

It was beautiful and, ahem, deserted.  

Like, more beautiful than I thought was possible for a place that only receives 4.5inches of rain a year.  

The weather was cool (low 70s) and so we ended up hiking around for three hours while Clio spent a lot of time zonked out.