This past weekend I had the pleasure of staying at The Saguaro in Palm Springs. It was meant to be a relaxing girls getaway but quickly turned into Vegas 2.0 or “Vegas at a level 6,” as my friend pointed out to me. Apparently I’m a big grandma. I was obviously in love with the colors and decor choice for the flamboyant hotel, and really enjoyed every aspect of the Slim Aarons-esque pool area. What I didn’t enjoy so much was the “pool party” environment that took place Saturday morning, making the entire purpose of our trip (to relax) nearly impossible. I had every intention of reading 2 books, catching up on magazine reading, and working on my tan all while sipping on something refreshing and alcoholic.

What I ended up getting was this: hard to find seats, as anytime after 10am the pool is officially at capacity, loud “club” music, long lines to order a drink, and obnoxiously drunk people throwing beach balls that inevitably splashed dirty pool water into my long-awaited cocktail. Yuck. This is how I fixed the problem: I located my area far enough from the pool, ran across the street to Ralphs and loaded up on individually bottled drinks (& snacks), and looked at pictures of trashy magazines instead of actually reading anything. I attempted to mingle in the pool but was quickly jolted to reality (sobriety) when a bachelor party grounp “accidentally” dumped water all over me and my drink (again, another drink lost). All in all, I would have been happy to stay in my room all weekend cooped up with a good book and room service.

Sidenote: the black bean nachos from El Jefe were actually incredible…still wondering how I can make them at home. They had unusual ingredients like pickled radish, among other things I couldn’t decipher through the cocktails : )