August 11, 2008: Palm Springs to L.A.

Date palms were introduced to the Palm Springs area in 1890 as an experiment.

Palm Springs provides 90% of all dates consumed by Americans.

A mature date palm can produce up to 135 kg of dates per year.

All this and more we learned from the very informative displays at Shields Date Farm, where they take their dates very, very seriously. I had no idea there were so many types: Deglets, Medjools, Honey, Abbada, Barhi, Halawi...they had them all.

I tried the date ice cream, which tasted remarkably like, well...vanilla ice cream with dates in it. I should have gone for the date milkshake, which I was told is "world famous". I suspect it tastes like dates, too. I couldn't resist buying some the Medjool dates stuffed with marzipan and pecans. Sarah, however, went for the really healthy grapefruit juice. What fun is that? She had to suffer through my ensuing sugar high and subsequent crash as punishment :P

We waved goodbye to Palm Springs and three hours of the I-10 West later, arrived in Santa Monica. We're staying at the Ambrose, a lovely hotel that evokes Frank Lloyd Wright and Art Deco. They get top marks for the Aveda bath products, too. After checking in, we had the free shuttle service drop us off at the pier, a Santa Monica landmark and tourist magnet.

Fantastic atmosphere - this is one of the images we had in our heads about what L.A. should be...beach, throngs of people and amazing sunsets. Sarah tells me this is where they filmed Baywatch. She should know, being a huge Hoff fan, and all.

We finished off our first day in L.A. with Mexican food on Main Street in Santa Monica. Fish tacos and guacamole. And some truly excellent home-made limeade.