Respite in Palm Springs...

I didn’t want to give up traveling when Greg died, however I am not so comfortable traveling alone to places I’ve never been before. But I am very lucky to have good friends and my friends Dona and Bob invited me to tag along with them and another friend Connie to check out Palm Springs in February of 2016. 

We stayed in a terrific, comfortable mid-century modern house with a pool and hot tub because Palm Springs is known for its mid-century modern architecture.  Driving around looking at houses is one of the prime things to do for tourists there. 

I took tons of pics as we went and here are a few of them.

This is the Kaufmann House designed by Richard Neutra.  These are the same Kaufmanns who owned Falling Water designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  I love their taste in architecture.  This house is ideal for the Palm Springs climate because there is little differentiation between indoors and out.  The room you see in this picture is the outdoor living room.

The photo doesn't do it justice, but this is the absolutely fabulous Dinah Shore house in Palm Springs.  This house was designed by architect Donald Wexler. The famous resident these days is Leonardo DiCaprio. Rumor has it that one can occasionally find him standing at the end of his driveway in his bathrobe smoking cigarettes. I guess he doesn't want to sully the inside of the house. 

One of seven Steel Houses designed by architect Donald Wexler.

Here’s the door to Frank Sinatra’s former home, which is now an events venue.  Yes, you can rent it.  

Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their honeymoon in this house, The Alexander Estate, in May of 1967.  You can tour this house and apparently they have guides who are dressed up like Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Our guide told us that it is getting more and more difficult to find people to do that job, because young people are no longer into Elvis. 
If you Google The Alexander Estate, Palm Springs you can see shots of the interior of this house.

Miscellaneous cool house.

And another.

This is my favorite kind of architecture so I was in hog heaven down in Palm Springs.  Greg and I talked about going to visit off and on, but never got the chance.  Thanks to my friends, I was able to cross that one off my bucket list.  But of course, houses aren't the only cool thing about Palm Springs, so I will probably revisit it virtually again some time.