Today started off with a complimentary breakfast in the RV clubhouse. It was a nice selection of pastries, cereal, fruit, etc. and was a very good beginning to the day.
Our next stop was the Verizon store (after a mocha at the Starbucks next door). Judy's phone died and mine was starting to act erratically. So, we decided to upgrade to new ones. That took awhile, so while we waited for all the data to transfer to the new phones, we got the truck washed.
After all that was done, we ended up having lunch at a Bristol Farms grocery store. It is a chain of about a dozen stores, mostly in Southern California, although there is one in San Francisco. The store is very similar to Whole Foods with various food stations, gourmet groceries and things and perhaps higher prices that you might find elsewhere. We had great sandwiches and fresh baked cookies for desert and enjoyed walking around the store.
The Palm Desert/Rancho Mirage/Palm Springs area is an a valley surrounded by mountains and is known for its mild pleasant weather in the winter and very hot temperatures in the summer. It has been a haven for years for celebrities and wealthy people to winter in the area, play lots of golf and do other things rich people do when they get together. Today, those types of people are still here, but there are also a lot of retirees and seasonal "snow birds" who are here for the winter season either staying in condos, RVs or second homes.
Most of the stores and facilities, at least near where we are staying, are well maintained and appear to reflect the presence of people with money. Many of the people we have encountered here are well dressed middle-aged or elderly white people (with a few trophy wives here and there) . There seems to be very little ethnic diversity except for the service workers who are almost exclusively Hispanic. I am not sure where they live, but it isn't here. The area is also a seemingly endless collection of gated communities and country clubs with fairly high walls around them. I am told there are at least 18 golf courses in the area although very few are visible from the street. This a nice area but not somewhere we would ever want to live.
After lunch, we went to an upscale shopping center in Palm Desert called The Gardens on El Paseo. "The Gardens" as it is known locally, sponsors an outdoor concert series every Saturday from January through March. The proceeds from each concert are donated to a local charity. The concert this evening was to benefit the American Cancer Society. It sounded interesting so we walked around the shopping complex and a nearby street fair while waiting for the concert to start. The group, called Desert Sol, was composed of twelve musicians and played a variety of blues, funk and jazz selections.
After the concert, we had a light dinner in a restaurant in the shopping center before returning to the RV after a long, but enjoyable day.
One side note: The world can sometimes seem to be a very small place. While waiting in the Verizon store we talked to a young man who just arrived from Clearwater, FL wearing a tee shirt from one of our favorite Clearwater area restaurants - Frenchy's On The Beach. And, at the concert we sat next to a man from the Philadelphia suburb, Paoli, where Judy used to live as a teenager. He is a seasonal "snowbird" and also a Phillies fan.
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