Trueheart Gal

Get-Away to Palm Springs

Avalon Palm Springs Hotel

We just got home after a quick get-away to Palm Springs, and it was heaven. Rain has blessed us here in the wine country, but as welcome as it has been, it was nice to get away to some sunshine and warm weather.

Getting away for even a few days is always such a nice way to reconnect with each other. We are away from our daily stressors, patterns and our home. When we are away, life reverts back to just the two of us, like it was when we were first dating. We have been blessed with a wonderful relationship, but get-aways always helps us reboot. We are extra nice to each other, we make the time to talk about our dreams together, we laugh more easily and everything seems more romantic.

We stayed at the Avalon Hotel Palm Springs. It was hip, our room was comfortable and every single member of the staff was delightful. (The staff told us that the rooms will be redecorated sometime soon. The owner’s wife will be doing the redesign. Who is she? The mega-famous style-maker, Kelly Wearstler, so expect BIG things. I’m already eager to come back.)

Avalon Palm Springs Hotel, Palm Springs, desert get-away, Palm Springs hotel

Our room.

During our short stay, we had drinks and appetizers, one dinner and two breakfasts at Chi Chi’s, the Avalon’s super casual restaurant. All our meals were superb. The menu is focused on healthy, unusual, Latin-based fun food.

Avalon Palm Springs hotel, desert get-away, Palm Springs, Trueheartgal

Having a drink at Chi Chi’s bar.

Avalon Palm Springs hotel, Palm Springs, desert get-away, Trueheartgal

Outdoor lounge.

Yup, those little oranges are ripe, and sweet.

Avalon Palm Springs hotel, Palm Springs, Desert get-away, hip travel, senior travel, Trueheartgal,

Afternoon light through the palm trees.

Avalon Palm Springs, Palm Springs, Desert get-away, senior travel, senior get-away, Trueheartgal

I love the mountains that rise out of the valley floor like magic.

Avalon Palm Springs hotel, Palm Springs, senior travel, desert get-away

The adult pool.

Avalon Hotel, Palm Springs, desert get-away, senior travel, hipster grandparents

In front of Avalon Hotel Palm Springs on our fun, romantic desert get-away.

A few links from around the web I hope you enjoy:

In case you missed the Superbowl’s half-time show with Bruno Mars and Beyonce – do yourself a favor and check it out!

Top 10 closing moving shots of all time. (Kottke)

A look at Elizabeth Taylor’s home. (Slate)

Carpool karaoke with James Corden and Adele. (YouTube)

I want more time to Fika. (That’s Not My Age)

If you like this post, please share it! On Facebook, Twitter, or whatever you like. You can also share my photos (yes, I took them all) on Pinterest. And, I’d love to hear your comments below. XOXO

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Last Minute Holiday Gifts

Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas, Trueheartgal,

Aziz Ansari’s hit show, Master of None, showing on Netflix.

Are you still looking for something special for someone special? Here are some very last minute holiday gift ideas

Print a photo printed on a wood panel at Walgreens or a print at CVS and stick it in a frame, or make an album. Both have same day pick up, and coupons make each imminently affordable.

Purchase Adele’s new album, 25, on iTunes.

A six-month Netflix subscription for $39.95 will give your special someone access to fabulous TV shows like Master of None, Narcos, Orange is the New Black, as well as current and classic movies.

Cooking classes you can do together. I bought a two-day basics class for me and Mr. Trueheart at our local cooking school, Ramekins, and we had a blast. There are probably good offerings in your area, just do a quick search.

Gift cards: Amazon (where you can everything in the world), Sephora (a mega make-up store), Starbucks (’nuff said), iTunes (movies, TV, music, podcasts), Etsy (homemade everything).

This Wisconsin girl loves a delicious Kringle. My Mom sent one to each of her brothers which will be delivered on Christmas Eve, and I asked my brother for one this year.

A hand-written love letter. It’s a dying art form, which is an all-out tragedy. Beautiful letters are forever keepsakes. Use beautiful paper, use your best handwriting, and make sure to give yourself time to think. Write from your heart.

A list of what you treasure about your special someone. A few years ago, one of my dear friends gave me a little heart-shaped wooden box that contained little strips of paper that she had typed out what she liked best about me. Little things. Little things that makes us each so precious and unique. I gave one of these lists to my sister a few years ago, and my niece gave me one for my 56th birthday.

Gift certificates for your special services. A massage. A clean house. Babysitting hours. Running an errand. Wash the car. Walk the dog. You get the idea.

How about scheduling a $25 photo shoot at Blink? This photo studio schedules ten-minute sessions for only $25. Your proofs will upload to your account immediately, and you can order prints for $10 each. Right now, they are only located in Corte Madera, in Marin County, California but they are opening new stores soon. I brought my niece and her best friend the other day and they loved it, and gave me photos for use as gifts.

Now… back to wrapping.

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Oscars: Mad Max Fury Road

It’s movie awards season! Yes, it’s the Christmas time, but it’s the Super Bowl season for big time movie lovers like me. The kick off for movie awards season is the Golden Globes, which air on January 10. The Golden Globes, along with many other award shows (Screen Actors Guild, Independent Spirit Awards, Producers Guild, etc.) are like the play-offs that culminate in Super Bowl mother-of-all award shows – the Oscars. I’ve got lots of homework to do be ready for the Globes, which entails watching LOTS of movies.

Mr. Trueheart and I watched Mad Max: Fury Road, Golden Globe nominee on Netflix the other night and it blew me away. See it. This film takes place in a world I’d never seen before (I wish I’d seen it in 3D in the theaters). It’s exhilarating, freaky, violent and mind bending. The movie takes place in the future where fuel, water, crops, and all plant life are scarce and brutally hoarded.

Women are farmed like cows. New mothers sit reading magazines as their breasts are attached to milking machines, and Immortan Joe, the evil overlord of this post-apocolypic world, selects the most beautiful young women to be his wives and they are stabled as breeders.

Charlize Theron, is Furiosa, a one-armed driver of a gasoline tanker for the henchman, but she veers off course.

The story follows Furiosa’s rogue effort to free the Wives. It is a story about women as bad ass, fearless warriors fighting to be free in a world without hope. Mad Max, who is forced into being a 24/7 blood donor to one of Immortan Joe’s warrior, is thrown in with Furiosa and decides to join her battle. Toward the end of the journey, Max, Furiosa and the Wives are aided by the Vuvalini, a band of leathery old biker chicks who fight like hellions, and carry the treasures from the old world – seeds for planting. In this world gone mad, it is the women who hold on to hope, to the seeds, to the memory of “the green place.”

I’m still reeling from the film, and hope you see it and let me know what you think.

Mad Max – Fury Road received Golden Globe nominations for Motion Picture: Drama, and George Miller is nominated for the Director award. I doubt it will win, but I loved the ride, and I’d love to see it again (in a movie theater, with 3-D glasses). An added bonus of the movie being nominated for two of the big awards is that Charlize Theron will be all over the red carpet, and she’s a thrill to watch. Compelling stories, fashion, and stars are all part of what makes movie awards season so exciting for me.

If you want a fuller review of this movie, check out Roger Ebert’s or A.O. Scott’s for the New York Times.

In the meantime, I hope you have your Christmas shopping nearly done. If not – here’s a quick, easy and good for the world gift idea for the kids in your life. I have to do lots of wrapping and mailing today, and then set to work on baking!

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