Saturday, February 11, 2017

california | sparrows lodge + palm springs

sparrows lodge
I was recently talking about Palm Springs with some friends and I exclaimed "Oh, you have to stay at Sparrows Lodge! It's the best place we've ever stayed!"

Which I quickly realized wasn't exactly true. There's no way I could pick a best or favorite from the many awesome places we've stayed. For some people, finding a place to stay when traveling is just a necessary expense and a bed to sleep in at night. But for me, one of the best parts of planning a trip is finding unique accommodations. In fact, when another friend recently asked me how I find such great places to stay, I confided "It's my super power!" (Ha!)

My idea of a great place to stay is not the same as everyone else's though. I couldn't care less about room service, package deals, the thread count of the sheets, etc. What I am looking for is something architecturally interesting. I like modern design, uncluttered spaces, and beautiful scenery. We like cabins, cottages, treehouses, and tipis, and occasionally a small inn or bed & breakfast. We generally like places that are cozy and secluded or that give us a taste of local culture. And I like all of that on a fairly modest budget. (Which isn't to say that I don't like a bit of luxury - I do love a hot tub and a good cocktail!)

And we've picked some winners over the years - from staying at an artist's estate in Maui, to the most scenic cabin in Maine, to this awesome modern prefab in our home state of Virginia, to this cozy little camping cabin in Canada, there's no way I could pick a favorite! I'll have to come up with a different superlative adjective for each one because they are all equally incredible, but for different reasons.

But back to Palm Springs. Sparrows Lodge was incredible and definitely the most luxurious place we've ever stayed. And with only 20 guest rooms, it was just our speed. We went there to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. At the time, there was a lot of news about the zika virus, so we nixed our plan to go to the Caribbean, and decided to stay in the U.S. I'd been curious about Palm Springs, and in retrospect it was probably because certain hipster hotels there have done a pretty awesome job of promoting and marketing themselves on social media. After visiting, I am SO glad that we didn't end up staying at one of those hotels. The hipster party scene is definitely not my thing!
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I'm not even sure how I stumbled on the Sparrows Lodge website, but it was perfect. The prices there vary widely from night to night (the room rate often DOUBLES, or more, for a weekend stay vs. weekday!) and depending on what time of year it is. It isn't the kind of place that is usually within our budget, but it happened to be affordable during the week of our anniversary, so we booked three nights. And we were celebrating our anniversary, so a little splurge was worth it!
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We arrived in Palm Springs in the evening and were blown away the minute we reached the Sparrows property. It felt like a secret garden. There were fragrant flowering trees, flickering lanterns, outdoor fire pits, and a glowing pool on the property. There was no concierge or check-in counter - instead you walked past the pool to the bar, said you wanted to check in, and were handed a cocktail! Welcome to paradise:
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No extra charge for the bathroom creeper!

We were shown to our room off of the garden, and spent the next few days in pure bliss: In the mornings, we ate toast, jam, and hardboiled eggs in the garden under the citrus trees. (It smelled incredible!) During the day, we lounged by the pool (it was cold, but I braved a swim!), read our books, drank beers from the bar, cooled off under the misters, and took dips in the hot tub. We ordered food that was delivered to our lounge chairs (I guess I do like luxury more than I thought!) - the fruit topped with burrata was delicious. Periodically, the staff would walk around with burning sage to smudge the grounds of negative energy. (This was California after all!) In the evening, more of the same, plus alternating between soaking in the world's deepest tub in our room, and outside in the hot tub by the fire under the palm tree. In fact, Sparrows Lodge was so nice and relaxing that we had very little desire to leave the property and explore Palm Springs at all. (And when we did, we weren't that impressed. The palm trees and mountains were nice, but the architecture was very suburban. I'm sure we missed something, but we didn't care...) We did have a fantastic dinner for our anniversary at Workshop, but for the most part we stayed at Sparrows and I wouldn't change a thing! In fact, I'd do it all over again. I often write about how we overextend ourselves on vacations trying to do/see everything. This experience was the opposite, and I think we definitely need more zero/relaxing days when we travel.
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It was a truly glorious three days. We checked out on the morning of our anniversary (because that was when the room rates skyrocketed) and drove out into the desert for another three nights exploring Joshua Tree. Before we left paradise though, we asked one of the Sparrows staff to snap a pic of us in the garden. He obliged, but we realized a few minutes later that he probably didn't realize we had just checked out and thought we were tourists who had just wandered in from the street!
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Next stop: the desert...

Monday, February 6, 2017

new mexico in 1 second everyday



In November, Larry and I spent a week in New Mexico. I decided to try documenting the trip with short video clips using the 1 Second Everyday app. (I also took thousands of photos on my Nikon, but per usual, those will take me months/years to sort through, edit, and post.) While it took a little time to arrange the video clips in the app, it was still a pretty quick process, and I filmed and arranged the whole thing on my phone! It was near instant gratification, and it's pretty cool to be able to watch a 3 minute video summary of our trip. I got a new phone a few weeks after we got back, and was just able to retrieve the video from my old phone the other day. I had intended to do a few more edits (eliminate some of the more awkward clips, create a better intro/ending), but these little things are usually what keep me from ever completing a project, and since it was 99% done, I just decided to go with what I already had.

A few comments on the 1 Second Everyday app: 
+ I really wish there was the option of using longer clips (maybe up to 5 seconds?). I realize the point of the app is to use quick clips, but the 1 second clips make me a bit dizzy, plus you can't film a conversation.
+ I wish there was a way to turn off the date that appears in the bottom left corner. It makes sense if you're making a year long video, but not so much if you're making the video about one event/trip. And if you edit a video clip on your phone (like if it is rotated the wrong way), the date that shows up on the video is the date that you edited the video, not that date that you filmed it, which is why some of the dates on my video seem like they're out of order.

And yes, I know we are huge dorks on camera (and off camera, too). My video skills aren't that good, and neither of us know how to act natural when we're being filmed, hence all the awkward waves and funny faces.

Still, it was a fun little project, and more importantly, one that I actually finished! I hope to make more of these in 2017.