This post is so looooong overdue but there have been certain battles and struggles I've been dealing with that some days make the tiniest task overwhelming. But I'll save that for another day and focus on writing about our wonderful little mini-honeymoon getaway in nearby Desert Hot Springs.
We'd had a few ideas for our honeymoon, but considering the hubs is self-employed and I'm unemployed, we decided to keep it short and sweet. We had thought about Santa Barbara or Mexico, but as the wedding approached, neither of us were getting over our colds and we were pretty exhausted from all the wedding stress. We had stayed in Desert Hot Springs for Stephen's birthday at the Aqua Soleil hotel and we loved that we had a private hot springs jacuzzi in our own room, but unfortunately this time around their jacuzzi rooms were all booked up. I did some digging around though, and found another place nearby.
El Morocco Inn was just what we needed - less than 2 hours from where we live in Escondido, this Moroccan themed hotel offers up the perfect atmosphere for relaxation. With only 12 rooms, the Inn is adult only and features a natural hot springs jacuzzi and pool, far infra-red sauna, spa services, a courtyard with a giant chess board, a library filled with books, magazines, movies, and games, and a complimentary happy hour with a signature sake cocktail, the "Morocco-tini". They also keep snacks and breakfast available in the lounge, with Starbucks coffee beans & french press, their version of the Arnold Palmer which is Moroccan mint tea with lemonade, and the natural spring water on ice for drinking. The staff was super welcoming from the start, giving us a tour of the grounds and explaining all the details of their services and amenities.
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| 90 degree mineral pool |
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| pool area firepit & bar |
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| Breakfast & drink station |
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| library with dvds to borrow and a TV that plays Casablanca 24/7 on loop! |
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| courtyard with giant chess and hammocks |
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| sultan's tent |
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| natural mineral jacuzzi |
As for the rooms, we got a king suite with a round bed, and they kept true to the Moroccan decor with all the romantic touches.
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| hard to photograph, but the bed was huge and super comfy! |
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| full sized sofa would've been nice to curl up on to watch DVDs we borrowed from the library (yes, hubs brought guitar) |
That first day, we took full advantage of the pools & sauna right after arriving. We had dropped my parents off at the airport that morning and arrived in Desert Hot Springs a little after lunch time, so we grabbed a quick & light bite to eat at
Frankinbun before we checked into our hotel room at 3. So we were good to go for a few hours of relaxation before dinner anyways. While lounging in the pool, promptly at 5 a staff member came around with a kettle of warm rose water to do their hand bathing tradition. Then she proceeded to serve each guest with their sugar rimmed Morocco-tini, which is basically orange & cranberry juice with sake. So light and fruity, and refreshing! Stephen and I both drank several of these.
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| happy hour bliss |
After resting up a bit, we headed out for a late dinner at an Izakaya in downtown Palm Springs we had enjoyed on our previous visit -
Gyoro Gyoro. They definitely didn't disappoint!
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| tempura lobster roll |
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| spicy miso ramen |
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| grilled miso eggplant |
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| tsukune (ground chicken) skewers - one with cheese & one with sauce! |
We walked around downtown a bit, which was nice at night since it wasn't so hot this time of year. We were both still nursing our colds though so weren't up for a night on the town which is too bad since there seem to be some pretty nice bars and lounges around the area. We opted instead to head back to the hotel and grab a couple comedies from the library to watch on our in room dvd player. Unfortunately my sniffles kept me up most of the night, but with no plans other than to relax the next day anyways, we just slept in late all the way through the complimentary breakfast. We had scheduled a couples massage for that afternoon though, so we decided to head back into downtown Palm Springs for lunch.
This time we tried something new -
Jake's. This place had great reviews on Yelp and I was excited to try it. But..... my nose was so horribly stuffed up I couldn't taste a damn thing! Such torture for a foodie :(
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| watermelon gazpacho |
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| lobster roll |
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| Bloody Mary |
I'll just assume everything was as delicious as the Yelpers and the hubs had told me. We headed back to the hotel for our massages. Normally I avoid getting spa services at hotels because the prices are outrageous. I'm too used to my beloved $25/hour Chinese massages! But since it was our honeymoon, we felt it was ok to splurge. I think it was something like $150 each for our 90 minute treatments, but every second was heavenly. I think we both even dozed off a little bit as our pain and exhaustion just melted away.
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| Before |
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| After |
The rest of day 2 was basically a repeat of day 1 - pool, sauna, loads of mineral water and Humphrey Bogart's, and just relaxing and enjoying each others' company. We even went back to Gyoro Gyoro again because I was still so stuffed up and craving the broth from their ramen again!
The next morning, we decided we wanted to stop in LA on the way back home (well, technically not on the way at all but still), so we opted out of the complimentary breakfast again and checked out a little early so we could have breakfast at another one of our Palm Springs favorites,
Cheeky's. The cool thing about this spot is, the menu changes weekly and offers up a variety of different drinks, breakfast items, and even bacon flights. There is always a line out the door, so we were prepared for the hour or so wait. At least this time, it wasn't in 120F degree weather! Fortunately, my sense of taste was coming back and the wait was totally worth it.
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| Chilaquiles with chorizo |
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| Fluffy cream cheese & salmon omelet |
After a couple of hours of traffic heading west into the Monterey Park area of LA, we stopped for some lunch. We had always wanted to try Burmese food, so we found
Daw Yee on Yelp and decided to give it a shot. Oh how I wish we had this in San Diego. We got a couple of soups to eat there and ordered a couple of salads and curries to take back home for later. Everything was so good and fairly healthy too. Craving it again but hate the long drive!
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| Kyae Oh noodle soup - two kinds of noodles, pork, fishballs, stuffed tofu, & mustard greens in pork bone broth |
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Ohnoh Noodles - rice noodles in a coconut chicken soup
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And that's pretty much it for our little quickie honeymoon! We came back for reality to slap us in the asses with a whole bunch of life - issues with neighbors, more exciting new work for the hubs, my ongoing job search, and an unexpected surprise souvenir from aforementioned honeymoon (?!?!?)
But more on all that later....... :)
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