Breakfast on South Canyon Drive

We got going fairly early the next day. Greg wanted to get all the business aspects of the trip out of the way as soon as he could so that he could relax with a decision made. It was Saturday, and Ralph had just one house lined up for Greg to see- one that he thought Greg would really like. We drove over to South Canyon Drive in Rancho Mirage and had breakfast at a local chain.

Then we had some time to kill before we could get to see the house, and so we drove across the street to the River Mall to have a walk around, and so that I could stop in a bookstore and get a book on hiking around Palm Springs. Ever since yesterday I'd kind of been making a nuisance of myself, wondering when I might get a chance to hike off up into the hills. Finding out that the hills were not fenced, and that you could literally park anywhere and just walk up into them, was intriguing.

You can, of course, see the San Jacinto Mountains from just about anywhere in Palm Springs, as in this view of the mountains from the intersection just in front of the River Mall. Here is another view of the mountains from River Mall itself, looking at the place where we had breakfast. So I was anxious to find out what the hiking opportunities were around here and when we stopped into a Borders bookstore in the mall I found three or four good books and purchased them all.

While we were here, I took a few pictures in and around the mall. You've seen the water already; it's not really a river, of course, although there is a small river not too far away on the Indian lands. This is just artificial lake that runs in front of the mall, between it and the street. Palm Springs is just chock full of water features of one kind or another. Ralph tells us that the city, and indeed all the Desert Cities, sit on top of a huge aquifer. While there is a good deal of irrigation going on for agricultural purposes in the Coachella Valley, there is plenty of water left over to be cycled through fountains and waterfalls and other water features. It seemed as if every development, particularly condo complexes and subdivisions, had some sort of spectacular water feature out front, any of which would have really stood out in Dallas or Austin but which here seemed not to attract much notice.

I took a movie of this area of the mall, and you can watch that movie here. As you saw in the movie, there is a Cheesecake Factory here and, as usual, its architecture was striking. There was also a large theatre complex, again with very distinctive architecture. I've put thumbnails for some of the pictures I took here at River Mall below; click on them to view the full-size images:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

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Touring House #5

The next house on our list turned out to be again something really incredible. This house was situated west of Palm Canyon Drive, in a neighborhood that backed right up to the San Jacinto Mountains. All the homes here were just wonderful from what we could see of the outsides and, while I have forgotten exactly what the cost of the home we toured was, I think it was at the high end or just above Greg's range. Before we take a tour of the house we've come to see, you might want to see some of the other houses in the neighborhood, and get a feel for what it was like. I've put thumbnails for pictures of six lovely homes below; to see the full-size images, just click on those thumbnails:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The exterior of this house, and indeed the entire development, was the exact opposite of the lush, green property we saw yesterday afternoon. Perhaps because of its location, or perhaps by design, this neighborhood reflected the desert nature of the Coachella Valley. There was much less greenery (requiring much water) and much more zeriscaping or desert plants, requiring a lot less. The exterior of this house reflected that theme; the entire face of the house is covered in large slate squares- grayish or reddish- and giving the appearance of being one with the hills around and behind it.

As far as the layout of the house is concerned it, like the house on Santa Elena, had a wall across the front of the house near the street, with a gate that allowed entrance into a front courtyard/patio running the length of the house. This huge patio contained the pool and water features. Inside the house, there was a large guest room suite immediately to the right down a short hall, and, a little further in past the conversation pit at the end of the living room, the entrance to another guest room and bath as well as the garage. If you walk straight into the house from the front door, there will be a huge living/entertaining room in front of you, which consists of a sunken conversation/TV area to your right, a sunken bar at the back glass wall, and a living room the size of a small hotel lobby (and about as cozy) to your left. Further around to your left is the dining room, kitchen and large outside grilling/eating patio. Finally, in the left back corner of the house one of the largest master bedroom suites I have ever seen. The entire house backs right up to the hills, so there is no back yard (and in fact, no yard at all), but there are views of the hills from every room along the back side of the house. With that general layout in mind, we can look at the pictures and movies I took.

First, when you enter the front gate, the front door of the house is in front of you and, to your left, is the large patio and pool area. This is the view of that area from the front door itself. If you walk down to the other end of this front patio and then look back towards the front door, then here is the view you get of the pool and patio. As a matter of interest, this last view was taken standing just outside the kitchen at the left corner of the house. Standing at this same spot but turning to look back along the left side of the house towards its rear, you can see the activity patio and the windows of the office area that is part of the master suite. But more about that shortly.

When we entered the house, we first turned to the right down a short hallway. Along this hallway is the guest room bath that you can see me taking a picture of in the inset picture at the right. This bedroom is at the right front corner of the house, and in any smaller residence would have been the master, what with its views out the front and direct access to the entire front patio area. I took a movie of this bedroom, beginning in the hallway bath and then walking through the bedroom and back out to the front patio, and you can watch that movie here.

Walking into the living room area, you can turn right and go to the second guest room in the back right corner of the house. I made a movie of that small suite, and you can watch that movie here.

The most amazing feature of the house is that the back wall, the wall that backs up against a ridge of the San Jacinto Mountains, is almost all glass, and the view up the hillside is incredible. It's not your green, garden-like, tree-shaded view, but it has a stark beauty that is all the more striking for its being so unusual. As I said, at the right of the living area are the bar, entrance to the guest room and conversation/TV area. So I took a movie that begins with the glass wall behind the sunken bar, turns around to the right to show the entrance to the second guest room and the TV area, and then also turns back towards the front door and ends up at the hallway bath that you see in the inset picture at the right. You can watch that movie here.

Back in the living room, and just to the left of the sunken bar, you can see Greg and the homeowner looking out the glass wall, and here is a picture that looks a bit more to the left towards the dining area in the back left corner of the living room. You can see in this last picture that the hillside outside the glass wall is not just bare rock. When the house was built, plumbing was installed for a very small pool and waterfall that provides a restful view out the window and which softens the starkness of the hillside. They did an incredible job with it, and I got right up next to the glass to get a good view of the waterfall. But they didn't stop there.

One of the nicest things about waterfalls is the noise they make; here, though, the glass that forms the back wall had to be quite thick- both for insulation and safety. It was so thick that the sound of the waterfall would have barely been noticeable. So the builder put a microphone pickup outside and embedded a couple of speakers into the living room wall and provided the homeowner a way to control the level of the sound. Such attention to detail! I took another movie at this point, taking in the outside waterfall and the entire living room space, and you can watch that movie here.

Next, we moved to the kitchen which was just as nicely done as I expected. I took a movie of the homeowner showing off some of the features of the cabinetry and kitchen, and you can watch that movie here.

Finally, we walked back to the master suite. As I said, it is one of the largest I have ever seen. The sitting area within the suite has a view that looks out along the back of the house at the small pool and waterfall. The suite itself is gigantic, and the movie I made of it should give you a good idea of this. And, finally, the master bath (with its bathtub that seems to be partially outdoors) was no less dramatic than the rest of the house. You can see movies of these rooms below:

Master Suite Master Bath

I really liked this house, although it was expensive and pretty far from downtown and other services. You'd definitely have to drive just about everywhere. And the low-maintenance landscaping takes some getting used to. The only real drawback that I found to the house was its scale- particularly in the living room. There didn't seem to be anywhere in the house suitable to curling up with a good book. But it had drama in spades, and would be a wonderful entertaining house. I thought it should be high on Greg's list, and I thought he did, too.

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A Short Hike Behind House #5

I could not resist taking a few minutes and scrambling up the hillside behind the house we just looked at to see what I could see. I have gone to Google Maps and obtained an aerial view of the house we just looked at. You can also see the house across the street that you already saw as one of the houses I had pictures of in the neighborhood. There are a number of interesting things to point out with the pictures I took while hiking and the aerial view you see here.

First, I took a picture of the house we just toured from the side, taken from a little ways up the street. You can see that picture here. If you will compare this picture with the aerial view, you can see that, between the time we toured this house and the time the aerial view was taken by satellite, a new house has been built in what was the vacant lot beside the toured house- the vacant lot in the picture. That, in itself, is interesting.

I followed the general path I marked on the aerial view to get partway up the mountainside, and then I stopped to make a movie of what I could see from there. The movie will give you a pretty good overview of what I could see. I also took some still pictures from the same spot. One of them looks back toward the development entrance, and another one looks up the Coachella Valley towards downtown Palm Springs. I also took a picture pointed towards the house across the street, and you can see the roof of the house we just toured. That rock outcropping in the foreground is the rock face into which the waterfall was built, although I did not want to get close to look down for fear of dislodging some rocks or something.

After taking those pictures, I scrambled up the hillside another hundred feet or so and took another picture looking towards Palm Springs. I would have liked to spend more time up here, but Greg and Ralph were waiting for me, and I promised I'd only be gone fifteen or twenty minutes. The hike was neat, and it would be nice to live here and be able to do this frequently.

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Ralph and Blade's House in Rancho Mirage

That was it for looking at houses today and, as it turned out, that was it looking at houses. We drove back to Ralph Laramie's house for some relaxation and so Greg and Ralph could discuss the pros and cons of the places we'd seen, Ralph lives in Rancho Mirage, in a very nice development. There is a lot of new construction near his house, but I think that his neighborhood is at least five or six years old.

I've pulled an aerial view of the northernmost part of St. Augustine, the development that Ralph is in, so that you can see how his house is situated. In this development, there is a mixture of lawn and low-maintenance landscaping; tomorrow I'll have to walk around the neighborhood to see what it is like. But for tonight, all I'll do is take a picture looking from Ralph's driveway back west along his street towards the entrance to the development, and you can see that picture here.

I borrowed Ralph's car and drove to the store to pick up the makings for some frozen margaritas, and we had some of that before we left for dinner. Greg didn't seem to be narrowing his choices all that much, although I think we were beginning to rule out the first house we'd seen as being not nearly dramatic enough. If it's drama he wants, I think he might go for the house with the pool area by Disney.

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Dinner with Friends

For dinner, the four of drove south through the valley to the home of some friends of Ralph and Blades, friends that I think Greg had also met on one of his cruises (although I can't be sure about that). No aerial views or anything here; it was dark, I was not driving, and I didn't know where we were going and so I couldn't find this place again if my life depended on it. All I remember is that the friends were pleasant and the home-cooked dinner was excellent. There was a lot of conversation, but since I didn't know the people much at all, I really didn't participate. I did take one movie of the gathering, and you can watch that movie here.

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	November 14, 2004: Palm Springs Trip Day 3
	November 12, 2004: Palm Springs Trip Day 1
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