I’m going to be 30.  In less than a week, but who’s counting?  My high school friends and I decided we needed to do something to celebrate this milestone and we voted to go on a Girl’s Trip.  We debated on several locations:  but Palm Springs won out for the most convenient + best weather.

We had booked the flights and vacation home several weeks in advance, and the trip totally snuck up on me!

We flew into Palm Springs late on Thursday night.  We didn’t arrive until after 10 pm.  We went straight to grab our luggage and then to pick up our rental car.  Once all was settled (and crammed into the back seat of our crossover) we drove to a nearby grocery store for some supplies.  Little did we know that we would be returning to this said grocery store every day (some days multiple times a day) during this trip.  Thank you Ralph’s for putting up with us!  They even had Sea Salt Caramel Halo Top in stock – so I couldn’t have been happier.

The property we rented was one of my favorite parts about the trip.  My mediocre iPhone photos don’t do it justice.  Whitney is the one with a professional camera.  The pool was in and of itself a game changer.

One day my dream is to have a lap pool in my backyard.  Swimming laps is one of my favorite things to do for exercise.  One day.

We unloaded our groceries, unpacked our bags, and settled in.  True to form – we didn’t call it a night until well passed 3:00 am.

The next morning we woke up to rain.  We had breakfast, showered up, and went to lunch at Bill’s Pizza.  I wasn’t expecting it – but it was actually one of my favorite meals of the entire trip.

After lunch we hit up the outlets just outside of Palm Springs.  They had nearly every store you could think of.  Their Lululemon Outlet even had a 30 PERCENT OFF EVERYTHING sale.  Britt and I were over the moon.  Since the rain didn’t let up, neither did we.  We weren’t finished until it was nearly closing time.

The next day was warm and sunny.  I went on a run before the rest of my crew was up and at ’em.  I had been dreaming of it for weeks.  Running on the treadmill has had me gloom and doom lately, so running amongst all the mid century modern homes and palm trees was like a little slice of heaven.

I got back, had breakfast, and showered up for the day.  Since the weather was good – we grabbed lunch and then drove over to Indian Canyons for a hike.  The first route was short, but it was my favorite.  There was a natural spring coming down the canyon with palm trees lining nearly the whole way.  It was so picturesque and the temperature was perfect.

We did a second hike – called Palm.  It was short and sweet as well, but a great view and more of a desert landscape mix.  It was the perfect activity for the warmest day of our trip.

Later we had dinner at Trio – a surprisingly busy restaurant down town.  We stayed up again – way passed 3:00 am – and awoke very slowly the next morning.

We all weren’t up and ready until the afternoon and decided to get a late lunch at Melvyn’s [Britt’s request – it was one of Frank Sinatra’s favorite restaurants].

The chicken pot pies were bigger than expected, but it hit the spot on our rainy afternoon.

After our late lunch the rain wasn’t letting up.  So instead of staying at the house, I convinced a few to go back to the outlets with me.

We shopped around until closing time, returned home, and then went and picked up some pho for dinner.

We ended our night with a swim in the heated pool while it rained!

The next day we had to be up earlier in order to get ready, pack up, and check out of our place.  We loaded up our rental car, locked up the house, and set off for brunch.  Turns out the occupants of the entire city had the same plan we did on that rainy morning.  Our brunch spot was a hub of activity – so for the sake of time we decided to eat at the airport.

We all got lunch and awaited to board our flight.

We always joke how close we are – but we never see each other.  Last time I went on a trip with these girls – I was about 4 weeks pregnant with Sloan!  Time passes so quickly.  We always promise to see each other more often, and hopefully we will keep that promise this time.  Because being together at Christmas is not nearly enough.

So glad I have these ladies to celebrate this milestone with and I couldn’t have picked a better way to do it!