We got up bright and early for brunch at King’s Highway, the restaurant at Ace Hotel & Swim Club. A little research revealed that before it was remodled, it was a Denny’s! I seriously loved the interior at King’s Highway. The mid-century fab stone on the wall? Yes please! It’s a dream of mine to own a home with that kind of crazy retro stone on the exterior or interior someday. My favorite thing was looking at the marks on the ground where I could picture the outline of the old Denny’s booths and fixtures.
The food was great! Our host was a little pretentious, and the prices a little steep, especially for the coffee ($3 for a non-refillable iced coffee?) but the pancakes and french toast really hit the spot. The food tilted the scale from “eye-roll” to “awesome.” To be honest… we should have eaten all of our meals here!
After our bellies were full, I did my duty as a design blogger and snooped around the Ace. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to look in a room… they look incredible on the website… but we peeked over the gate into the pool area and walked around the grounds. Definitely a different vibe from our colorful hotel, but everything seemed very cool and went nicely with the desert landscape. I really wanted to hang out at the Saguaro pool the first day and at the Ace pool the second day, but the day-pass was $20! Yikes!
We rode our bikes back to the Saguaro and drove downtown and walked around–just a little bit. The midday sun was roasting! So we grabbed some food at the grocery store and hung out at the pool for the rest of the day. All day! It was so sublime!
Later we got dolled up and went out for dinner–it was our anniversary celebration after all! We went downtown and found a really yummy place, Matchbox Pizza. We had a half Prosciutto and Fig and half “Q Special,” which featured chicken, portabello mushrooms and red peppers. A finer pizza was never had! However, we still had room for more so we followed it up with a little Ben & Jerry’s as we walked around downtown at dusk (it had cooled off some).
For our last day, we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I had no idea what to expect but wow!! Heading from the desert floor to 8,000 feet of altitude was very, very cool! Of course, I was petrified on the tram the whole way up and down. I shudder to remember it! I’m not afraid of heights per se… tall buildings and such don’t bother me, but suspended on a cable? That’s another thing.
Here’s the tram. Can you see Palm Springs in the distance?
As some of you know, we try to fit it into the budget to take an anniversary trip every year. Travel is such a passion of ours and we make it a priority! For our first anniversary we visited St Louis (little trip), last year the whole family took a trip to Europe (big trip), and this year Palm Springs was our low-key destination. We were lucky enough to visit Kansas in May and this short but very sweet trip was the perfect getaway to feel refreshed and rejuvenated from work. Now, I guess we’ll stay put for a little while!
In case you missed it, Monday I shared some photos of our hotel The Saguaro.
My Friend Staci 
Lookin’ great, girlfran! Perhaps next year y’all will come see us in Austin :)
xo,
Ashley
You’re saying “y’all” already! I would love to come to Austin!
Your husband’s tattoo caught my eye; do you have other photos of it? What does it say?
I cannot BELIEVE that I have never done the tram all the many times I’ve been to Palm Springs? Aw, man. I feel like I missed out. (Even though it WAS 112 degrees when I was there, so maybe it wouldn’t have been as fun!)
The incredible part was the temperature drop! We went from 102 or 103 at the bottom to 65 at the top! It was nuts!