hotels – Page 2 – thosecoolkims

Palm Springs for Carrie’s Birthday!

Many of you know that Palm Springs is a place dear to our hearts. Iconic mid-century architecture, fun and stylin’ places to hang out and get pampered, and on top of that, it’s just a good place to chill. As such, coming here for Carrie’s birthday has become something of a tradition for us.

And so for Carrie’s birthday this year, where are we? Naturally! This time around, we’re staying at Hope Springs, a place we’ve wanted to check out for many years. Very cool, if slightly bare bones. Carrie’s birthday this year happened to fall on a Friday…the beginning of all the festivities for Modernism Week Palm Springs!

Dipping our feet in the mineral hot springs tub!

THIS is Edfood. Lobster pot pie at Copley's.

We’ve got lots more fun coming tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Oh Palm Springs, How we have missed you!

What has always been a yearly tradition, we are headed back to Palm Springs for my birthday and Modernism Week this year! This is a major milestone for us, because we are leaving Ruby with Grandma + Grandpa and heading out for 2 glorious days/nights! Ed + I have been giddy ever since booking the trip this afternoon.

This year, we have decided to stay at Hope Springs Resort. It’s been on our list for while, and we decided to go for it this year. It’s actually in Desert Hot Springs, so outside of Palm Springs proper, but its gorgeous and somewhere different, and a little bit more budget friendly than our past trips, like at The Parker and The Viceroy. :) We figure the 3 hot mineral pools and the amazing mid-century modern grounds will make up for the 20 min. commute into Palm Springs for the day …

We’re also going to check out Charles Phoenix’s new Retro Slideshow, “Pools, Patios, and BBQs”. We can NOT wait! We saw his Christmas slideshow a few years ago, and it was too rad for words. This is going to be a great weekend … I’ve never been so excited to turn another year older!

5 Years

5 years as Mr. and Mrs. Kim, and this was a milestone anniversary for many reasons! We tend to really go big for anniversaries … we’ve spent them in places like in Miami, Buenos Aires and even The Grand Canyon! So this year, it was tough to think of a way to make this one just as extraordinary (especially with the one-income budget we’ve been adjusting to, and our sweet little baby at home!). But thanks to a really fabulous mother-in-law, this year was no exception. Halmoni stayed with Ruby at our house and got us a room at The SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills!

When we arrived at the SLS, we were told that we’d be receiving an upgraded room … score! As you can see, the rooms are breathtaking and have a modern look that we always die over. We especially loved the leather lounge bench near the window. The SLS’ interior was designed by Phillippe Starck, and we are huge fans. We’ve made special stops in many of the hotels he’s designed, just to gawk. We checked out The Delano Hotel when we were in Miami, we checked out the Clift Hotel when we were in San Francisco, and we saw The Faena Hotel (a masterpiece!) when we were in Buenos Aires. Needless to say, we couldn’t wait to see the SLS.

Just a few more pics of our room …

Aside from the room, we decided to indulge in dinner at the very swanky modern latin restaurant, Rivera.

The restaurant is probably the best take on a modern latin theme we’ve ever seen, and it was very cool inside and out. We thought the food was just okay, though.

If we were really big shots, we could pay for one of these many bottles of tequila embedded in the wall. If you pay a large sum of money, they put your name on one, and you get to have them pull it out for you every time you visit. Big league kinda stuff!

We were pretty anxious to return to the SLS, where a very famous chef, Jose Andres has his very famous restaurant, The Bazaar. We couldn’t get a reservation, but we knew we wanted to grab some cocktails and sample the goods at the on-site patisserie. We ordered cocktails, just a few bon-bons, and two cupcakes. :)

The best part was knowing that we could sleep in and not have to worry about waking up before we were ready to! We rented a movie in the morning (Woody Allen’s, Midnight in Paris) and ordered room service for breakfast! 12 quail eggs sunny side up for Ed, scrambled egg whites with squash blossoms for me, a side of chicken sausage and French Press coffee were delivered to our room as we watched TV. It was pure decadence!

A perfect way to celebrate 5 years!

The Last Hurrah

So the last hurrah before Ruby arrives was indeed amazing. Staying at The Parker has been on our list of things to do ever since we first laid eyes on it a couple years ago. Jonathan Adler‘s fun, lighthearted take on the early 1970s is just so…happy. So why hadn’t we stayed there until now? Simply, it was always just a little out of our reach financially. Thanks to the recession and Palm Springs’ off-season (hot, hot desert summer), The Parker was dealing, and we were only too happy to take advantage of it!

Carrie has been a champ through Ruby’s gestation, but even a trooper like her deserves some serious R&R and especially pampering. I treated her to the “Vanilla Sundae”, which was a full three hours in The Parker’s super-fab spa, the Palm Springs Yacht Club (PSYC). Based on how much she was glowing by the end of it, I’d say it did the trick!

Other things we did there? Lots of nothing. And that was the point!

Here’s Norma’s, their awesome breakfast and lunch joint whose decor reminds me a lot of San Diego’s Bazaar del Mundo during the 1970s. Carrie loved her lobster and asparagus omelette.

The world’s most awesome lobby…

Chilling out at one of The Parker’s pools. Being able to order all kinds of tasty things poolside was a real highlight.

Here’s me with one of the super Jonathan Adler tapestries in our room.

Two days of decadent relaxation! We’re so glad we did it.

Palm Springs Bound!

Just a few short days and Ed & I will be lounging around here, at the most fabulous place on earth The Parker Palm Springs! We’ve visited many times, but have never been actual hotel guests – so needless to say, we cannot wait for the most luxurious adult weekend of our lives before Little Miss Ruby arrives. Seriously … check out the photos, or look at one of our past visits to see how fantastic this place is!

Friday can’t come soon enough!