Palm Springs Recap Day 2 - Cheeky Monkeys & Hiking the San Jacinto Mountains

On our second day in Palm Springs, Mike and I woke up rested and ready for an adventurous day (Who can blame us? We were in food comas after dinner the night before). Naturally, the first thing we did on Saturday morning was head out to eat again: we did some Yelp-ing and came across a promising brunch spot called Cheeky's, which was only a few blocks from our hotel. We must have looked like we were on a mission: on our way out the door, one of the hotel staff asked us if we were "heading to Cheeky's?" since "everyone goes there."

Hotel guy was right. Apparently everyone  and their mom goes to Cheeky's. We loved the ambiance and the coffee bar, but the wait time at Cheeky's on a Saturday morning isn't for the faint of heart (if we tried to go there on Sunday morning, we surely would have died before we got seated. More on that tomorrow...). Luckily, it gave us plenty of time to take cool pictures like this:
"Go stand next to that B, I want to take a picture"... This is what I got.


Over an hour later, we were seated outside (we had put down "first available," which was regrettable. The day was unseasonably humid and we were sweating the whole time we ate). The food was great though. I mean...

Not the best chilaquiles I've ever had, but still bomb.

After brunch, we set out for our big adventure of the day: taking the Palm Springs Air Tram up into the San Jacinto Mountains. Apparently it's the World's Largest Rotating Tramcar (who knew?) and the elevation at the Mountain Station where the tram ends is 8,516 feet. Read: really freaking high.


The views from the top of the mountain were breath-taking... I had to really force myself to take pictures and not just stand there in awe of everything. A colleague of mine had recommended the Desert Trail, a ~1.2 mile "hike" you can do once you get to the top of the Mountain Station, which is where we got all these sweet pics:


I will say that if you're not used to the high altitudes, it's a noticeable change in athleticism and general ability... I was pretty sluggish when we first got up there, but adjusted a bit after 30 minutes or so. All in all, an incredible landmark, and definitely the coolest thing we did all weekend.

Several miles and a few hours later, we headed back to the hotel and began re-hydrating at the hotel pool. Obviously.

Weird snapchat-turned-photo-sized photo...

The rest of the day/night is a bit of a blur, but I think I can sum up in one sentence: we drank at the hotel, we drank at dinner (sushi! Highly recommend Gyoro Gyoro), and then we drank at Zeldas, a club where we saw no less than five different bachelorette parties. 

...Safe to say, we deserved the way we felt on Sunday morning, which you'll hear allllll about tomorrow. See you then!

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