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Palm Springs Bus Tour Nov. 27-30, 2025
Melody and I board the tour bus at the Red Rock Casino parking lot around 7:30 AM, Thurs., Nov. 27, 2025 (Thanksgiving Day). We were headed to the Palm Springs area on this tour. The big bus only had fifteen signed up for this trip. So, off we went with our tour guide Jerry and bus driver Leo. We stopped along the way at Baker, Cali. for lunch. They loaded the bus up with snacks for us.
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Far left is our tour guide Jerry and next is our bus driver Leo. Visited this display along the way.
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We arrived at our motel Palm Mountain Resort where we’ll be staying the three nights. Around 5:30 PM we all walked the short distance to a place called LuLu for our Thanksgiving Dinner. We had meal choices. A number of the members even had prime rib over turkey and ham. It was a delicious meal. All the members were given $75 to use as we pleased for eating. One day Melody and I walked over to Starbucks for breakfast. The other days we had enough snacks in our room to satisfy our breakfast needs.
Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, we board our bus with a local tour guide. We spent three hours in residential areas looking at mid-century modern celebrity homes. We drove past homes owned by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Barry Manilow and others. Also, saw a tin house. The narrow residential streets were a big challenge for our bus driver Leo. He managed the 50-ft. bus around like a true pro. We stopped for lunch at Le Paseo, Palm Desert. Then back at our motel around 3 PM. Some of the group went and toured the Palm Springs Art Museum nearby. The day played us out so to bed early.
Sat., Nov. 29, 2025, boarded the bus around 10 AM for the short drive to the Palm Springs Air Museum. We spent a few hours looking around this amazing air museum. One of our tour members was able to catch a ride on one of the antique planes for a 45 min. trip. The ride cost her a few bucks and a broken finger but she was thrilled. Some had lunch here and shopped. Richard always comes away on these trips with more t-shirts, caps and coffee mugs. Melody says we have no room for more coffee mugs, ha, ha. On our way back to the motel we stopped at the famous Hadley Fruit Orchards for the talked about date shakes, Richard had one and it was delicious and Melody had an ice cream cone.
Then around 4 PM, Sat. we boarded the big bus for our stop at the Mission Inn Riverside & the 33rd Annual Festival of Lights. This was probably the highlight of the trip. Some 4.5 million twinkling lights and 400 animated figures. Many streets were blocked off, so we did a lot of walking that eve. Our farewell dinner was held at the Mission Inn. We could order off the menu. The wine and food was delicious. After dinner we all walked about the block to gaze at this amazing light display. Our night photos don’t do justice to the night display. Around 8 PM we departed Riverside and returned to Palm Springs for the night.
Sun., Nov. 30, 2025, around 9 AM we boarded our bus for our ride to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Lucky we had reservations to ride the tram. The parking lot was full of cars and people everywhere. This was a fun ride up the mountain to the snow and cold weather. Here Melody and I had a bowl of soup and a Bailey’s and coffee to warm up.
Around 11:30 AM, Sun., we again jumped on the bus this time heading back to Las Vegas. The bus driver was informed of some accidents on the interstate so he took us down some two lane roads to Barstow, Cali. Here for a potty stop and a hamburger. We caught the interstate back to Vegas. The traffic going to Callf. From Vegas was bumper to bumper. Glad we were going the other direction. We arrived back in Vegas around 7:30 PM. It was a great get away for a couple days.
