Number of Miles Driven: 349 

Drive Time: 8:15 am - 1:20 pm 

States Driven through: AZ, CA (2)

Wow… what can I say…our visit with Geoff and Julie in Indian Wells was amazing in so many ways - rejuvenating, filled with quality family time, comfortable, luxurious, leisurely, and FUN. It was such a great weekend and filled with so many good memories that I’ve broken our time up there into three different blog posts.


Before I get to our time in Indian Wells I’ll quickly recap our travels from Seligman, AZ to Indian Wells. We decided to do cereal in our motel room instead of going to the Roadkill Cafe next to our motel so we could get on the road sooner. We left right on time (per our itinerary)and we got to continue enjoying a scenic drive as we headed west. We were surrounded by a desert habitat (bordering along the Mohave Desert) for most of the drive so it was mostly large sandy white rock formations surrounded by barren flat desert sands with little tumbleweed bushes scattered throughout. We got off I-40 and onto a state road to get us to I-10 - and it was desolate. 


We crossed the state line for California and we stopped at a gas station you might expect to see in a Western movie. It was located where two two-lane roads intersected and there was NOTHING within miles, and we were surrounded by dusty roads and heat. I think the gas was like $5.50 (a dollar more per gallon after just crossing the border into California). The state road to (SR-95) was quite fun though! It was straight and had lots of dips so Michael would take some faster than others and the kids thought it was great. They were squealing with delight in the back and Carolyn was even hanging on to the handle above her seat. One time, one of the dips caught me off guard and took my stomach away and I let out “Whoa!” After that, every time we approached a dip, all the kids would say “Oh Mommy, mommy, mommy!” with increasing excitement in their voice as if they are trying to prepare me for the dip. Then, they would ask “Did that one get you?!” And admittedly, a few did. 


Enjoying the "Roller Coaster" Dips


As we headed south toward I-10, the bordering mountains of Joshua Tree National Park were on our right and basically followed us all the way to Palm Springs. The mountains were impressive and were of a different quality than the mountains we’d see in New Mexico and Arizona - less “mesa-”  and “rocky-“like but still sandy-looking with scattered green for the stunted trees and bushes. 


We pulled into Indian Wells around 1:20, and we were greeted by Geoff in his golf cart to direct us to the house we’d be staying in. You forget you’re surrounded by desert when you drive through Indian Wells/Palm Springs/Palm Desert because it’s more lush with palm trees. That lush scenery was even more impressive in Toscana (the resort where Julie works and where she had graciously arranged for us all to stay for our visit) - we were surrounded by beautiful plants with bright pink and orange blossoms. 


Our "Home" for the Weekend!

When we got to our house we were all in awe - even the kids. It’s an amazing home that used to be a model home for the resort but is now used for short-term rentals for perspective home buyers (I wish that was us!). Everything in the house was grand and elegant. The girls had their own room and the boys had their own room. Each room had a king-size bed with their own TVs and bathrooms. Aunt Julie and Uncle Geoff had welcome signs on each door and had pez dispensers on their pillows. The kids were giddy and kept saying “ooohhh….ahhhh…Look at this!” Admittedly, my reaction wasn’t very different. Julie and Geoff gave us the master bedroom and it (and the ensuite) was gorgeous and enormous. The room, along with its view of the mountains and the 9th hole of the golf course, took my breath away. Geoff and Julie stayed at the house with us and they used the casita (a detached guest house).


Our gorgeous view!


No fine details were overlooked by our wonderful hosts!



After our initial gawking and squeals of delight, we all took golf carts to the clubhouse to get frozen yogurt. The kids were SO excited to ride the golf carts, and Andrew and Carolyn were immediately jockeying to be the driver. We let them drive around the cul-de-sac in front of the house but the adults did the driving to the clubhouse. However, I’m pretty sure Andrew was a better driver than me. I had to ask him how to make it go in reverse… The golf carts were certainly a highlight of the entire time we stayed at Indian Wells. They jumped at any opportunity to drive the golf carts and were proud of their driving skills over the course of the weekend.




After getting back from yogurt (they each got to pick their own topping), Geoff headed to work at his radio show and the rest of us jumped in the pool. It was about 115 degree outside and the sun was beating down on us, but the pool was still “refreshing.” At 3:30, Michael and I left to meet Geoff because he invited us to be guests on his radio show. Julie was a good sport and agreed to watch all the kids in the pool since they were having such a good time. Geoff had told his listeners about our trip and he wanted us to update them on our journey. We shared our story about being victims of property destruction and robbery in Phoenix…by a three-year-old, and we also talked about Andrew’s traumatic experience with the cayenne pepper and his “PTSD” reaction in Santa Fe. 


However, the best part of the show was when we helped “analyze” his co-host Austin’s love life. Apparently, Austin’s love-life (or lack thereof) has been a topic of interest on the show recently, so we were tasked with figuring out what was going “wrong” and giving dating “advice” since we’re both psychologists. We asked typical “psychologist” questions and explored his goals/desires for a relationship. Austin had a lot of insight into his dating dilemmas and we praised him for knowing what he wanted but also highlighted some of his areas of self-sabotage (in a joking, for-fun kind of way, of course). Austin was a good sport about the whole thing! Geoff said that that 30-minute segment got more listener engagement than any of the sports stories he had covered thus far in the show - including the preview for Game 2 of the NBA playoffs (it’s a sports radio show - ha!). It was a fun time with Geoff - he’s great on the air and does his job really well. Always a pleasure to be invited to join him! 


After the show, we came home to Aunt Julie having to deal with a poopy diaper that Dani delivered while in the pool - and we had taken all the extra diapers and wipes in the car with us - oops! Sorry, Aunt Julie!! She handled it like a champ and had Dani all cleaned up by the time we got home though. 


The next big surprise for the kids (after the house, the golf carts, the yogurt, the pool) was that Aunt Julie had prepared “Make Your Own Pizza” boxes for the kids. It was the CUTEST thing - she had premade the pizza dough and put together personalized mini pizza-boxes with the toppings already divided into baggies. The kids had fun rolling out the dough with their aprons and chef’s hats and making their own pizzas. They were quite good too! But that wasn’t all…Aunt Julie had also put together desert pizza boxes and they made their own dessert pizzas after dinner (peanut butter cookie dough for the crust, marshmallows, and chocolate) - yummm!! 





We watched the Suns/Bucks game (Suns won again quite convincingly) but otherwise had a low-key evening hanging out with Julie and Geoff. The kids were excited to sleep in their rooms  (okay..maybe not the sleep part). Geoff made us their favorite drinks (Tangerine LaCroix with Rum) and we enjoyed time together catching up. We all called it an early night because we had an early start to the day the next day, but Michael took a quick swim before going to bed. It’s much more relaxing late in the evening when the sun is down (the temperature is only 110 degrees), the stars are out, and it’s quiet (i.e., no kids in the pool!). 


We didn’t get the best sleep despite having a huge plush bed - Dani woke up disoriented during the middle of the night and was crying at 2 a.m. Carolyn helped her find our room (this was after Carolyn sweetly tried to comfort her and get her to go back to sleep) and Michael got her back to sleep relatively quickly. However, she was crying again at 5:30 and back in our room. So, we weren’t as refreshed as we’d have liked to be before our early morning, but we got going at 6 a.m. and were excited for the kids first day at an amusement park. 


Next up - Knott’s Berry Farm!