Christmas in Paradise

We arrived in Palm Springs around suppertime on Christmas eve. Native Foods had already closed, so we had dinner at a muggle restaurant that had a lot of vegan options. It was called Palm Greens Cafe.

Palm Greens Cafe

I liked that you can get your own water, because then I can drink the same amount of water as a baby camel without feeling like an alien. The ceiling was decorated with pretty colorful paper lanterns to remind you to look up. Some of the vegan options on the menu specified Vegan in the name of the item, but some items that didn’t specify were still vegan (like the Pho). All of the desserts were vegan.

I ordered the Reuben and David ordered the Pho.

We had tiramisu for dessert.

Ace Hotel

We stayed at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, which wasn’t my favorite for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to the following.

• the first room they tried to put us in had a loud machine noise coming from the floor, so we had to change rooms
• the curtains on the windows don’t keep out the sunlight in the morning, so we were unable to sleep in
• the door lock on our front door broke and we had to call maintenance to come and fix it
• even though our stay was for 2 days, our room key stopped working at noon halfway through our stay and we had to go to the lobby to have them fix it
• the water didn’t drain until your shower was over, so you were standing in an inch of your dirty water for the second half of your shower (except for me because I’m perfectly clean all the time)
• the housekeeping never came and cleaned between our 2 nights we stayed there

There were also good things about the Ace Hotel.

• It’s dog friendly, which means you get to pet other people’s dogs when you’re walking around outside. There’s even a little dog park!
• They serve Stumptown coffee
• The pool doesn’t close until 2am, and it has a floaty that looks like a donut

• There are orange trees so you can pick oranges for your breakfast

• The mimosas they serve at the bar (that you can sip poolside) are vegan
• They have brilliantly posted signs

• The grounds are covered with plants that hummingbirds like so you can make friends with hummingbirds

• There are outdoor fireplaces you can sit by at night while you crochet socks for your chairs.

• They have life-sized lincoln logs.

Sticking with tradition, we had chinese food for Christmas. We went to Supreme Dragon.

Palm Springs also had gorgeous sunsets.

Another benefit about the Ace Hotel that I forgot to mention is that Tegan and Sara happened to be spending Christmas there with their family, so I got to see them offstage for my first time.

Native Foods

Before leaving Palm Springs, we stopped at Native Foods where we met Scotty, a friend of Shane’s. He’s super sweet, and not only does he run this amazing vegan restaurant, but he also builds furniture!

Me and Allium were super excited in the car on the way to Lucerne Valley. Trust me, this is her excited face.

Wolf Mountain Sanctuary

I had mixed feelings about the wolf sanctuary. On one hand, I’m really glad that someone exists who can rescue these wolves that would otherwise be euthanized. On the other hand, it saddened me to see them in cages instead of running around in the desert. What do you think about this?

They would do this really cute thing with their paw when they didn’t want you to stop petting them.

Once you’ve already dirven 8 hours to get somewhere, driving 2 more doesn’t really seem like a big deal (especially when I’m not the one driving, haha). So, we decided to spend a night in LA so we could check out Moby’s new restaurant: Little Pine.

Little Pine

Little Pine is a cute small restaurant in an area of LA that has a lot of parking, so we had VIP parking right in front. Even though we were accidentally early for our reservation, they sat us. The service was exceptionally friendly and helpful, and the food was phenomenal. Here’s what we ordered.

Broccoli Arancini

Wild Mushroom Bruschetta

Trio of Stuffed Shells: The one with olive filling had a pesto sauce, the one with spinach filling had a tomato sauce, and the one with artichoke filling had a cream sauce.

Cassoulet

PB&J Banana Split with bruleed bananas, peanut butter chocolate chunk and strawberry jam ice cream, hot fudge, and rice krispie squares. It normally comes with meringue, but I asked them to hold the aquafaba because I’m not a fan.

…and this is me with a happy tummy taking a picture in their bathroom with the cute pine tree art in the background that looks like a nature scene outside the window. I blame the delicious mulled wine for this behavior.

When we were driving back to the hotel from Little Pine, we passed a house that had chandeliers in their front yard tree. I don’t know if this is a year-round endeavor or if this is how they celebrate the holidays, but I almost knocked on the door with my suitcase in hand to ask them to adopt me.