Friday, January 6, 2023
Vacation day 28 of 30. Trip vacation day 4 of 6. Breakfast: similar to yesterday. Hot tub soak. Met and chatted with Daniel from Arizona. Showered. The sun emerged after three overcast days, so we sat poolside and rested. Boxed lunches similar to yesterday: we both had the sandwich meal called Cousin Vinny (roast beef). I had mine with potato salad. Patrick had a side of mandarin oranges. Patrick's shoe was giving him trouble, so we rode UberX to a shoe store called Running Wild but nothing interested him. At nearby Tommy Bahama he found a pair he liked; all staff were very helpful; Florence did most of the assisting for us. We walked the shopping district more, stopping for drinks at table 706 at Las Casuelas Terraza (222 S. Palm Canyon Drive): regular Top Shelf Margarita for Patrick, regular pina colada for me, complimentary salsa and warm tortilla chips. Food and drink and service by Shari were excellent. We enjoyed briefly chatting with her about restaurants and Eight4Nine. We rode UberX to Palm Springs Cleaners (760-325-8578, 425 S. Sunrise Way) to pick up the pants I had dropped off on Tuesday—they are perfectly clean! We walked back to Santiago Resort and rested in the room before dinner at Eight4Nine Restaurant and Lounge: skinny watermelon (Jaja silver tequila, fresh lime juice, house-made watermelon puree, and agave nectar, served on the rocks) for Patrick, prickly pear (Tres generation organic silver, fresh lime juice, agave nectar, prickly pear puree, served on the rocks with fresh lime) for me. Appetizer: we shared ahi poke with shrimp chips (house-made kimchi, avocado, scallion, white shoyu, sesame oil). Entrees: Patrick had fried chicken (half local organic hen, laminated biscuits, butter-milk skin on mash, Calabrian chili honey), I had mesquite-smoked carne asada (grass-fed beef skirt steak, refried pintos, yellow corn esquites, pico de gallo, negra modelo ranchera sauce). Dessert: we shared 849 Caramel Macchiato Cake (espresso brushed chocolate cake, salted caramel, vanilla bean buttercream, Maldon salt). All food and drink were excellent. Service by Sean S was very good except for a long delay at the end when he spent a lot of time at another table. We weren't in a hurry, so we weren't bothered much by it. Afterwards we walked a bit in the neighborhood again before riding UberX back to Santiago Resort.