Owning a Marriott Timeshare has been an awesome investment for us. We are able to vacation twice a year in fully equipped 2 bedroom condos instead of hotel rooms which is awesome when you have kids. Having a full kitchen and separate bedrooms is just heaven on Earth when traveling with young children that go to bed before you do and still take naps mid day. This past week we went to Shadow Ridge in Palm Desert Cali which is about 10 minutes away from Palm Springs, CA. As Marriott owners we were able to receive special privileges to a private pool area and they allowed us to change our room (to a whole different building) because I did not like the view. We were originally placed in a second floor unit facing the back end of a water feature and stared at the maintenance path that the crew takes. BLAH! So I called the front desk and they moved us to a third floor unit across the way that over looked a lake on a beautiful green. Score! There was little bunnies and ducks every night that played in the grass below our room. There were three adult sized pool, a toddler pool, water slide with pool and two splash pads on the grounds. There was never a problem with over crowded pool areas which is so surprising. The weather was hot and averaged about 95-98 daily and cooled down at night to about 70. Who wouldn't want to vacation in that weather? Our guess was that during this time of year desert golf courses over seed and they are closed for 4-6 weeks at a time including the Nick Faldo course that was in our resort. Frank did not golf while we were there. He did not want to go alone, and without a babysitter I could not play with him. Maybe next time we can recruit some friends to vacation the same time we do and then the boys can play golf together or we all can go?
As suspected, the kids LOVED LOVED LOVED the water slide. Devin and Riley both went down the first time on our laps and then after that it was the highlight of their day. Devin must have gone down on that slide 150 times with no exaggeration. The slide attendants got to know him by name. We sent Riley down a few times alone with one of us catching her at the bottom and she then swam with swimmies to the stairs where she would climb up and walk back to the stairs to go again. The loved the splash pads and the one pool where we had privileges to was zero entry so they could just walk in like at the beach. The majority of this pool was 3-3.5 feet where we played so Devin was able to jump off the side and stand when he was in the water. 
There is a big shopping area called Paseo Drive which they compare to Rodeo Drive in BH. Now I was not that impressed with it and Frank told me I was spoiled by living in Las Vegas and so close to Philly and NYC growing up. They had the usual round up of Tiffany's, Gucci, Kate Spade, Burberry, Lucky, True Religion, Janie and Jack, JCrew, Coach etc....but the cool part was the art galleries. There were so many art galleries and jewelry stores. We went into a few galleries and fell in love with one painter. His name was Michael James Smith from England and does oils. He paints English countrysides and it takes him 15-16 layers to create his finished product. We SO would have bought one, but there was a downside....smallest one was a 16 by 20 and was 10K. Largest one was 4 ft by 5ft and was 75k. A bit pricey for us, but they were amazing none the less. We went to a nice dinner there at a place called Pacifica Seafood and it was pretty good. Kids behaved well and we were complimented on them. I was stressed out worrying that others would get mad if they were too noisy, but nothing that a few glasses of wine couldn't fix. 
Besides golf and shopping there is not much to do in Palm Desert/Palm Springs. There was a small zoo that we could have gone to, but we decided to skip it. We literally went to one of the pools everyday and just hung out. Believe me, we loved it for the first 3 or 4 days, but after that we were bored and ready for something else. So sad that we cannot just sit back and relax for a week. I think it would have been different if we did not have the kids with us because we would have been able to lay around and read a book or float in the pool, but with a 1.5 and 3 year old that was not in the agenda. 
On the way home, we took a little detour to go to a U Pick Farm in the San Bernandino Mountains. The place was called Riley's at Los Rios Rancho and they had apple picking and pumpkin picking. By the website and the reviews I thought this place was going to be the best farm on Earth. Our apple orchard here in Las Vegas was better than theirs and the pumpkin patch was about a 40 ft by 40ft patch of dirt with pumpkins scattered here and there. Kids loved it which made it all worth while. Frank got some fresh pressed apple cider and said it was the best he has ever had so that trip was totally worth the detour. The ride home was about 4.5 hours since we went the long way home by the children both took naps and the traffic coming into LV from LA was light for a Friday afternoon. 
All in all it was a great week with the family. Kids had a blast and Frank and I were able to have a beer or two on the patio while the kids hung out. It is always nice to get away from home too (even though the landscaping and weather is exactly the same as our back yard haha). I am not sure we would go back to that area again, unless like I said we were with other people. Next up we have Sedona, AZ and the Grand Canyon leaving Vegas on Nov 11th. We will also be going on the Polar Express in the Grand Canyon that Saturday night to see Santa. How cool! Totally stoked for that one. 
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