Early rising to catch our 6:24am MAX to the airport.  Huge lines for Alaska Airlines, not so much for Southwest.  Security lines were jammed, but we have TSA Pre-Check so even though we picked the slow line, we got through security within five minutes.  Using our Priority Pass dining credits, we split a big breakfast at Caper’s Cafe, and still had enough to get a sandwich and salad packed to go.

The first leg of our flight took us to Sacramento and we had a 90-minute layover, which we used part of to watch a documentary about the Salton Sea.  Soon enough we were on our flight to Ontario, arriving on time.  We got to the rental car counter at 2:09pm, but my rental wasn’t until 2:30pm …. the attendant said that if I started my rental early, it would charge me more, so we waited the 21 minutes to officially get the rental car, which turned out to be a Mazda 6.

First stop on our winter vacation?  The Outlet Mall!  We made our way to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets and wandered around some pretty fancy stores — some even had lines outside just to get in, like Ugg Australia and Toni Burch.  Lisa ended up getting some items at Eddie Bauer, of course.  Our window shopping completed, we drove the final half-hour to Palm Desert and checked into our hotel, which will be our home for the next week!  When we entered the room, I just pretended that this was a suite on a cruise ship, since seven days is the same amount of time we would be on a cruise.  And when on a cruise, you pamper yourself, which for us means getting massages!  I bought a Living Social deal for a one-hour couples massage, which only a mile away from our hotel.  It was fabulous — they even used some hot stones during the session.

After the massage, it was almost 8pm and we hadn’t really eaten since the early afternoon, but we weren’t super hungry to go to a restaurant.  So where do we go on a Saturday night date — yep, Walmart!  We stocked up on some healthy groceries like Cheetos, cheese and salami, popcorn chicken (half-price from the deli!) and wine, then we took it back to our hotel where Lisa enjoyed another edition of “Property Brothers.”  Ah, yes, when on vacation, you watch HGTV.  And you go to bed early (like, before 10:30pm), because tomorrow is a big day!