On the last morning of my most recent trip to Palm Springs, I ended up taking a few pictures of myself in the pool of my hotel. This was partly to recreate some of my favorite pictures from my trip to Nevis, but partly because it was the perfect way to document my experience of the trip.
Because despite going on vacation in the desert, I spent a lot of my trip in water. First, it was a few days soaking in mineral pools up in Desert Hot Springs. Then it was hours spent floating in (and occasionally lounging by) the pools at my hotel in Palm Springs.
And it was all that time spent floating that made me realize what I wanted to take home from this trip. Not take home in the literal sense, but if you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll know that I have this personal rule to try and bring back my favorite parts of a trip and incorporate them into my everyday life.
After my trip to Nevis, that sparked the hunt for the perfect robe.
And after this trip to Palm Springs, I came home and joined my local pool so that I could start swimming on the regular.
I’d been thinking about joining for a while. At heart, I am a water baby. I grew up swimming, both in structured lessons and hours spent at my grandpa’s pool, and while I never swam competitively, an intermediate swim class in college rekindled my love, which I then turned into regular swim training for a few triathlons in my 20s. But I really lost touch with the pool in my 30s.
A few years ago, I started going with some of the cross country runners I coach to swim (very early) one morning a week before they went to school, and I really did mean to join after the fall cross country season ended, but I kept coming up with excuses. It was kind of expensive. I wasn’t sure how to work it into my schedule. I dislike having to drive to go work out.
But floating in the pool in Palm Springs, all those excuses floated away. (Pun intended.) I realized that if I was willing to fly across the country to float in pools in the desert, I clearly value it enough to make it part of my regular schedule.
So two weeks ago I joined the pool and I’m officially a water baby once again! Swimming laps isn’t quite as relaxing as soaking in mineral hot springs, but it’s a good way to get myself back in the water on a more regular basis and tide me over until my next trip to Palm Springs. (Or anywhere else with amazing pool culture. I’m open to suggestions!!)
And for further proof that lounging in pools while I pose for pictures isn’t anything new, here’s a picture I came across recently of little me floating on a surfboard in my grandpa’s pool:
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