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| Road trip - GF style!!! |
We did it!!! I am happy..no wait...I am THRILLED to report we took our first gluten free vacation and it was a success! I wish I could tell you the stress I had about it. We weren't going to the Sahara or anything exotic, but it was the first time we left the home area and we did it. We were able to go and enjoy ourselves, and even eat out wonderful things for our little Z.
It was an adventure I definitely had to prepare for. I spent weeks on Yelp and other review sites, looking for appropriate restaurants that served appropriate gluten free food. And by appropriate, I mean not some fancy four star restaurant that would cost us $40/plate. We are a working family of five, thank you!
First things first! I booked a room at the
Palm Canyon Resort. I chose the resort because it had a full kitchen that we could use for our breakfasts, snacks and a lunch if needed. Knowing that I could bring safe snacks, cereal and other food made planning the easier.
This resort was a perfect choice for our family. Spacious rooms with a full kitchen, balcony and a really comfy bed made this place a must-stay for our next trip
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| Kicking it poolside at the Palm Canyon Resort |
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| Family fun at the pool |
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| Two slides at the resort - the kids loved the small one |
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| The big slide was FAST and fun! |
I went ahead and planned that we would arrive in town and have lunch before going to the hotel. I also planned on dining out for dinner each night. Knowing exactly how meals I needed to plan for was really helpful. We wanted to eat casual lunch on Friday, pizza for dinner Friday night and then we wanted to eat on the top of mountain of the Aerial Tram on Saturday night.
Friday afternoon, we pulled in and went straight to
Sherman's Deli. I found Sherman's Deli on Yelp and was so excited that a real New York style deli had a gluten free menu available! Although no menu was available on-line (HINT HINT, GET ONE), I did call ahead and learned all the meats were GF and they also offered GF bread AND pastries!
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| Sherman's Deli is a GF favorite |
Once we arrived, everyone there was so nice. Our waiter was very knowledgeable and great at answering any questions we had. My little Z was going to have a sandwich, but then learned they serve breakfast all day and insisted upon getting eggs, bacon, potatoes and GF toast! She was so happy. I was thrilled that I could order a real club sandwich on GF toast too. Seriously, this sandwich is one of my most fav things in the world and I hadn't had one in over eight months.
Lunch was phenomenal. The absolute topper was buying GF berry rugaluch, GF chocolate chip cookies and GF peanut butter cookies. All pastries are packaged, sealed and stored separate from the other baked items. There was also a beautiful 4 layer GF chocolate cake that we almost bought. (too full from lunch) It was in the case and
covered to protect from cross contamination. That seriously brought a tear to my eye. Bravo Sherman's Deli! Bravo!
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| These little babies were outstanding! Love rugaluch! |
For dinner, I had decided on
Bill's Pizza. This was another Yelp find and I loved the positive reviews for their gluten free crust. Unfortunately it was a very busy Friday night and the service was extremely slow. The pizza took almost an hour to get. Despite this, I have to give Bill's Pizza some serious credit. We had some GF pizza and some regular pizza, and it was all extremely delicious. I had a couple of slices of the pizza-of-the-day and a small antipasto salad, and it was tasty! Everyone (there were 5 adults and 7 kids) thought this pizza was some of the best we have ever tasted! Now we know why they are so busy!! Lesson learned. Next time we go to Palm Springs, we are ordering early. And yes, Z loved her GF pizza. She had leftovers for lunch the next day and still thought it was awesome.
On Saturday, we wanted to take the
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and eat at the restaurants at the top of the mountain. I had some trouble getting through to someone who could help and it took a couple of phone calls. When I did reach a manager, he was extremely kind and told me that the chef would help with anything we needed once we arrived.
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We had a few - I mean A LOT of kids for the tram! |
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| Do they look nervous? |
So we arrived at the loading station and entered the round aerial tram. It was awesome. Everyone really loved the rides up and down. It is a fast, ear popping ride that gives you breathtaking views of the valley floor. We went at sunset and it was beautiful. We also loved that it was 30 degrees cooler than the bottom! We went from 102 degrees to 72 degrees in just 10 minutes!
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| My goofy, wonderful kids |
Once we walked around admiring the views and taking in the scenery, we walked over to the Pines Cafe, located inside the station. There is a full service restaurant as well, but we decided that we had too many little kids to sit through a fancy dinner. The chef came out and was so nice to us and Z. He went through every item that was GF safe or not. Unfortunately, none of the prepared salad dressings were gluten free, but the chef happily offered to create one for her. She loved the vinaigrette he prepared and ate all of her salad (unusual for her!) There was plenty of food for her to chose from and we were appreciative of the time he spent making this experience a pleasant one for all of us.
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| Feeling ok on the thrilling ride up |
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