Palm Desert.

We had a nice weekend planned. A condo in beautiful Coronado with some good friends and a trip to Sea World with the kids. The condo was owned by our friend's family, so we'd be saving a little cash on the trip. When those plans came crashing down, we fell back to Plan B - staying at another condo owned by the same family in Palm Desert. After loading up the car on Friday, my wife left Santa Clarita at 2:30, picked me up at work at 3:30, and we arrived, thanks to Los Angeles's well-oiled transportation byways, at 8:30. When we arrived, we found a beautiful condo in a gated community on a golf course... with a barely-functioning air conditioner. With the temperature outside still in the high 90's/low 100's, we immediately changed clothes and headed over to the pool. The pool, under the blazing sun all day, was as warm as a hot tub - nice in the winter, not so much at 100 degrees. After a night of sleeping in pools of our own sweat, we hoped a day with the air left on in the condo would leave things cool for the next evening's sleep. So we headed off for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in the 126 degree heat. The weather at the top of the mountain was nice. Breezy, warm but cool - the way summer should be. That only lasted a couple hours, as we had to return to the condo for the kids' naps. We returned to find the condo had gotten even hotter. We tried swimming again and, although we were determined to stay in the pool longer this time, the water was no cooler than the night before. With no relief in sight, we all agreed to cut our weekend away short and evacuate Palm Desert. We were relieved when we arrived home that night at midnight in a Santa Clarita that was only a cool, refreshing 99 degrees.