Paribas 2012 - Day One
After making sure we stayed up as late as possible last night, we popped up early this morning to pack and catch the early plane to Denver, then on to Palm Springs, CA, for the Paribas Tennis Tournament at Indian Wells.
To get to Palm Springs, you must fly over miles of barren desert, followed by stretches of mountainous desert. Palm Springs rises up bright green against the backdrop of brown rocks and sand.
The Palm Springs airport takes advantage of their climate and environment. You arrive at the sky bridge like every other modern airport, walk down the bridge to the gate, and head out toward baggage claim. Once you walk through the jetway door, however, you are outside! The walkways have covers and shops like an outdoor mall. Eventually, past all kinds of sculpture and planting, you reach the main building where you pick up baggage and rental cars.
This year Hertz gave us a a lovely Ford Fiesta. I didn't realize how accustomed I was to driving a car with a real engine! At least this one came with amenities, including key holes on the outside of the door and a trunk light. Oh! And a night setting on the rear view mirror. You really miss those when they disappear.
We drove straight to tennis from the airport. Unfortunately, traffic seemed a bit rush-hourish and took us forever to get there. We attacked the food court since we left home too early for breakfast and the long security line at the OKC airport meant we couldn't eat there. A quick tennis-tournament burger re-established the will to live.
The grounds at Indian Wells always look absolutely beautiful with flowers in bloom everywhere. After leaving a cold, wet Oklahoma City, we started out with a balmy 81° or so. By the time we had spent a few hours few hours sitting in the stadium sun, however, the temp had risen into the upper 90s.
We had to cut our tennis day short and didn't make it to the night session. Our thanks to Dr. Fong for calling in a late-night script for headache meds!
