Glam's Rants: From Arid Desert to Alpine Oasis in 10 minutes!

On Tuesday morning, I joined one of my client groups for their annual "offsite." They selected an interesting locale for the first day of their offsite. Just East of Palm Springs, there is a tram ride that I had heard of, but never taken. I never really saw the point of taking a tram ride through the desert, and I am terriby afraid of heights and detest small crowded spaces. But since this was for work, and I really like this particular group of clients, I sucked it up and hopped into the crowded tram car and rode up the rocky hill.

I was immediately struck by how quickly this thing moves. It hauls a$% up the hill while simultaneously spinning around and around to ensure that everyone has a 360 degree view. Needless to say, it took me several minutes to get my bearings so that I could finally relax enough to shoot a picture or two.

My next surprise was how quickly we arrived at our destination. The base of the ride is over 2,000 feet elevation and we arrived at our destination, which is at about 8,600 feet elevation, in exactly 10 minutes!

We exited the tram and arrived at what, to my surprise, looks like an alpine forest, San Jacinto State Park.

Our meetings were pretty interesting, but I won't bore you with the details. My team did win the "Legoman" team building challenge, and my favorite comment was from the senior manager at the offsite who turned to us and said, "Why do you think you were so successful? I have to say, I was watching you the entire time and was convinced your group was going to finish dead last, because you seemed so disorganized." Well, at least we have the faith of our senior management. . .

When we arrived back at the base of the hill, which apparently is more of a mountain, we spotted these little guys sporting their Halloween masks a little early.