Last month, I spent the non-Apocalypse not with Chef, but with my “traveling companion” Dana in Palm Springs.  Over the years, Dana and I have been lucky enough to travel as a faux-honeymooning couple to some of the world’s most romantic destinations—from Rio to Bali.  But the choice of the California outback was mostly so that I could authentically deliver to Chef one of my favorite Kristin Scott Thomas lines from the movie The English Patient, “I don’t want to die in the desert.”  Unlike Ralph Fiennes, Chef didn’t commandeer an aircraft and search for me ceaselessly, something about being sure I was living it up not in a cave but at La Quinta Resort & Club.

Although the resort was built in the 1920s and home to numerous celebrities (as well as post-President Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower), the property came on my radar screen as the spot where major sports stars stay during the BNP Paribas Indian Wells tennis tournament.  The resort’s tennis facilities are topnotch with a mini-stadium court where fans can sometimes catch their favorites like Andy Roddick warming up for the real event.  Those with deeper pockets can ante up for the famous Pro-Am event and play alongside hotties like Fernando Verdasco.  Personally, I’d have a hard time paying attention to the balls on the court if I were lucky enough to play alongside that Spaniard.  I had an easier time facing off against Dana on center court, although the gorgeous Santa Rosa Mountains in the distance distracted me.

Garbo's La Casa at sunrise

One of my gripes about the West Coast  (other than the endless traffic) has always been the lack of interesting historic sites or architecture.  But like the quirky Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, the La Quinta ended up filling that need for me with a who’s who list of Hollywood royalty shacking up at the resort.  While Greta Garbo may have put the place on the map when she vacationed here in the 1920s (read more about that in my GayWeddings.com post), it was the writer-director Frank Capra’s devotion to the resort that peaked my interest.  He first came to the desert hot spot in the late 1920s to write the script for “It Happened One Night.” Supposedly after the film swept the Academy Awards that year, Capra’s superstition overcame him, and he returned year after year to pen classics like “You Can´t Take It With You,” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Dana and I, post-tennis, at the onsite candy store

“How cool would it be to book his suite and come here for a week to just write,” I commented to Dana over dinner at the resort’s locally focused restaurant Morgan’s in the Desert.

“Maybe.  But he lead a pretty tortured life,” she replied dryly.

You can see why we’re like an old married couple, right?

As the Apocalypse neared, I readied myself for an English Patient close-up at the spa.  The Spanish-colonial style building centers on a beautiful and shady relaxation courtyard where I waited for my therapist.  The Rosemary Awakening treatment—a dry brush exfoliation followed by a rosemary mist that strengthens capillaries followed by a full-body massage and peppermint cream foot massage—had me on my toes for impending doom, or tennis with Dana.  The latter came first.

Already, I’m scheming a return to this special desert resort.  Whether to write an award-winning screenplay or endure the next doomsday.  After all, wouldn’t be such a terrible tragedy to die in this desert.

For more on La Quinta as a wedding locale, check out my Destination: Taste column on GayWeddings.com

Note: I was the guest of La Quinta for one night