Caliente Tropics Resort

Over labor day weekend Kelly and I went to LA to visit Kelly's friend. It is only a six (read nine) hour drive to LA but because it is unlikely that we will leave the house before 10:00am and sometimes not until noon, we decided to leave on Friday after work and get a hotel halfway there. Kelly didn't want to stay on a hotel off of the freeway due to freeway noise so she reserved us a hotel in Palm Springs. So at 1:00am we are driving down the main streets of Palms Springs (which are very cute, btw) with only a MapQuest map and Kelly's intuition to guide us. I was beginning to wish that I had participated in the reservation process when Kelly found the hotel. We were greeted by a very round dark-skinned man in a floral print Hawaiian shirt surrounded by tikis and bamboo. Apparently, the Caliente Tropics Resort is "one of the last standing Polynesian-themed motor hotels out of the 60's". With tikis and Easter Island heads galore we were tickled pink. There were even hand-painted tiki lights outside every room. According to a plaque in the hotel room bathroom with the image of a naked gnome on it the resort was opened in 1964 by Ken Kimes. Kimes owned a chain of other themed motels and for reasons not explained on the plaque his wife and son were convicted for murder and kidnapping. A google search for Ken Kimes led to an article on the crime libary that tells all: incest, slavery, multiple murders, and even conning the President. It ends with the mother being sentenced to 120 years in prison and the son 125. Murder aside, the Caliente Tropics Resort was so much fun we almost called Kelly's friend in LA to say "We're not coming. Meet us here at the Tropics!"