dinosaurs and date shake tasting – hadley vs shields / palm springs, ca

After heading out of the pretty mountains at Big Bear, we headed out to Palm Springs! Since it was late October it was not super hot like it is in the summer, but it’s actually more “San Diego-like” temperatures – in the 70’s. On the way to Palm Springs we stopped at Cabazon Outlet mall. That place has got a bunch of “fancy” stores like Armani and Coach and a bunch of brands I’ve never heard of because I’m not into spending $200 on a pair of pants. I did actually get a Coach bag though after joking with Jake that we should go in so I could “laugh at the prices”. Ahem. In my defense, it’s an all green purse! My favorite color! It was meant to be.

After the outlet mall we headed over to check out the Cabazon Dinosaurs.

This is like my favorite picture ever of Jake.

Chris, Jake and I doing a selfie in front of Mr. Rex.

This is Dinny, the Apatosaurus.  I like that you can see stairs on the other side of him, plus little windows where the gift shop is.

Here are the stairs leading up to the gift shop inside the belly of the dinosaur.

In case you don’t know where you are. You are INSIDE the Apatosaurus. Got it, thanks.

Here’s a sign playing up creationism and saying that evolution is impossible. HMMM. I actually did not even read this sign until later when I was looking at the photo. You can click on this photo to enlarge it and read it yourself, if interested.

Crushing their heads! Mr. Rex and Dinny are featured in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, in case you didn’t know.

There’s an exhibit you can pay to get into for a chance to walk up into Mr. Rex, but we didn’t want to pay for that. Just looking at the dinosaurs was enough for us!

Since we came in through the I-10, I thought it’d be fun to do a little “date shake” tasting for Chris and I (since Jake doesn’t like dates). Our first date shake was at Hadley’s which is in between the Cabazon Outlet Mall and the dinosaurs.  At Hadley’s they have three different sizes for the date shakes. I should have gotten the small, but no, I got the medium sized one.

Also in Hadley’s – lots and lots of photographs autographed by famous (and semi-famous) people from Hollywood. 

The Hadley’s shake is made the “traditional” way – with vanilla ice cream and cut up pieces of dates. This makes for a pretty chewy date shake. The downside to this one is that it tastes pretty much like a vanilla shake with stuff added into it. It’s not a bad version, and if you’ve never had it any other way, is quite delicious. I still liked it, but Chris thought it wasn’t as good. 

The next day we went to Shields Date Garden which features a movie about the Romance and Sex Life of the Date which I documented earlier this summer. At Shields there is only one size of the date shake (I wish there was a small here!) and it’s a little more pricey than the Hadley’s version.

The difference is in the flavor and texture. At Shields they use their own product, called Date Crystals, to make the dates. The date crystals are sort of like dried dates, which you can grind down and then added into the shake. This creates a more uniform date flavor which blends better into the ice cream and you don’t have to chew your milkshake. Chris and I both thought this was a superior shake to the one at Hadley’s since it has a richer and fuller date flavor. It tastes like date all the way through instead of a vanilla shake with stuff mixed in.

You can also buy their date crystals to take home and make your own milkshakes at home (and I did buy some, I just haven’t used it yet!).

Hadley Fruit Orchard
48980 Seminole Dr., Cabazon, CA 92230-2112
(951) 849-5255

Shields Date Garden
80-225 U.S. Highway 111
Indio, CA 92201-6599
(760) 347-0996