Chilly temperatures send people inside to celebrate holiday weekend

The holiday weekend brought nonstop customer traffic for Trio restaurant in downtown Palm Springs. Vacationers say the gloomy weather had them trade in drinks by the pool for lunch and a brisk walk. “It’s better than the East Coast so can’t complain,” Mario Caruso said. “We had an amazing weekend. The best Christmas ever. But we found a lot of the people we were talking to they’re from Calgary, Chicago… so the weather is much worse. Once the rain stopped they were OK with the sun and the coolness,” Trio restaurant, co-owner Tony Marchesi said. Trio, Crystal Fantasy and the Hilton Hotel in Palm Springs are just a few of many area businesses touting brisk sales. “There was a lot of people in town and there was a lot of shopping going on. So all in all it turned out to be a very good holiday weekend,” Main Street Palm Springs President Joy Meredith said. Another destination, the Aerial Tramway, had a wait time of 4 1/2 hours, with cars bumper to bumper just to get tickets. “We just found out the wait time is about four hours, but we’re still waiting because we are determined to go,” Jenny Kwon said. Others were left without plans for the day. “We decided to go [to] Palm Springs but there’s this line. We’re not going to go in here. We’re just going to head back home,” Cris Hefler said. Some small-business owners said Monday’s sales were a bonus to the already great holiday weekend.