We all know that great service is a top requirement of a stellar dining experience. But how can a server—or any hospitality employee, for that matter—be expected to provide exquisite assistance if he or she loathes his or her job? I’m always chatting with service industry professionals and thought it might be fun to explore…
DetailsAll my life, I’ve had an abiding affection for animals. This affinity for four-legged friends expectedly extends to my beloved, beautiful bighorns. When I was a little girl, driving around the Palm Springs Valley with Mother, I used to spy them grazing on the country club fairways—or wandering around the grounds of The Ritz. They…
DetailsMarc and Cara have been snowbirds for the past few winters, luxuriating in their gorgeous Rancho Mirage condo while friends and family suffer through Chicago winters. They arrived even earlier than usual this year, and we got together for a late lunch soon after they settled in. Moments after sharing a slice of New York…
DetailsThe Palm Springs Convention Center was recently the site of a fundraiser for a great organization that provides nutritional help to men, women, and children from the Palm Springs Valley who are living with HIV/AIDS. And I was happy to attend with a gaggle of pals. On September 14, AAP—the AIDS Assistance Program—gathered more than…
DetailsSorry to borrow a bit from Diana’s beloved alliteration with the above headline, but had such a phenomenal experience during my last stay at this deluxe Rancho Mirage resort that I just can’t contain myself. Of course, this excellent encounter had everything to do with the Westin Mission Hills’ incomparable people. Now, let me remind…
DetailsI’m the kind of guy who’s never met a spa he didn’t love. I seek out these soothing experiences everywhere I go, whether I find myself overnight in L.A., on a cruise to Hawaii, in Vegas for the weekend, or overseas at a five-star European hotel. Offer me steam, dry sauna, hot jacuzzi bubbles on…
DetailsI don’t know about you, but I just don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like pancakes. My friend Paul—a corporate road warrior from Seattle—loves them almost as much as he loves his regular business trips down to the Palm Springs Valley. Such is his devotion to his favored flapjacks that he won’t stay anywhere else but…
DetailsI’m so sincerely thankful to live in such proximity of a park as precious as Whitewater Park, mere moments’ drive from the famous pink pachyderm that advertises the Elephant Car Wash on 111 in the heart of Rancho Mirage. Right next to the wash, this special seven-acre swath of green—the city’s premier park, dedicated in…
DetailsIt’s no secret that I love to enjoy life. I get immense pleasure from eating wonderfully prepared food, traveling to exotic (or mundane) locations, meeting fascinating people, and imbibing elixirs as simple as sun tea with Meyer lemon and honey, or some of the most exquisite wines and spirits in the world. But even with…
DetailsThe prodigious pink pachyderm parading down the pike in front of the Rancho Super Car Wash isn’t the only big beast in town. Driving down Highway 111 a bit further to Bob Hope Drive, you’ll come to one of the best Asian restaurants in the Palm Springs Valley, Thai Smile of Rancho Mirage. Its logo…
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