hotels

The Parker Palm Springs

Posted on August 10, 2015 Written by Tonya

I fell in love on my birthday.

I can’t stop thinking about tbe weekend getaway my husband and I took.

It was perfect start to finish.

The only problem, as it often is with getaways, it was too short.

And now, I’m left pining for a hotel.

I had never heard of The Parker Palm Springs before our hairstylist recommended it to my husband as a potential candidate for a birthday staycation.

I’m so grateful she did.

The setting for a of short-lived reality series, Welcome to the Parker (2007), which I never saw or even heard of until I was on the property and my husband mentioned it.

In 1959, the Parker Palm Springs was originally a Holiday Inn of all things. In fact, it was California’s first Holiday Inn. In 1961, the property was purchased by Gene Autry for lodging his newly acquired baseball team, the California Angels, during Spring Training. Autry changed the name to Melody Ranch and added a second pool, tennis courts, a bar, and a couple of restaurants.

In 1994, Autry sold the resort to his hotel director, Rose Narva, who remodeled the site into a French-themed wonderland with the help of fashion-designer Hubert de Givenchy. Narva renamed the hotel Givenchy Hotel and Spa.

In 1998, the hotel was purchased by media mogul, Merv Griffin, who promptly renamed it Merv Griffin’s Resort Hotel and Givenchy Spa.

In 2002, Griffin sold the space to Epix Hotels and Resorts and it sat vacant until 2003 when it was purchased by hotelier Jack Parker. Parker hired designer Jonathan Adler to give the space a $27 million facelift. The property re-opened in 2004 as Le Parker Meridien, or Parker Palm Springs as it is better known.

Today, the Parker is like something out of a Lewis Carroll book, every pathway leading to a delightful surprise; pools, croquet and pétanque courts, bunny filled lawns where you can lounge in a hammock, tennis courts, a ping pong table, over-sized chess game, fire pits with seating for 10, restaurants (Norma’s and Mister Parker’s), and an outdoor café (The Lemonade Stand). You haven’t lived until you’ve had an über-cool Muddled Lemonade!

The 13-acre desert estate has 144-rooms and a 16,500-square-foot award-winning spa named the Palm Spring Yacht Club which has 21 treatment rooms.

The decor throughout is whimsical and fun, full of rich detail and lots of eye candy. Here are just a few photos I took:

I loved every moment of our two day stay at the Parker and can’t wait to return. I enjoyed spending a luxurious morning at the spa/yacht club and feeling like I was actually on a yacht. The binder of playlists allowing you to select the music you’d like to hear during your spa treatment is genius, but it was the night swimming; floating on my back in the middle of the pool, staring up at the desert sky, welcoming a new year of possibilities, that is the memory that I will hold close to my heart forever.

Next time I’d even consider bringing the children along.

On second thought…

Just in case you were wondering, all thoughts and research are my own. The Parker Palm Springs did not compensate me in any way, although I wouldn’t mind if they did.

Explaining Homelessness To A Five-Year-Old

Posted on July 1, 2014 Written by Tonya

Wouldn’t it be extraordinary if we could shield our children from the ugliness of the world, protect them from the real bad guys, drugs, poverty, racial insensitivity, discrimination and despair, but we can’t. Try as we might, it exists.

Sometimes it’s standing on the corner of a neighborhood you frequent, staring you right in the eye, daring you to face it is as a parent, forcing you to look at it through your child’s eyes, imploring you to make better choices, to make a difference.

We saw a young woman this past weekend on the corner as we were entering the freeway, she was young, maybe mid-20s. She was holding a sign that said something like: Homeless. Need help – anything you can offer. God bless you.

We kept driving and as we did, Lucas asked what the woman was doing. He wanted to know why she was standing there and wanted to know what her sign said. We explained to her that she had no home and needed help.

You mean she has nowhere to live?

Why doesn’t she just go to the hotel and stay there?

We explained that hotels are expensive and she probably can’t afford to stay there, especially if she’s out on the street asking for money.

Why doesn’t she get a job and then she’ll have money and then she can stay at the hotel and then she won’t be homeless anymore?

We told him that there are many reasons why people are homeless; she may be trying to get a job but she can’t make enough money to stay at a hotel. She probably needs money to just eat.

If she gets a job she’ll have money and then she can eat and stay at the hotel.

We told him there could be many reasons why she can’t find a job, maybe she doesn’t have an education, maybe she’s on a lot of medications (in lieu of getting into what drugs are) that impair her brain so it isn’t working properly. We assured him that it was okay to feel sad for her and her situation.

What will she do when she does get money?

Trying to remain positive, we told him she would most likely get something to eat or find an inexpensive place to stay, like a shelter.

This went back-and-forth a little bit longer and then all of a sudden as if he realized that the concepts we were so delicately trying to explain were too hard for him to comprehend at this young age, he suggested we should talk about something else.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Lucas is very astute and whether he realizes it or not, in many cases we answer his questions as simplistically as we can and let him dictate where the conversation goes and how it ends.

A day later, out of the blue Lucas asked me if we had money. I said yes, we have enough money to buy the things we need and some extras from time to time and then asked why he was asking. He said that seeing the woman by the freeway had made him sad and that if we have money we should have given her some. I told him that we could have bought her lunch but by giving her money she may not spend it in a way that would help her. This was way over his head. To him, she needed money and she needed a place to stay and money is the way to obtain those things. All that came out of his sweet five-year old mouth was a quiet “oh”.

How do you explain a topic so big and abstract as homelessness to young children?

How do you become part of the solution and not the problem?

How do you tell your child that you can’t hand out money to every person asking for it?

Have You Ever?

Posted on November 26, 2012 Written by Tonya

Have you ever felt giddy over getting another stamp in your passport?

Have you ever been approached on the street in Yaletown and asked if you needed help with directions, restoring your faith in the kindness of strangers?

Have you ever been caught in the rain on Robson Street and laughed so hard you cried?

Have you ever seen a twinkle in your husband’s eye as he points out the building he used to live in on Georgia Street?

Have you ever sang karaoke to a room full of strangers at Hollywood North and it made your heart do cartwheels inside your chest?

Have you ever tasted the tomato soup with goat cheese at Cardero’s in Coal Harbor and swear you could eat it every day this winter and never grow tired of it?

Have you ever felt as though your problems at home really were a million miles away?

Have you ever pushed your son’s stroller through Stanley Park?

Have Aurora and Qila, the beluga whales at the Vancouver Aquarium ever smiled at you?

Have you ever walked across suspension bridges 230 feet above the Capilano River while your knees quaked with fear?

Have you ever taken a photo of your husband and son swimming in the hotel pool from your 22nd floor window?

Have you ever celebrated Thanksgiving with filet mignon and chocolate cake at Hy’s Steakhouse?

Have you ever written the top 10 items you are most grateful for on the back of a wine list in crayon?

Have you ever watched your child experience something as magical as snow for the first time and it completely took your breath away?

Have you ever been in 32 degrees, worn four layers of clothing and still couldn’t get warm?

Have you ever heard the delicate sound of snow melting off of tree branches?

Have you ever watched the pastry chef at Chateau Whistler masterfully assemble a life-sized gingerbread house in the lobby?

Have you ever bought souvenirs at Granville Market?

Have you ever been to a place that you just couldn’t describe in words?

Have you ever been to British Columbia?

During our week in Vancouver and Whistler I had all of these sensations and experiences. My senses were truly on overdrive and it was an amazing week. We are already planning our next visit.

Vacation Highlights

Posted on June 7, 2012 Written by Tonya

Trust me, I hate hearing about other people’s vacations just as much as the next gal, so I’ll just share the highlights from ours….

In case you missed it, we spent last week in North Carolina attending a wedding in Lake Lure and stayed at the inn where parts of Dirty Dancing was filmed.

Johnny's Cabin (and no, we did not stay here).

We were expecting it to be muggy and gross but instead it was mild and gorgeous, but as with all vacations there were ups and downs. I’ll let you decide which is which.

Four hotels in six days is a lot of work with luggage and a three year old.
I forgot to pack a hat, towels, beach toys, but was able to purchase all for $40.00. Grrr.
Those mountain ranges are beautiful, but the winding roads led to Lucas’ first experience with car sickness, which led to me washing out his soiled clothes and newly acquired towels in a public fountain. It was awesome. My husband took pictures.
None of us ever adjusted to the time difference so we didn’t make it to breakfast once (not even the free kind). Dry cereal in our hotel room does not count!
Speaking of eating, Lucas ate mac ‘n cheese for all but one meal. Can you say: super embarrassing and not always easy to accommodate?
I came home with two mysterious bug bites.
Reading the same three children’s books over and over and over again gets old really fast.
Over the course of three days, we were in a swimming pool, a lake and a splash pad.
One Lightening McQueen was thrown into a fish pond at the lovely Charlotte Airport Sheraton. Luckily, it was retrievable.
One of us (ME) missed the wedding ceremony because another one of us (LUCAS) was napping (see bullet point above about time difference adjustment).
~~Too much~~ BBQ, hush puppies and sweet tea were enjoyed.

One of the many reasons I adore traveling is meeting new people and learning something unexpected each day I’m away from home. I suppose I don’t have to travel to do that, but I seem to be more open to it when I’m living out of a suitcase. Here are those highlights:

An iPhone can be thrown 20 feet across a room (don’t ask, it was not one of my finest moments) and still work 24 hours later. Those 24 hours were touch-and-go and there was nothing but a black screen and a few tears on on my part, but it came back to me stronger than ever.

Brazil has the second largest population of Japanese people (next to Japan, of course) in the world. [wedding reception convo]

The most visited winery in the United States isn’t located in Napa Valley. It’s at Biltmore Estate, in the mountains of North Carolina, where approximately 1 million visitors stop by to sample award-winning estate wines each year. Grapes can be imported for processing and bottling to a place that has perfect climate or making wine.

A couple having a dinner at a table next to us made a point of coming over to our table to welcome us to North Carolina after overhearing us talk about our home. Southern hospitality truly exists.

Newborn puppies can die from something tragic called Fading Puppy Syndrome (again, don’t ask).

Once you get home from a vacation and look through all the photos you took, there won’t be a single shot of the entire family together.

There is no place like home!

Me completely geeking out on the audio tour at Biltmore Estate.

One of the best parts of our trip for me was of course being together as a family but I also thoroughly enjoyed (as exhibited in the photo above) visiting Biltmore House and Gardens in Asheville. Completed in 1895, George Vanderbilt’s 250-room chateau is as impressive today as it was more than a century ago. Biltmore House is truly an architectural and historical wonder.

I’m In A Blog Time Out

Posted on July 8, 2011 Written by Tonya

I haven’t blogged for a few days but that’s not for lack of subject matter, I’ve just really been busy! I think I’m also still recovering from our Fourth of July weekend. Please tell me I’m not alone.

We spent Sunday night at the Four Seasons in Westlake Village en route to Santa Barbara and while I did a lot of this:

Lucas and Daddy did a lot of this:

I ~~think~~ know I got the better deal.

Nothing makes Lucas happier than being in the water. He has no fear jumping in or being completely submerged.

And as if all the pool water play wasn’t tiring enough, we both took turns doing this:

Like us, Lucas LOVES hotels, especially running up and down the hallways.

Once we got to Santa Barbara, there was more water, A LOT more water, sun and s’mores!

A big thank you to Paul & Maia for inviting us to share their July 4th! I wish I could have captured a good photo of all the kids together. They had a blast.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

P.S. I’m not really in a time out. For more on what’s been keeping be away from my blog, keep reading…

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