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In Sunnylands Center & Gardens in December

We snowbirds decided to visit Sunnylands Center and Gardens at Rancho Mirage on Sunday, December 10th 2017 with a couple permanent Palm Springs residents who also had never been there. We all knew that is a place where US Presidents come to relax and at the same time have important domestic and international meetings with world leaders, but rest was not so clear. Weather during our visit was nice, almost 80 degrees Farenheit and practically no wind. So a walk through the gardens had everything one could wish for.

We first had a look at the Center and found out it is pretty new, opened in 2012 when the basic Sunnylands retreat has been built already in the 1960s, including its nine hole golf course. For such a new house the Center fits perfectly into the areas overall midcentury modern style and also shows some art pieces the original owners of Sunnylands – Leonore and Walter Annenberg had collected. After our walk in the gardens we popped into the center and found out there was a film about the whole Sunnylands just beginning. We were amazed of the amount of work (and money) was put to build the original “winter home” for Annenbergs and the golf course into a barren desert into hundreds of acres. There are guided tours into their winter home and surroundings, but we did not want to do that in this first visit leaving their turn to later visits. The film also showed how eight US presidents and international leaders have visited Sunnylands, latest important visit being Barack Obama and China’s president Xi Jingping visit with golf and meetings happened in June 2013 – Obama also was there when he left the presidency only a year ago. 

The gardens display different local plants, mostly positioned to make a strong impact to the visitor but some also left on a wildflower area. We have seen great photos from there at different times of year with last spring’s superbloom showing how wonderbul the gardens can be at full bloom. Even now some flowers were blooming including some aloe vera plants – and hummingbirds find them. An occational roadrunner also was at great speed bypassing us during our walk. So this is a place to admire the best of Coachella Valley. The attached photos so some small parts of the gardens’ greatness. Go there if you are in the area whenever and you will see something unusually beautiful!

Posted in Living in Palm Springs, California 2013-2020

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