Last weekend, we headed to central Virginia, Charlottesville to be exact, to spend some time in the heart of Virginia wine country. We have been to “suburbs” of Charlottesville before, but never made it to Charlottesville proper until this trip. Richard and I love to visit wineries in Northern Virginia closer to our home, but we were anxious to try more of central Virginia’s wineries. We packed up the car and headed south for President’s Day weekend to explore a new area of our state, with Ella in tow, for a warm but overcast and rainy weekend in Virginia wine country.
Happy Tuesday! I’m switching things up a little this week to recap our trip last month to Palm Springs. Stay tuned, there will be a new sweet treat food post for you next Tuesday!
Last month, we traveled to California to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We typically plan a trip around our anniversary and most of the time, we head to Napa for a jam-backed week of winery visits. But this year, we wanted something more relaxing. We spent part of our honeymoon in Palm Springs {we actually stayed at La Quinta Resort} and decided it would be fun to go back. As much as we liked La Quinta {and would definitely recommend it!} we wanted to stay somewhere new and try out a different desert city. I should also mention that when I say we were in Palm Springs, I’m using that city loosely. There are several desert towns around Palm Springs and for this trip, we stayed at the Ritz Carlton Rancho Mirage.
Overall, we had a great experience and are looking forward to going back one day…maybe even next year for our anniversary! I will highlight a few aspects of the resort below and also share some snaps that I took while we were there!
Ritz Carlton Rancho Mirage
Location: Located in Rancho Mirage and only 10 miles from downtown Palm Springs, you are close to all of the historic and famous restaurants and attractions of Palm Springs. When we stayed at La Quinta, we were about 20 miles from downtown Palm Springs and never actually made it downtown during that trip. Rancho Mirage is definitely more centrally located in the desert.
Rooms: There was nothing to complain about when it came to the rooms. They were spacious and we had a beautiful view of the pool and a cute porch with seating. The greatest part about the room was the in-room Nespresso machine that they restocked each day with new pods! My husband and I love coffee so this was such a treat to have it in the room. I missed the Nespresso so much when we first got back, I even considered buying one!
Adult-only Infinity Pool
Pools: The resort had two pools: a larger, main pool and a smaller, adult-only infinity pool. We actually stayed at the larger pool throughout our entire trip! The adult pool was pretty small and too quite for us — or maybe we are just too loud for the adult pool!! And the adult pool was where Air Pool Bar, the poolside restaurant, was located, so there was no chance I was going too far away from the food 🙂 I will get to the food in a separate section, but the pool food was pretty tasty with super fast service.
Outdoor Seating at State Fare Bar + Kitchen
The Edge Steakhouse
Outside of The Edge Steakhouse
View from The Edge Steakhouse Overlooking the Coachella Valley
Restaurants: We tried all three of the restaurants at the resort, and like most resorts, the food was over-priced. I will say that typically, resort food is over-priced and not that great, but overall, the food was delicious and the serving sizes were average to large, which is pretty unusual when it comes to resort food. We went to the State Fare Bar + Kitchen two of the afternoons for a happy hour menu with discounted appetizers and drinks. The avocado fries were amazing! For our anniversary dinner, we ate at The Edge Steakhouse. Situated on the cliff overlooking the Coachella Valley, this restaurant did not disappoint in the food or view categories. I will say, I was skeptical about making reservations here. When checking out the menu beforehand, the prices seemed totally outrageous, which totally turned me off. But, my husband said we should give it a try since it was our 5th anniversary and we had heard it was fabulous. I guess you could say it was one of those “once in a lifetime dining experiences”. Well, I’m glad he convinced me to go because it was probably the best restaurant we have both ever been to. The service was impeccable — the staff brought out a small plate for each of us, as compliments of the chef. When I had to turn mine down because it was shrimp {I’m allergic!} the chef brought out a specially-created vegetarian plate for me. I was shocked! They even gave us a card that was signed by all the staff wishing us a Happy Anniversary with a beautiful picture of the views from the restaurant. It was definitely a wonderful dining experience!
Spa & Exercise Facility
Spa & Exercise Facility: Although I did not try the spa while visiting, I did spend a lot of time in the exercise facility. Included in your resort fee {$30/day} you have access to a free fitness class! I read about this awesome feature before even arriving and was so excited at the prospect of attending a fitness class each day. This is something I can only dream about when back at home! Our instructor, Bill, was great and we did both Pilates and Yoga throughout the week. We attended class each day {except the last day — class didn’t start until 11am that day and since I never really adjusted to the Pacific time zone and was up at 5am each morning, I was ready to head to the pool by 10am!} and used the fitness center before class. The fitness center was absolutely amazing. It was basically a full-sized gym with all new equipment! Another highlight: it was connected to the spa and there was a large dispenser that was always filled with fresh coconut water. It was so delicious, I can still taste it!
It was a wonderful anniversary trip and we are both looking forward to going back one day. For those of you who have never been to Palm Springs, it is definitely a place to add to your bucket list. The weather is wonderful with no humidity and just a gorgeous place to visit! Let me know if you have any questions about the resort or if you are planning a trip and looking for restaurant suggestions and attractions to visit!
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Here are some of my favorite looks from the desert:
Happy Monday, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! You may remember a few weeks ago when we celebrated Ella’s birthday, I mentioned we had a trip to the beach planned, and this was the weekend! Ella is definitely a beach girl. She was only a couple months old when we discovered her love for the sand {not the ocean, she won’t go near it!} Although, one of her favorite activities at the beach happens to be eating the sand, which never ends well, we try to keep her focused on playing in the sand, instead of eating it.
As I mentioned, we have been taking Ella to the Rehoboth Beach area of the Delaware coast for a few years now. Last year, Ella’s birthday fell on a Friday so we made a weekend out of it at the beach. The only problem is that her birthday is the end of March and it actually SNOWED that day. We said that this year, we would push it back a few weekends, because it could never snow in April. Well, it didn’t snow, but it was a pretty cold rain Saturday. We did have a few hours of sunlight on Friday afternoon when we arrived and Ella took full advantage. And not even the wind could stop her {see picture below} 🙂
It’s very rare for us to ever leave Ella to go away for a long weekend. Typically she likes to come with us! Ella is super set in her routine, so it has been difficult staying in a hotel with her in the past. But, this past weekend was a success! Even the constantly slamming of doors throughout the hotel didn’t bother her. We can blame that on exhaustion from the beach I think!
I wanted to share a few of our favorites on the Delaware coast — everything from the dog friendly hotel to the best food to a newly discovered juice bar!
Since we first starting coming for Ella’s birthday weekend, we have been staying at the pet friendly Hyatt Place Dewey Beach. It is a pretty new hotel and super clean — something that is hard to find when it comes to beach hotels. And, it’s only a block from the beach so it doesn’t get much better when it comes to location.
Dogfish Head is always a must when we head to Delaware. Although Dogfish Head is more known as a microbrewery based in Milton, Delaware, this brewpub based in Rehoboth Beach has been around for over 20 years! But, what I love most about Dogfish Head is their food! They do have a patio that is connected to the restaurant where we usually eat when Ella is with us, but it is unfortunately under construction, so we just took our lunch on Friday to go {which honestly was fine because the wind was really starting to pick up by Friday afternoon!}. I recommend the crab cakes and the fried pickle appetizer 😉
It was rainy, cold and windy for most of the day on Saturday, but in between the rain showers we hit the beach with Ella again and found the most amazing juice bar and healthy eating restaurant in Rehoboth, GreenMan Juice Bar & Bistro. If you follow me on Snapchat {rach.mccarthy7} you may have caught my obsession with this “Healthy Elvis Smoothie”. And obsession is probably an understatement. The ingredients are listed as bananas, raspberries and organic peanut butter, which seem to be pretty healthy. Right?! In all honestly, it tasted like an unhealthy peanut butter milkshake! We actually had to stop one more time yesterday before leaving because I had to have it one more time!
And, of course we couldn’t leave the beach without picking up a container of Dolles caramel popcorn! It’s one of my favorite sweet treats and a must if you are visiting the Delaware or Maryland coast.
Overall, it was a great weekend celebrating Ella’s fourth birthday at the beach! Looking forward to our next trip back to the beach with our little beach girl!
P.S. Here is a short video of Ella from the weekend. We like to call these her “figure eights” 😉
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