Man Alive! I'm back...and well. I think it's only right to finish this series post, clearly I'm not good at taking on "series posts"...Anyways, is it wrong, that even though it's been two months since my FAM, I still remember it clear as day..but I can't remember what I had for lunch today?? Here it is folks...the latter half of the FAM which was full of fun events like these....
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - Day 2
We started bright in early with Breakfast at the the
La Quinta Resort & Club. This place happens to be MY FAVORITE place to eat Breakfast. I guess you can say, I planned it that way...but honestly everything about the La Quinta Resort speaks, no, no, screams Palm Springs! I mean, it's technically in La Quinta, but the resort grounds are breathtaking and perfectly tucked up against our Chocolate Mountains, which gives one a true Palm Springs Destination experience. After breakfast we took a tour of the resort and ran into their Director of Tennis, Tom Gorman, for those you who aren't tennis buffs you can learn more about him by clicking
here.
After we were star struck, we made our way to tour the
The Living Desert, we had a lemonade with the leopards and mingled with the giraffes.
Up next, more food! Lunch at
Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa, which was actually quite the treat because we had it in the middle of The Show - which is the casino's concert theater! We followed lunch with a team-building activity that gave back to our community. The team-building activity is called, Build-a-Bike. We split into teams and are given challenges to solve. Once you solve a challenge your team is rewarded a bike part. Each team makes 2 bikes by the end of the challenges. At the beginning of the activity we let the clients know the bikes they're building are going to under privileged children who have never owned a bike, which makes the process very special. However, what we don't tell them is that they get to actually get to give the bikes to the children! So, once all the bikes are made, we get them all lined up and SURPRISE, in come the kids with huge smile on their faces, and the client's tears come a rollin'. It's an amazing experience, and no matter how many times you've experienced it, you still get all choked up! Here are a few pictures from that day....
The fun certainly didn't stop there...for dinner we followed a little white rabbit to
Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa, because we simply couldn't be late for a very important date! We were completely taken into Wonderland, and had a family style dinner with the Mad Hatter. But, what's dinner with the Mad Hatter without your very own Mad Hatter Top Hat!? The clients were each given a top hat to design and make their own. During dinner the Alice in Wonderland was playing on the big screen to bring together the imaginative atmosphere. This is one dinner event, I will never forget!
Look at those creative hats!
Mr. Mad Hatter
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - Day 3
I know that Tuesday is a hard day to follow...but we still had one more event to go! This FAM we tried a little something new and outside of the box. I put together and, planned our very first Desert Storm Apprentice Challenge. We played off the Donald Trump TV Show, The Apprentice and added a twist of Palm Springs.We teamed up with AdVenture Group Inc (for more about them click
here), and went from city to city preforming challenges for points at each hotel on our list. Each team was given a camera, and codes to text "Mr. Trump" for the next location. It ended up being a HOOT! My memory is failing, but one of the challenges we performed we arrived at the hotel to get dressed up in goofy Halloween gear, toured the hotel taking specific notes and ended up in a guest room, where we were challenged to make a bed like the housekeepers do. Let's just say, the Team Black totally ROCKED IT and made a perfect bed in 2min5sec! ;)
We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at the
JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, with belly dancers and saxophone players. And, that my friends brings my series post to an end. finally. :)
Reflecting on this FAM, is getting me anxious for the next FAM, how am I going to top this one??!!
It's very rare that when Marc goes back to work we get the same day off. About two months ago, our days off aligned and we decided to go to breakfast at Shields Date Gardens. Shields is a historical place for the Coachella Valley. It was established in 1924 and currently houses 95% of the worlds dates. It's THEE best place to stop and taste your first Date Shake (which is actually quite delicious!). You can sip on your shake while watching the 15 minute movie, "Romance & Sex Life of a Date.' They just opened up a cafe that serves Breakfast and lunch, but enough with my sales pitch (sometimes I get carried away.) ;) I convinced my hubby that riding our bikes would be fun! He was a little apprehensive, but agreed and, we took bike ride to breakfast. It was nice to get out and actually take advantage of our local tourist attraction. Here's an IPhone shot of Marc in front of the original Shields sign.
