Some peo­ple go to church to feel the spirit. I go to a 5 star hotel. I imme­di­ately fall to my knees, praise God and sing hal­lelu­jah for the grace that is bestowed upon me to end up in these places that I love so much. My appre­ci­a­tion for a “5 star expe­ri­ence” is often matched by the uni­verse allow­ing me to fre­quent them time and again. This cos­mic exchange is never taken for granted.

Most recently, my guardian angel of 5 star hotels some­how guided me to the Ter­ranea Resort in Palos Verdes. I’ve lived in LA for the past 28 years and never knew to go to Palos Verdes. I have been up and down the south­ern and north­ern coasts count­less times but never found the gem of a coast­line in front of the Ter­ranea Resort until now.  It is par­adise.

The minute I stepped onto the prop­erty I felt the glory. The grounds are eye candy. The resort itself is prac­ti­cally per­fect in every way.

My two-day stay turned into a week. I went for two days again last week and left nine days later.

I was just there again this week­end for my birth­day. Got there Sat­ur­day after­noon, went on a three mile walk along the coast, and planted myself in the most sacred place on the hotel grounds (that will remain my lit­tle secret).  I emp­tied my mind and stared at the majesty around me. It is so easy to get tapped in, tuned in and turned on at the Ter­ranea. Had an excep­tional din­ner at mar’sel with my Kate.  It’s a 5 star restau­rant right on the prop­erty over­look­ing the ocean.  Actu­ally, every­thing you do there is over­look­ing the ocean. Slept like a baby.

Woke up on my birth­day to a beau­ti­ful sun­rise, med­i­tated, visu­al­ized many things — includ­ing see­ing a whale, and stayed in that happy trance for the rest of the day. Around 2:00 pm, per my request, three giant gray whales swam right up close to the shore­line. It lit­er­ally took my breath away, after which I screamed “Whales!!!” star­tling every­one in the spa area who were bask­ing in quiet after their spa treat­ments. After apol­o­giz­ing for scar­ing them to death, I took full credit for the whales’ grand appear­ance. The day ended as great as it started with my friends com­ing up for din­ner at Nelson’s, while we watched the sun set. Then home. Leav­ing the Ter­ranea is always dif­fi­cult, so I plan my next trip up before I’m off the property.

I am so grate­ful to have found this sanc­tu­ary. It’s a treat for the soul.

p.s. The Ter­ranea has been voted “best place to work” under the lead­er­ship of Terri A. Haak. Employ­ees seem gen­uinely happy to be there and they actu­ally like their boss. Terri is clearly doing things right.

I first heard about the Ter­ranea from Terry Nie­mann, Real Estate Sales Exec­u­tive and Direc­tor of Mar­ket­ing. I love her. We have eas­ily become fast friends. She even donated a week­end at the Ter­ranea for my daughter’s school finan­cial aid pro­gram. The folks at this resort are good peo­ple. I also want to acknowl­edge Brian Ben­nish for always being so kind and accommodating.

p.p.s. Don’t tell any­one else about this place. It’s our lit­tle secret.

Love,
me