Marty's Moving On: Sunnyland and Thrift Store Browsing

Sunnyland is the Annenberg estate. The couple’s home lies surrounded by a nine hole golf course and mind-boggling gardens. Barbara and I took the birding tour as the house tour is sold out months in advance.

I couldn’t tell you the number of birds we saw. We did finally see the Vermillion Flycatcher everyone was looking for. Look closely at the photo of the bird sculpture and you should spot it posing on the bird’s beak tip.

I did find the boxed water sold in the cafe stayed cool much longer than the plastic bottled water I usually carried.

Interesting tidbits learned during our tour:

Lenore Annenberg loathed desert plants so many of the trees on the estate are olive trees. When President Eisenhower visited the estate, he commented to Walter how odd it was to be in the desert with no palm trees in evidence. Walter asked Lenore if she would acquiesce this one time. Two tall palms were added to the golf course. They remained the only desert plants until after her death in 2009.
The Delos Bench is one of the non-golf themed whimsical additions to the course. It offers a place to “chill” on the cool marble while one watches the activity.
Another whimsy is the Chinese Pavilion, where the couple would have lunch as they golfed.
The Totem Pole was a Henry Hunt created gift in celebration of the couple’s open-mindedness.
The Annenberg’s home is 25,000 square feet with one bedroom. Visitors were relegated to the guest houses completely separate from the main house.
The dry, tired looking trees forming a “wall” around part of the estate are Salt Cedars that were planted by the railroad to slow the blowing sand from damaging property. The trees are almost impossible to kill; our guide shared her experiences with trying to destroy them…nothing has worked so far.

Should you ever be in the Palm Springs area, Sunnyland should be MUST during your stay.