My parents have been married for 40 years. When that happens, you plan something special. They have travelled the world from India to Scotland to Bali. One place they had never been was Palm Springs. We thought this would be fitting because my mum is totally into mid-century modern which is quintessential Palm Springs, therefore quintessential mum. Since we had a destination, it seemed the only place that would suit us (and be special enough) was The Parker.
I knew that this place was meant for us when we pulled up and the valets were wearing pink pants (very Pagoda from The Royal Tenenbaums.) The hotel decor leaves you feeling that you entered a time era uniquely it's own. Somewhat indiscernible, very chic. They have pitchers of lemonade in the lobby to sip on as you check-in, full suits of armour guarding the lobby restrooms and palm tree chandeliers announcing you've arrived...somewhere.
Since we all arrived at different times, knowing lunch started at 1:30pm, we all met in the Lounge to commence the event with a Pimm's Cup.
At lunch everyone received a bag with a swim cap for the ladies and an itinerary for the events to follow for the two nights/three days. This was the start to a very exciting, relaxing, bonding, hilarious event.
The following blog posts will be on our time spent there. Let the games begin! But first, let me introduce you to the characters:
My Dad: Professor Birk Westminster
My Mum: Lady Genevieve Kensington
My Husband: Ascot Philips VIII
Moi: Bee Charleston
My Sister: Cecil Hennessy
My Brother: Bryce Paddington III
My Sister-in-law: Mrs. Edith Essex
My Baby Niece: Little Miss Pearl Sass
My Uncle: Captain Crispin Winston
My Aunt: Abigail Ackley
Cheers,
Charysse
The first thing I saw when I woke up were three little bunnies in the front yard. Seriously...I'm not kidding. They were so cute I could have just ripped their ears off! Apparently the only wildlife on the island consists of bunnies, frogs and seals. Still not kidding. And, if you are into this type of thing, you are allowed to eat the bunnies...but no worries, I only like the idea of eating bunnies in France.
After my encounter with the cutest bunnies on the planet earth, we did what we did the day before: arrived one-by-one in our matching pj's and drank coffee and Bailey's.
Eventually it was time for lunch. This consisted of crab sandwiches with a lager and stout tasting for the gentlemen, and fully loaded caesars for the ladies.
The girls bundled up and wandered down the beach. When we returned we found the guys playing a competitive game of boules.
I can't believe this is my last post on Hat Island! It was a trip of a lifetime. This weekend was the result, not only of my ideas and efforts, but that of two other ladies as well. A big thank you to Marta Angus and Karlie Bradshaw. I love collaborating, especially when there is love involved.
Cheers!
Charysse
You might think because we were alone on an island that we would stay in our PJ's and eat hamburgers and hot dogs all weekend long. Not a chance! It's a special occasion and we would never miss a chance to dress up and sit around a grand dinning room table with friends. This is what Saturday night was based around, a 3 course dinner in our finest threads.
Hor d'oeuvres: Foie Gras and a caramel apple jelly served with a warm baguette. I brought back both these items last spring from France, waiting to use them for this very event. It was definitely worth the wait.
First Course: A magical potato and cheddar soup, made from scratch, served in individual pots.
Second Couse: Jamie Oliver's "Super Sexy" salad. This included figs, prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil and a super sexy dressing.
Main Course: Filet mignon served with a crème fraîche morel sauce, mini yorkshires and mashed carrots.
Dessert: Ginger molasses moustache shaped cookies and red velvet cupcakes.
One of our challenges was the table decor. It's hard to envision a table setup before you get there. Especially when you don't know what plates, cutlery and glassware you will be delt. When we got there, I saw that it would not be an issue in the least. The items that we did bring were light weight and easy to transport, these included: tortoise cutlery, table runner (burlap from Home Depot), birch candles, corks (which we used for the place setting name cards) and white cotton napkins. The idea of using driftwood from the beach was really our only option for a centrepiece. We washed shells from off the beach for each plate and wrapped each one like a present using twine (pictured below).
One thing that really added to this night were the question cards that we made. I created 10 blank cards for each person. Everyone wrote 5 personal questions and 5 generic Trivial Pursuit-like questions. We had everything from "what was my nickname in high-school?" to "where did the pea-coat originate?". We learned a lot about each other and everything else.
As usual we danced between courses and before we knew it the night came to a close. It was perfect. My friend said she felt like a camera crew should have been following us that night, and she's right...it did have a Nancy Meyers vibe to it.
Cheers,
Charysse
Now that we were relaxed, we got ourselves ready and decided to take some photos on the beach. We bought yellow poncho's for the occasion. Organizing that many people for photos can sometimes be frustrating, but this was actually fun and quite entertaining.
We bought the rain poncho's to take photos in, but what we didn't foresee was that they were practical and came in handy. We used them for getting on and off the ferry because there was a lite rain that came and went all weekend long. Phew.
Cheers,
Charysse
I woke up to the sound of the ocean and the question of what would our surroundings really look like (up to this point I had only enjoyed the house at night and in the dark). Opening the curtain I saw the exact scene I had looked at online for months previous. And yes, it was better in person. However to fully take in the view required coffee, Baileys and a few well dressed friends.
One thing that made this weekend even more special is we had matching pyjama's from the Hudson's Bay Co. Eventually we all arrived in the main house, one-by-one, in our matching jammies. My girlfriend sabered a bottle of champagne (pictured below) while the guests of honour made us a delicious breakfast.
After breakfast, the girls took a walk down the beach and the boys entertained themselves, as boys love to do. Surprisingly, none of them got hurt (pictured below).
I can't imagine a better start to a day.
Cheers,
Charysse
The first question you might have about Hat Island is, "Where is it?" Hat Island is a 35 minute ferry ride from Everett WA, across from Whidbey Island. The only way to get there, if you don't own your own boat, is by foot passenger ferry. This can prove to be a little more work, lugging everything you will need for your whole trip, but as you will see it is definitely worth it. And yes you need to bring just about everything (there is no general store on the island).
The house is divided into 2 separate parts. The main house and the bedroom wing. I really enjoyed this concept. There were 4 couples all staying together, and yet you felt a perfect degree apart. In the morning people who wanted to get up could do so, listen to music - done, be as loud as they wish - fine, all without without waking anyone up.
The main house is an open layout. A wood-burning fireplace and exposed wood really add to the coziness. The patio sliding doors open completely to bring the outside in. We experimented with this open-air concept on the Saturday afternoon when the sun came out.
I'm not sure if many of you can handle this, so try and get ready for it...no cable and no internet! I'm not going to lie, it felt good to not check twitter and email and text messages and the never ending stream of messages. None of it. You can fully relax.
We got to Hat Island at around 7pm on a Friday and within 20 minutes felt settled and ready for a fun intimate night with friends. We drank champagne, sipped scotch by the fire-place and got up close and personal with our good friend and food supplier Trader Joe. It was delightful.
Cheers,
Charysse
For the last six months, two of my girlfriends and I have been planning a ten year anniversary getaway for close friends of ours. We travelled to Hat Island in Washington for two nights. It started with telling them we were going to "Seattle" at the pre-party. Below are some little things we did to make the pre-party special for them.
They were dropping by for drinks before attending The Asteroids Galaxy Tour concert. So that, of course, was our theme. We had a limited budget because we wanted to save most of our money for Hat Island. I soaked off the labels of some bottles of Cava and made custom labels (pictured below). Talk to your printers if you are interested in doing that. They print them on sticker paper and cut down to size.
I also put the projector on and played a BBC Planets documentary for some background ambiance.
Two weeks later, we left for Hat Island. The next blog posts will be on our time spent there.
Cheers,
Charysse
Font Information:
Hero - Regular (Seabreeze)
Trade Gothic LT Std - Regular (Massage)
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Dark blue - 300U
Light blue - 2925U
Brown - 7533U
Cheers,
Charysse
