When my teen-age daughter Eden asked me if I could take her to Coachella, at first I said to myself “really??! You must be joking!” But then I thought about it more and realized – wow, what a great opportunity to take her on a west coast journey and spend some amazing quality time together.
The krewe grew to include my son Jonah, my nephew Max and our best friends Sofie and Mark. The band was formed and we took the show on the road!
We planned to play tennis every morning and really explore Santa Monica (Rustic Canyon is an absolute hidden gem to play tennis). We hiked, biked, played tennis, laughed hard, took alot of pictures (of course) and thouroughly enjoyed the zen and attraction of southern California.
All photos taken inside the grounds of Coachella were on my Google Pixel phone.
The famous “stairs” in the Pacific Palisades that hiking enthusiasts climb. It’s busy all day long.
Rustic Canyon trees in Pacific Palisades next to our tennis courts.
The view from Pepperdine University. How can anyone do any work around here?
Once we left Santa Monica, our drive into the desert included the mandatory stop at In-N-Out Burger (epic).
We designed our Coachella trip around the insanely beautiful Indian Wells Tennis Garden (home of the BNP Paribas Open) only 90 seconds from our hotel. Indian Wells is beyond gorgeous. It’s the next town over from Indio in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs. The weather in mid-April is enough to make a man pack up and move there permanently. I’m talkin’ “head-shaking, how can this be?” weather.
We experienced so much joy, fun, tennis, and family bonding time before we even got to Coachella. So when it came time to actually hit the festival, we were so pumped and full of good Cali vibes that it really shows in these pre-game photos.
Coachella breakfast of champions.
I want to give a huge shout-out to my friend and fellow Tulanian, Andrew Klein at AEG for making our maiden Coachella exprience first class. Andrew – you are the man, thank you for everything!!!
The festival, now in it’s 18th year has grown into one of the largest music and arts festival in the world. The annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, located in the Inland Empire’s Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert.
FUTURE, DRAKE (special guest appearance), GAGA, KENDRICK, MAC MILLER, RADIOHEAD, LORDE were a few of the bigger acts – though the real story was in the overall vibe of experiencing bands we hadn’t seen or heard before and wandering cushy, comfortable polo grounds, its music, art, vendors and weather.
Our krewe at the American Express Platinum House on left and Eden and Alessandra Ambrosio on right.
We finished our trip with a long-realized dream of tennis training with Coach Jack Broudy in Long Beach, then a day in Huntington Beach and were sent home via the beautiful Long Beach airport. Its open air walkways were the perfect ending to an unforgettable trip.
Being with the kids 24/7 this past week and seeing them have the time of their life was priceless.
