Frank Sinatra married his fourth wife here, Richard Nixon visited to nurse his wounds after resigning the presidency, and now the names of Barack Obama and Xi Jinping are added to the long list of celebrities and political leaders who have trekked to this desert getaway.
The late philanthropists Walter and Leonore Annenberg intended their Sunnylands sanctuary to be something of a "Camp David of the West," a reference to the presidential retreat tucked away in the Maryland mountains near Washington. And over the years, it has seen its fair share of headliners, as big names of American culture have escaped here for a respite from winter. Ronald Reagan was a frequent visitor as president, actor and California politician, spending New Year's Eve at the Annenberg estate a total of 18 times.
Nixon wrote his final State of the Union speech at Sunnylands in 1974 and returned months later after the Watergate scandal drove him from office. Frank Sinatra married his fourth wife, Barbara, here in 1976. Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip came in 1983. Streets around the 200-acre (81-hectare) complex hark back to the area's storied past. There's a Dean Martin Drive, a Dinah Shore Drive, even a Gerald Ford Drive, and Sunnylands itself is on Bob Hope Drive. The summit between US President Obama and Chinese President Xi unfolded beneath the pink-roofed modernist estate at Sunnylands, in the Coachella Valley's Rancho Mirage about two hours' drive from Los Angeles.
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