GM's Blog

Not long ago in a meeting that included the President of the management company and the General Partners of the hotel, Leonard Ely, one of the original general partners said, “You’ve been here that long?  Well you really made something out of this job”.

Over the years it has been interesting getting to know Leonard. I have not had (more…)

When I was younger clichés were, in my opinion, cop-outs.  Easy little sayings that could be thrown out in conversation to get you through a situation.  “Meaningless” and “unoriginal” was how I viewed those “cute little sayings”.

Today I wonder why it was so important to be original.

If I have said, (more…)

I think my husband is my biggest fan when I hear him say “It’s all her”, when people express how much they like the Stanford Terrace Inn.  I wish I could soak in the compliment like a cat soaking in the sun. The truth is, of course, that it is hardly “all me”.

I have been on Stanford Ave (we embedded a nice google map shot below!), which borders (more…)

I love the television series Lost. For the past 5 years I have been trying to put all the pieces together; how all these people, events, coincidences, and of course, the Island relate to each other. My son, who will soon turn thirteen, has just found an interest in the series and now I get to see it all again, unencumbered by commercials, and waiting patiently for the week to pass for another installment. Show after show unfolds to unveil (more…)

The other night I went to a two hour version of a 4-week class, called Facebook for parents. The theater at Gunn High school was packed with curious parents. The presentation was a well organized, entertaining orchestration, which included opinion pieces from 5 parents who had taken the class, a teen panel, Facebook employees, and a slide presentation hugely projected to the aging crowd.

When I was a kid and wanted to play with one of my friends, I went to their back yard, stood outside the door, and called their name. When our mothers wanted us to come home, they stood on the back porch and loudly called our names. We were usually (more…)

The Stanford Terrace Inn was built in the sixties. While I was born before that time, our history develops over the same years.

Personally, I love the work of the architect Frank Gehry; architecturally, the hotel is not of that caliber. (more…)

One of the things that stands out in my memory of those first years in Palo Alto was that most everything was painted beige and forest green. It was as if those were the unofficial colors of the town. These peninsula towns are pretty non-descript when you compare them to (more…)

As I traversed through my youth, it seemed that at the lowest points in my life, when I thought I couldn’t take any more, another challenge would speed through time and try to knock me off my feet.   At the moment of contact, it seemed that I would surely collapse under its weight; emotionally spent, psychologically bent, and completely alone… yet (more…)

It will be 18 years this August that I have been the general manager of the Stanford Terrace Inn. It is the longest commitment that I have ever had. Longer than my marriage to my husband, who has worked for the hotel and for me for the past five years.

It surprises me that I have been here (more…)

Cheers everyone out there paddling and swimming through this e-stream of information and non-information. We are the Stanford Terrace Inn, and we are live! Blogging, Twittering, and even with our very own Facebook page!

We are a long time Palo Alto institution with a great history firmly rooting us in the community.  (more…)