Kathy and Gary Friedle and their two boys lived in New York City. Both had high-powered jobs – Kathy as an architect and Gary as an asset manager in a financial management firm. They worked long hours and increasingly felt they were on a treadmill that kept moving faster and faster. They dreamed of one day retiring and opening up a bed and breakfast.

But rather than waiting until their sixties they decided to make a move at 45. They talked with their two boys who were willing to relocate to California. And rather than opening up a bed and breakfast in New England, they bought a 16 room hotel in Palm Springs, California that was a working nudist resort at the time. They said goodbye to the nudists and brought the hotel back to its original name of the Monkey Tree Hotel.