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COMFORT ZONE AT


              THE RANCH






                     | STORY & PHOTOS BY ALISON DAROSA |










                                                                               t might have been mistaken for a teen girl-
                                                                               friends’ slumber party. Equipped with plastic
                                                                               cups of white wine, the gaggle giggled non-
                                                                               stop as each eased into a frothing moonlit hot
                                                                               tub. Their late-night chatter was interrupted
                                                                               only by an occasional round of raucous laugh-
                                                                        Iter.

                                                                         Three of the hot tubbers were sisters, ages 41-44. The
                                                                         fourth was their 72-year-old mother.

                                                                         Dorie Smith and her daughters are among hundreds
                                                                         of  mother/daughter  sets  who  pilgrimage  each  year
                                                                         to Rancho La Puerta, the renowned fitness spa just
                                                                         across the U.S./Mexico border in Tecate, about 90
                                                                         minutes from San Diego.

                                                                         The women have discovered something mind-altering
                                                                         about “the Ranch.”  For a week, they thrive on a pow-
                                                                         erful cocktail concocted with equal parts exhaustion,
                                                                         exhilaration, pain and pampering.  It’s a recipe that
                                                                         erodes emotional barriers, encourages communica-
                                                                         tion and vulnerability, nourishes intimacy.

                                                                         Put simply, the Ranch fosters mother/daughter es-
                                                                         capes – without family baggage.

                                                                         It's a comfort zone where relationships blossom – a
                                                                         place to sweat and to soothe, a place to dream.

                                                                        “I haven’t been with my mom this much and not ar-
                                                                         gued, ever in my life,” said Abby Laporte, 20, who visit-
                                                                         ed with her mother, Jennifer Laporte, from Petaluma.
                                                                        “All you have to do here is take care of yourself,” Abby
                                                                         added. “It’s so restorative. You come back to that self
                                                                         that you really dig.”

                                                                         Ranch guests exercise, eat healthy meals, indulge in
                                                                         sybaritic spa treatments and dabble in enrichment
                                                                         courses that often focus on relationships – but can
                                                                         range from using hypnosis to improve your golf swing
                                                                         to a discussion of the G spot.

                                                                         Except for spa treatments and cooking classes, the
                                                                         week’s stay is basically all inclusive.  There’s no debat-
                                                                         ing which museum to visit, what to wear, which play





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