Funny Bits on the Way Home from Phoenix

Phoenix Getaway travelog #13
Back home · Tue, 22 Sep 2025. 6:30pm

It's around 6:30pm on Tuesday and we're home now from our Phoenix 4-day getaway. Yeah, we left after a half day today; maybe not even. We bailed from the hotel pools at noon, checked out before 1pm, had plenty of time at the airport, landed just after 5pm, and were home before 6. Now I'm unpacked and have had a chance to relax. That's the short version of it, anyway. The long version? Yeah, there's some funny stories to tell.

First, no, we didn't bail right after a slow morning waiting for the sun to come out. That was Monday morning. I'm skipping over a few half-finished blogs in my backlog to push this one out to set the context in case I need to start writing about something else, like, I dunno, work, this week.

12¢ for Electrons

I posted as part of this trip that our rental car was an electric vechicle, a Hyundai Ioniq 5. In that blog I mostly complained about how cumbersome and expensive it is to recharge an EV if you don't own it. Well, I decided since we weren't doing too much driving around Phoenix, just a handful of short trips, I wouldn't need more electrons than the full charge it came with. I decided I'd pay whatever cost the rental company charges for a recharge. Yeah, I figured they'd charge me more for the convenience, but given how inconvenient it is to sign up for a single charge at a commercial charging station I figured it'd be worth it.

It's was 12 cents.

"Oh, 12 cents per kilowatt hour?" I asked when the attendant at the rental depot told me that. "That's a great rate. The commercial stations I found with your app were $0.48/kwh and higher without a big up-front subscription."

No, he meant it was 12 cents. Total.

That's what the bill showed, anyway. Fuel charge: $0.12.

I'm sure either the staffer punched something in wrong or the rental company has its POS systems programmed wrong. We'll see if they come back with a bigger charge later as a correction.

An Easier Way to Fly. And the Lady in Seat 2D has a Mouse.

We reached the airport terminal with over an hour to pass before our flight would start boarding. Hawk went to the gate while I stopped for a late lunch outside security. We met up again at the gate, with plenty of time to spare.

It's always kind of boring sitting around the airport. Once aboard the flight we were already pretty much at peak boredom so I pulled out our stuffed hawk, "Winter", for us to play with. Hawk buckled him in to the seat between us for takeoff.



Later I perched Winter on my knee. He didn't get quite as much attention there as Baldy did on our flight home from Toronto a few weeks ago. Maybe that's because Winter is smaller. Or maybe it's because I wasn't in seat 1D where everyone boarding could see him.

Late in the flight I noticed the lady sitting across the aisle and half a row up from me giving me a lot of side-eye. Then I noticed that she was holding in her hands a stuffed mouse toy. Haha, red tail hawks totally eat mice! I thought about telling her Winter wouldn't prey on her mouse without our permission but I wasn't sure how much she wanted to play along with the stuffed animal circle of life. 🤣

$104 to Park in the Nosebleed Section

I groused on the front end of this trip about the terrible parking spot I got at the airport. Understand, this isn't simply, "Wanh, airports are expensive!" or, "Wanh! I had a long walk!" This is a situation where it's like I paid for seats near home plate at the ball game then got stuck up in the nosebleed section.



Well, when we landed this afternoon at SJC airport it was even more obvious how bad our parking spot was. The lot on Tuesday afternoon was only about 2/3 full, and only a scattering of cars were out in the nosebleed spaces. And BTW, in the photo above I've already walked across at least 4/5 of the lo before snapping the picture. That's our car out by the fence at the far end. And we paid $104 for that space.

Well, I guess if we average it with 12 cents for electrons it comes out to a reasonable price. 😂

Fall Drops a Few Days Late. Here to Stay?

Technically Fall started two days ago, on September 22 here in the Northern Hemisphere. That's the astronomical season, though, based on the autumnal equinox. Some people like using a simplified seasonal calendar that says Fall is the months of September, October, and November. I like thinking of the season based on everyday observations including the weather's impact, such as when it's cool enough to wear trousers or turn on the heater. Well, I haven't yet worn trousers or turned on the heat— in fact I've literally got the A/C running as I write this— but the third element of the trifecta dropped today, abruptly. It rained.

Yes, Fall fell a few days late here, and it dropped with a clunk. Yesterday, when we coincidentally returned home from Phoenix where it was 100°, it was 96° here. I think that was actually the hottest day this year! Today it's almost 20 degrees cooler and it rains.

Is Fall weather here to stay? I'd say signs are mixed. Today's rain, though it lasted only about an hour, does not seem like a fluke. There's rain in the forecast Mon-Tue-Wed next week. But first it'll be pleasantly warm again, with highs in the low 80s— i.e., summer weather— the next few days.

Riding the Water Slide - with Video!

Phoenix Getaway travelog #10
Hilton Resort · Mon, 22 Sep 2025. 1pm

We got off to a slow morning this morning at the hotel's water park. First the sky was overcast and the air was cool (for Phoenix) so we sat in lounge chairs on the deck. Then we grabbed our inner tubes and took several spins in the lazy river. Then we walked over to the cafe for lunch. Now it's afternoon and it's starting to get HOT. I decided to kick off the afternoon by taking several rides down the water slide.

Watch on YouTube

In visits to waterparks in past years I tried make videos like this while carrying my iPhone in a waterproof plastic bag. Let me tell you, that never worked out. Video and stills were always blurry and fogg. Plus, plastic bags interfere with the capacitive touch screen controls, so often your phone won't start recording or something else will be wrong. This time I raw-dogged it. And the videos I captured are fantastic!

I mentioned in a previous blog that iPhones are water resistant. Not water-proof but water resistant[1]. I discovered one of the limitations after posting that blog. Later that evening I tried charging my iPhone— the battery had run down with me using it so much in the lazy river!— and the phone popped up a warning, Water detected in USB-C port. It refused to charge. It still worked; it just wouldn't charge or connect through a data cable. After I let it dry out, which took a few hours, it accepted connecting via USB-C cable again. Thus today I made sure my phone was well charged before getting it soaked on this water slide. 😅

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[1] Technically the iPhone 16 has an IP68 water resistance rating and can be submerged up to 6 meters under water for up to 30 minutes. Ratings vary by model, and damage to the case or buttons can compromise their seals leading to quicker water damage. Do your own research before taking your phone into the water