canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix late April travelog #3
Arizona Grand Hotel - Friday, 28 Apr 2023, 7:45am

When Hawk and our friends and I were discussing plans last night we agreed that we'd do an evening soak in the hot tub between 9-10pm, hang until maybe 11pm, get up this morning around 8, and meet for our first laps at the lazy river around 10. It was a grand idea for a relaxing vacation. But then my body had other ideas.

I zonked out not long after 9pm with no energy for the hot tub. Fortunately everyone else was tired, too, so I didn't miss out on much. Then I woke up this morning a little after 5am. That was definitely not my plan! 😡 Blame it on a combination of jetlag (I was in a timezone 2 hours ahead the previous 7 days) and Arizona not doing Daylight Saving Time— so the first light of dawn was already brightening our room through the balcony doors before 5:30.

Being out of alignment with my own plans feels frustrating. At the same time, though, I remind myself I'm on vacation. This is purposefully a relaxing vacation, so keeping a schedule doesn't matter as much as other times. But still, the purpose of making— and keeping— a schedule is to ensure I have opportunities to enjoy myself while doing stuff. Just sitting around the hotel at odd hours is relaxing... but also frustrating because I'm paying a lot to be here. If I just wanted to sit around and relax, I could do it at home for free.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix late April travelog #2
Arizona Grand Hotel - Thursday, 27 Apr 2023, 6pm

We're back in Phoenix for a stay at a hotel resort with a waterpark. Yes, it hasn't even been a month since the last time we did this, in early April. That's why I've put "late April" in the subhead. It's not even a different month. But it is a different hotel! This time we're staying at the Arizona Grand.

The living room in our suite at the Arizona Grand Hotel (Apr 2023)

What's the Arizona Grand? Well, it turns out it's a lot like the Pointe Hilton we've stayed at a few times in the past. The layout of the rooms is similar. The rooms are suites, as you can see in the pictures above and below. Up front there's a living room; in the back is the bedroom.

The bedroom in our suite at the Arizona Grand Hotel (Apr 2023)

The bedroom has a balcony. Ours overlooks the main waterpark area... though it isn't quite high enough to offer a commanding view of the resort. The layout of the buildings is similar, too. After we tire of the main waterpark there's a smaller pool and hot tub in the courtyard of our building. I have a strong suspicion this used to be a Pointe Hotel, too, years ago but didn't reflag to Hilton when the two others in town did. Or maybe it did reflag to Hilton but then went independent.

Lazy river pool at the Arizona Grand Hotel (Apr 2023)

The selling point of the Arizona Grand is that its waterpark is bigger than the other hotel's. The lazy river is wider and... faster. I don't know if I like that better. It was thankfully uncrowded on this Thursday afternoon after lunch. It will probably be a lot busier by Saturday. Maybe one thing keeping boisterous kids out of the lazy river pool is the wave pool next to it. There's nothing wrong with boisterous kids, per se. Kids are allowed to have fun, too. But the lazy river pool is for being lazy. The life guards ought to pass out speeding tickets for people going too fast.

This hotel also has bigger water slides than the other hotel. I don't have a picture of there yet, but there are three. Update: included a pic in subsequent blog entry. One's got lots of turns and is about twice the height of the twisty slide at the other hotel. Two slides are speed slides with about an 80 foot drop. I rode the twisty-turn-y slide a few times but haven't braved the speed slides yet. Buy hey, there's still 3 more days here, and nothing else to worry about having to do!

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Phoenix late April travelog #1
38,000' over Texas - Thursday, 27 Apr 2023, 9am

This morning we awoke early, alarms ringing at 5am, for our fligth to Phoenix. We had a 7:25am departure out of New Orleans. I say had because by the time we returned the rental car and checked our flight status....

I'll book this Southwest flight... and it's delayed

...Our flight was already delayed.

It's surprising to see a delay this early in the morning. I've noted before that Southwest usually has delays later in the day but not in the morning. That's partly because they don't do overnight flights. In fact they use the overnight period when no planes are flying to reboot their systems. Yes, they do preventive reboot of their entire IT system every single night. They stated this in the news recently after their latest operational meltdown. While there are all kinds of problems with the situation that makes that necessary, one benefit is that usually first-of-the-morning flights run fine as nothing's had time to go wrong yet. Usually. Edit: it wasn't a first-of-the-morning flight. Our aircraft already made a trip from Austin to New Orleans.

Well, now we're in the air. Our delay at one point looked to be as bad as 30 minutes, but amounted to just under 15 minutes when we left. I don't even mind terribly as we were getting in to Phoenix plenty early anyway. We'll see what's ready when we get there.
canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
New Orleans travelog #11
Kenner, LA - Wednesday, 26 Apr 2023, 8pm

This is the part of the trip where we diverge from the original plan we made months ago. Originally we planned drive to Florida this evening after wrapping up our brief jaunt through MIssissippi and spend 4 nights in Pensacola Beach. Ten days ago we canceled our beach plans. Instead we've driven back to New Orleans, returned our rental car, and are flying out early tomorrow morning. Oh, but we're not going home. A day after canceling the beach and struggling with what to do instead we forged plans with friends for a waterpark vacation in Phoenix.

You might think, "Wait, you traded off 4 days at the beach for... the desert?!" Yes, it's the desert, but the waterpark should be really fun. It's bigger than the one we've visited several times in the past. Plus we'll meet friends there. Plus the weather's not great at the beach anyway. Here's what's on tap at Pensacola Beach:

We ditched our beach trip once the weather started looking like this... (Apr 2023)

Ugh. It'd be a trip full of rainy days with high temps not rising above the mid 70s. That's poor beach weather. 👎

And here's what's waiting for us in Phoenix:

...And decided to go to Phoenix for swimming weather like THIS. (Apr 2023)

Beautiful lazy river & waterslide weather!

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
This weekend we've been replanning our next trip: the one we leave for on Friday! For a while things were looking... not good. We canceled our 4 days in Pensacola Beach, Florida. That made sense because they were duplicative with another trip we've got in May. But that left me wondering if the rest of the trip the trip held together. Yesterday we explored a few alternatives to fill out the trip again, but none of them worked. Today we had one last idea to try... and it clicked!

We're replacing our 4 days at the beach in Florida with 4 days at a resort in Phoenix. It's another splashy-pools resort like we visited two weeks ago. Except this one has an even bigger waterpark. (it was recommended by some folks we shared a hot tub with at the other hotel.) And it's not merely a repeat of something we did two weeks ago because we'll be going there with friends.

We were over at these friends' house today. They were already planning a trip to this resort because we'd mentioned it to them. They were talking about going in May. "What do you think about going in late April instead, and we meet you there?" we asked. They jumped at the suggestion. We checked flight and hotel reservations together from the dining room table, determined it was doable, and started booking.

So now our trip starting this coming Friday morning is:

  • Fly to New Orleans, spending 4 days there

  • Rent a car to drive to Mississippi, hiking a few trails over the course of 2 days

  • Return the car and fly to Phoenix

  • 3-4 days of splashing around in the pools in Phoenix, plus maybe do other stuff

  • Fly home


I'm glad we're back to a full 10/10 days with this trip instead of 6/10. And as a bonus, it's an even better 10/10 now because we'll share part of the trip with friends.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #12
Retrospective

Whew, it's been a week since we returned from Phoenix. I only finished catching up on my blog backlog from it Friday night. I've got this one last blog to write about it, a retrospective addressing some of the dangling questions. Here are Five Things:

1) 3 days was a good amount of time. I wondered in the lead-up to the trip if we were making it too short. 3 days turned out to be a fine amount of time. Critical to that was that it's wasn't Friday late night through Sunday; instead we left home early Saturday morning and stayed through Monday. That gave us an adequate amount of time to enjoy a weekend getaway.

2) 80° was fine pool weather. Phoenix had several weeks of cool weather leading up to our trip. A week out I seriously considered canceling because the weather forecast, only warming up to 80~81° as daytime highs, seemed like it would be too cool to enjoy splashing around in the resort's pools— which was one of the primary reasons we booked the trip. I decided to stick with the trip, largely for lack of a reasonable last-minute alternative, and it turned out fine. No, the weather didn't suddenly get warmer; but the pools were heated higher than I expected so they were plenty of fun to spend hours in each day. Of course, two days after we left, Phoenix was back to highs in mid 90s.

3) Packing light worked out fine. We made a command decision Friday night while packing our bags to travel light. Instead of taking a large piece of checked luggage to carry all our usual hiking equipment, we would instead leave much of that equipment behind. We both took hiking sandals instead of big, heavy boots; and Hawk took lightweight slings for water bottles instead of her full day-pack. I still took my day-pack. These changes allowed us to skip the checked bag, taking only carry-on bags. That simplified and accelerated the airport shuffle. And we didn't miss the extra gear on the hiking trail. ...Well for this trail our hiking sandals with good treads were enough. Knowing the territory was important to this decision.

4) Cooler weather was good for hiking. I wasn't thinking so much about it when I fretted it would be too cool for the pool, but the cooler weather was awesome for the strenuous hike we did up Camelback Peak. The first time we tried it years ago, it was already over 90° at dawn when we started. We were exhausted after the first few steep stretches. Doing the first part of the ascent in 70° weather made the whole thing more feasible. We got to the summit!

5) Aches and pains. I wrenched my shoulder on the hike coming down one of the steep parts near the end. I worried at the time, on Sunday afternoon, that injury would be with me for a while. Good news: my shoulder ache pretty much disappeared by Tuesday morning with the help of topical anesthetic. Bad news: aches in my legs stuck around longer. By Monday evening I could tell I had way overdone it with my quadriceps. It hurt walking down stairs or down ramps. On Tuesday I was weeble-wobbling around the house. My quads felt like rubber. Unhappy rubber. I was wobbly and in pain through Wednesday. By Thursday both the pain and wobbliness reduced but didn't disappear. Thankfully by Saturday morning I was back to about 90%, just in time for another weekend of hiking!

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #9
Back at the hotel - Mon, 3 Apr 2023, 10:30pm

After we finished our hike up-up-up and back down-down-down Camelback Peak this afternoon it was time for lunch. We ate at a small Navajo-Mex restaurant. It's "-Mex" because the styles of food are (northern) Mexican, with tacos and tostadas and burritos. But it's Navajo because a) the owners and staff are all/mostly Navajo, and b) the specialty on the menu is frybread. We both had open-face frybreads piled high with various toppings (meat, beans, cheese, lettuce, sauce) a la tostadas.

Muscle stiffness was setting in for me so I gobbled a bunch of Ibuprofen with my meal. Afterwards we visited a Walgreen's drugstore to buy topical painkiller for my wrenched shoulder. I considered Voltaren gel and Aspercream. I went with the Aspercream figuring I was already taking Ibuprofen in pill form for my legs. Voltaren is basically topical Ibuprofen, and I didn't want to overdose it. Aspercream is a different type of medication, an analgesic versus an NSAID, so they're safer to combine.

Back at the hotel I slathered some of the pain cream on my shoulder and changed for the pool. That's right, after a butt-kicker of a hike we're going to the pool! And not just a pool but the hotel's lazy river.

Lazy River at the Pointe Hilton at the Peak, Phoenix AZ (Apr 2023)

Hawk and I both wondered if me lying prone atop a float and going around the loop for 2 hours would aggravate my shoulder. You know what? It didn't. It was actually awesome. Awesome not just to relax but to actually be lazy. I mean, it's a lazy river. If you paddle to go faster, the lifeguards throw you out. ...Or I imagine they would, if there were actually any lifeguards.

Our lazy rest of the day included more than just the lazy river. After lazily floating around for about 2 hours I stretched out on a chaise lounge under some shade. I lazed there until Hawk was ready to go in, around 5pm. Then we lazed up in the room toghether. I stretched out on the bed while Hawk took the sofa. (There was room for both on the bed but she preferred the sofa.)

After a few hours of lazing in the room it was time for dinner. We'd had a late lunch— and I'd supplemented mine with a delicious milkshake from Jack in the Box— so we weren't super hungry. We ate leftovers in the room. I still had several slices of deep dish pizza left over from dinner the night before. I ate two and left the rest for Monday's breakfast.

After dinner we changed back into our swimsuits, which were still damp, and headed down to the hot tub. We had a good long soak and made conversation with the other folks there. One works at a company that is a customer of mine but hasn't heard about our product— and desperately needs it. She didn't want to give me more than her first name (I understand women feeling a bit cautious when meeting strangers half-naked) but I told her how to find out more about our software, and she said she'd look it up.

Okay, doing some selling in the hot tub was definitely not lazy! But soon we toweled off, came back to our room, and vegged with TV and computers. I've rubbed on another treatment of Aspercream as my shoulder was getting achy again. The cream definitely helps though it doesn't completely solve the pain. It's enough at least to make it ignorable when I don't think about it.

Now, it's off to bed. We've got more lazing to do tomorrow morning!

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #8
Echo Canyon Trail - Sun, 1 Apr 2023, 12pm

The old saying, "What goes up must come down" certainly applies ot hiking. I mean, unless you want to live atop the mountain like a hermit! So after enjoying the fruits of our labor atop Camelback Peak we began our way down.

Starting down the trail from atop Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

The upper reaches of the trail— which hardly counts as a trail as much as a bouldering route— were slow going. Even though gravity was now working in our favor, as we didn't have to fight it climbing up, it still wasn't our friend as it was constantly trying to pull us down too fast. It was slow going because with my already tired muscles I needed to stop to rest a lot. Yes, I needed to rest going downhill!

View of Phoenix from Camelback Peak trail (Apr 2023)

At least some of the time rest spots afforded nice views. This pic (above) shows the view to the southwest across Phoenix.

Once my legs were slightly less rubbery it was time to continue down.

What goes up must come down-- steeply! (Apr 2023)

Ah, one of the sections with a rail! I was so happy to see this as it gave me something to hold onto with my hands so that my legs didn't have to do all the work. ...But, good news/bad news: the rail is here because it's really steep. Soon my hands were sore from all the pressure, even with workout gloves.

Threading our way down carefully on the Camelback Peak trail (Apr 2023)

Remember, what goes up must come down. As it wasn't just one steep section up, it was, like, eight, that means there are eight steep sections going down.

I wrenched my shoulder in this area trying not to fall when my rubber legs gave way (Apr 2023)

With this two-rail section (pic above) we're near the end. Below this are only two more steep sections. You can see we're getting close to the valley floor.

Unfortunately shortly after taking this picture I twisted my shoulder. I was bracing myself with my hand on that rail on the right. With my arm out in front of me, working to slow my descent, my rubbery legs gave way beneath me. I slipped down a boulder and wrench my arm around behind me.

Well, it's about noon now and we've gotten all the way to the bottom. The last bit of the trail I shambled down, moving slowly so as not to risk a fall. There are no rails there as it's not super steep, but there are loose dirt and pebbles which make it a slipping hazard.

I'm sure I had an "I'm completely done" look on my face. I knew that look from seeing it on the faces of the early risers who were coming down the trail as we started up. It was a butt-kicker of a hike, and I'm not sure how long I'm going to have an aching shoulder— I think I'm going to stop at a drugstore for some lidocaine rub on the way back to the hotel— but it was worth it. In beauty I walk.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #7
Echo Canyon Trail - Sun, 1 Apr 2023, 10am

Whew! We made it to the top of Phoenix's Camelback Peak. There were several times on the way up many steep sections of "trail" I doubted I'd make it. But like I encouraged Hawk on the Koko Head Tramline Trail a year ago to keep taking it one bit at a time, she was my voice of inspiration here. Oh, and after all those steep sections earlier... there were more.

Almost to the top of Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

The last four or so steep sections were like this, basically boulder-choked canyons. The funny thing about the steep sections lower down with rails on them is that by the time you get up here you wish there were more rails!

The last bit of climb to Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

Through these final stretches there's no trail. I mean, you can't get lost. A) you keep going up until you can't go up any more. And B) in case you forget which way is up, there are dozens of other people going that way, too, on a nice weekend morning.

View from atop Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

The views from the top are impressive. They're true 360° views. Almost nothing else for miles around is as tall as Camelback Peak.

A crowd atop Camelback Peak, looking across Phoenix (Apr 2023)

Of course, on the aforementioned nice weekend morning one gets to share those nice views with dozens of other hikers. It's still possible, though, to find a bit of solitude atop the busy peak....

A quiet view to the east from atop Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

While everyone else is looking to the southwest, across the city of Phoenix, it's quieter out here with the view to the east. The green ridge below us is the eastern flank of Camelback Mountain. There's a trail that comes up it from the valley below. That's the Cholla trail. Maybe next time we'll try hiking up from that side!

Before there's a next time, though, we have to get down. All those steep parts... yeah, not gonna be fun on the descent. Especially as my legs are already feeling rubbery from the climb.

Stay tuned for more!

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #6
Echo Canyon Trail - Sun, 1 Apr 2023, 9am

The Echo Canyon Trail to Camelback Peak is up, up, up. And it is steep. The trail begins with a graded ascent to Echo Saddle then climbs a set of stairs made of railroad ties. After that it really gets steep. And you're doing the ascent on bare rock.

One of many steep sections on the Echo Canyon trail to Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

Trail? Ha ha. There's barely anything like a trail here. Over by that fence, which has a sturdy rail you can hold onto, there are some vague steps blasted into the rock. But they're so irregular you pretty much need to hold onto the rail if you try to use them.

We scrambled up the bare rock freehand, relying on the traction of our footwear and our familiarity with route-finding on bare rock to get us through.

Ascending one of many steep sections on the Echo Canyon trail to Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

The next steep section, even steeper, had a rail running right down the middle of it. We needed to use it to pull ourselves up through a few steep spots. Most of the people coming down were holding onto the rail on the left (their right) to descend. Coming down really steep sections is, in some ways, harder than going up.

View of Camelback Peak from about halfway up Echo Canyon (Apr 2023)

After these steep sections we hit a flattish part of the trail for a while. This stretch offered our first real view of Camelback Peak from the trail. As you can see (pic above) there's a still a lot of up remaining.

When we hiked this trail years ago, this is as far as we got. We may even have turned around partway up the steep section shown in the previous photo. We were in better physical condition then but the weather was against us. It was hot. It was already over 90° not long after dawn, making those super steep sections absolutely grueling. 🥵 The weather today is so much nicer for this hike. With a high temperature forecast of 81° F (27° C) mid-afternoon it's at most in the low 70s (about 22° C) here at 9am.

The flattish section gave way to ascent soon enough again. And despite the cooler weather now than on our previous attempt, it was still a grueling slog.

View of Phoenix across the valley from the Echo Canyon trail to Camelback Peak (Apr 2023)

After another steep section or two we hit another flattish stretch. Here I scrambled up the ridge to sneak a view out over the valley to downtown Phoenix.

Around this part we also found a trail sign indicating we still had another 500+ feet of ascent. I was... nonplussed. 🥵 Okay, I'm more than nonplussed, I'm frankly demotivated. As tired as I am from all the climbing to get to this point I'm not sure I have enough energy left to make it all the way.

Hawk reminded me of our hike up the Koko Head Tramline Trail in Hawaii a year ago. At various times on that trail we weren't sure we'd make it all the way but we did. We did that by taking it one bit at a time, allowing ourselves rests, and keeping an eye on the prize— the top.

To be continued....

canyonwalker: My old '98 M3 convertible (cars)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #12

I forgot to mention in my previous blogs about our weekend trip to Phoenix that I was surprised by how high gas prices were. They were even higher than California... at least vs. where I live.

When I bought gas for our rental car on Monday the cheapest Costco station was $4.399 (Costco shows prices in their app, making them easy to check and compare) and the cheapest station of any other kind I saw was $4.499. Back here in Silicon Valley yesterday gas at the nearby Costco was $4.249 and the cheapest non-Costco station in my part of town was $4.399.

This was surprising because California is so routinely maligned for having gas prices higher than the rest of the country. Indeed, gas is a lot cheaper in many other states. Why is Arizona now one of the more expensive ones? A quick search on recent news articles indicates that Arizona now requires different formulations of gas at different times of year in different parts of the state. Example coverage: ABC 15 article/video (28 Mar 2023). Right now Arizona is in a changeover period, and there's a demand spike due to Spring Break travel.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #5
Echo Canyon Trail - Sun, 1 Apr 2023, 8am

In Christian tradition Sunday is a day of rest. Not for us... we're not Christian. 😅 Instead we set our alarms for 6am and left our comfy hotel with a waterpark to hike up a mountain. In the desert.

Our quest for today is Camelback Peak. We got to the trailhead parking area around 7:15 and had to wait in line for parking. Yes, the trailhead lot was already full at 7:15am! We got underway at 7:40

Starting the Echo Canyon trail to Camelback Peak - this mountain is way smaller than Camelback! (Apr 2023)

The Echo Canyon trail we're hiking looks not-too-hard by the numbers. It's only a 1300 foot elevation gain with a round trip of just over 2 miles. It should take 90 minutes, right? Well, do the math. 1300 feet of gain in about a mile is really freakin' steep.

How steep is it? It's so steep that when we tried hiking the trail on a visit to Phoenix 9 years ago we bailed out partway up. Of course, we did that in much warmer weather. At 5:30am on that trip it was already 86° F (30° C) en route to a dayime high of 109 (43° C). Today we've got much cooler weather. It's supposed to top out around 82° F.

How steep is it? It's so steep that that ridge in the picture above is not Camelback Peak. That ridge isn't even halfway to the top. The trail does at least start (relatively) gently, though.

Resting at the Echo Saddle en route Camelback Peak, overlooking Paradise Valley (Apr 2023)

After a few hundred feet of ascent the trail rounds a bend at Echo Saddle. As you climb there are plenty of views back down across the valley to the south and west, including views of downtown Phoenix. The pic above shows the view to the east, of Paradise Valley.

Notice all the people stretching? That's because from here the trail starts to get steep.

The Echo Canyon trail to Camelback Peak gets steep— and this is only the first of several steep sections (Apr 2023)

The first steep bit is this staircase. I emphasize this is the first steep bit. I remember from that hike we bailed out partway up on years ago there are at least two steep sections above this, and they are way steeper. This time we've got better weather on our side, and we're better prepared, too. ...Well, physically we're not in as good shape, but at least mentally we're better prepared. We have a better idea how grueling it's going to be! 😰

To be continued....



canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #11
Back home - Mon, 3 Apr 2023, 10:15pm

Flying from point A to point B always takes way longer than the scheduled flight time. In the case of getting home from Phoenix on Monday, a nominally 1:55 flight was part of a door-to-door journey that took 8 hours.

No, the difference of 6 hours wasn't the dreaded flight delay. Yes, there was a flight delay. After all, we were flying Southwest!

I'll book this Southwest flight... and it's delayed

...But the delay only added 45 minutes to the trip. Here's how the whole 8 hour thing worked out:


  • We left the hotel at 2pm after our last hurrah (previous blog)

  • We drove to the airport, stopping for gas along the way and shopping at 2 bead stores

  • We returned the car at 3:35pm and took the tram to the airport

  • Security screening took only about 5 minutes, unlike at Oakland Saturday morning where it took almost 30 even in the TSA PreCheck lane

  • At 4:50pm boarding for our flight was paused for sudden maintenance. The pilot later joked, "The 'Check Engine' light was on."

    The Dreaded SERVICE ENGINE SOON Light

  • Waiting through the delay was kind of weird because Hawk had already boarded and I was still in the queue in the terminal. I used the free time to unpack a protein bar from my suitcase and buy a soda from the newsstand.

  • At 5:30pm we resumed boarding. It would be another half hour before the flight took off

  • We landed at OAK commensurately late and walked to our car parked in the daily lot. Brrr, it was cold out! Only about 50° and windy, and we were dressed for sunny and 80°.

  • Driving and parking at the airport was part of our plan for saving time getting home. Plus, with a discount on the parking, it was no more costly than taking Uber/Lyft both ways. And it did save time. But still it was well past 8pm when we were rolling.

  • Another planned benefit of driving our own car was knowing we could stop for dinner en route home. We were famished! We hit a favorite chain sit-down restaurant for a quick, late dinner.

  • At 10pm we walked through our own front door.


"Why not drive all the way instead of flying?" a number of folks we chatted with at the waterpark over the past few days asked. "Because it's 12 hours each way plus stops!" I told them. Actually, doing a quick map check now I see that it's really only about 11 hours plus stops... plus traffic. Even so, on a drive that long that's going to be closer to 14 hours. We're so much happier with "only" 8 hours even with the waiting and delays flying entailed.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #10
Now at PHX Airport - Mon, 3 Apr 2023, 4:25pm

Today we enjoyed one last hurrah at the hotel before heading to the airport to fly home. "...Wait, what happened to Sunday?" you might wonder. "Weren't you going on a big hike?" We were and we did! But I'm skipping ahead ~36 hours to "complete" this trip in real time. I'll catch up on the hiking blogs this week.

This morning, Monday morning, we ignored our 6:45 weekday alarms and slept in 'til almost 8. We're not in a rush today after our epic hike yesterday. Plus, our muscles are achy, so taking it easy is the plan today. At least the pain in my shoulder from wrenching on it the way down the steep rocks yesteday has dulled out.

We ate a quiet breakfast in the room this morning then went out to one of the hot tubs for a morning soak. That was pleasant, even though families with screaming kids were already out. Around 9 we went back up to the room to pack for a few hours at the waterpark.

We arrived at the waterpark just before it opened at 10. We waited in line with a dozen or so others for the gate to open. Once it opened we checked in quickly and went off in search of a pair of lounge chairs in a good spot with the right balance of sun and shade. We found them easily. One of the benefits of being there at opening time!

We floated around on the lazy river for just over an hour. Then it was time for lunch. We walked over to the pool grille & bar. I ordered a chicken quesadilla; Hawk got chicken fingers with BBQ sauce. Yes, it was very middle-American food. That's about all that's available on the small poolside menu. After lunch we checked out, confirmed that most of the cost of our meals was comped as a benefit of elite status— yay, Hilton Diamond membership!— and came back to the pool. We did loops on the lazy river for at least another hour. Finally at 2pm it was our agreed-upon time to go.

That agreed-upon time included an allowance for gem shopping. En route to the airport we stopped at two jewelry/bead shops for Hawk. We made it to the airport in good time, returned the car, and took the tram to the terminals. Now we're at our gate for our flight. The inbound aircraft has just arrived, 4:25pm, for our 5:20pm departure. It looks like we might leave on time... though the airline is already showing a 15 minute delay on our arrival in Oakland. We'll see what happens.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #4
At the hotel - Sat, 1 Apr 2023, 10:30pm

Our simple plan this afternoon of "visit a gem shop then get an easy dinner" wound up taking, like, four hours for a multitude of little problems I don't care to repeat. Like, nothing went right the first time. But now I'm relaxed and happy and don't care to rehash it.

Why happy? Because once we got back to our hotel we ate some dessert we'd bought at the store then went outside to one of the hot tubs for a nice, long soak. The water was really hot (many hotel hot tubs are not hot enough) and, surprisingly, it didn't sting anywhere. That means I didn't get burned while floating around on the lazy river earlier today. Yay, sun tan lotion! ...Especially because being really selective with packing sun tan lotion was one of the tradeoffs we had to make with our decision last night to travel only with carry-on bags this trip.

We're winding down now a good first day on this weekend getaway. I wish it were a bit earlier as today was an early day— up at 5:30am— and we've got another early day planned for tomorrow. Okay, we've only set our alarms for 6am this time, but it's going to be a tiring day as we're going to start with a hike up Camelback Peak. It's an ascent of about 1,400 feet on a trail that is brutally steep.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #3
At the hotel - Sat, 1 Apr 2023, 4pm

Getting to our hotel in Phoenix took longer than expected, what with minor flight delays then going shopping. We didn't get to the hotel until around 1:30. Bad news: they didn't have a room available for us yet. Good news: we wanted to use the pool first anyway, which they gladly allowed us to do.

The pool at the Pointe Hilton at the Peak in Phoenix (the name is clumsy ATM as it was changed to remove a slur against native people) isn't just a pool, it's a waterpark. There's a huge wading pool, a sports pool, a separate kids' pool, a waterslide, and a lazy river.

Lazy River at the Pointe Hilton at the Peak, Phoenix AZ (Apr 2023)

Being lazy on a river was just our speed, so we set sail.

One thing we were worried about this trip is the cool weather Phoenix has been having the past several weeks. That's why we almost canceled this trip a week ago; we were unsure it would be warm enough for the water. With a high of 80 today the weather's still cool for normal this time of year, but the water in the river was heated nicely so that we could jump straight in, no acclimation required.

After completing 4 or 5 laps around the river— it's big enough that each one takes about 15 minutes lazing along with the current— we hit the water slide twice then sat down in chaise lounges.

We were ready to leave at 3:30pm. Coincidentally our room was ready then, too.

Room balcony at the Pointe Hilton at the Peak, Phoenix AZ (Apr 2023)

We've settled into the room now. We stretched out our swimsuits and towels on chairs on the balcony overlooking a fountain in a garden courtyard. Later tonight I look forward to sitting out there and enjoying a drink or two. For now, though, we're talking about visiting another jewelry shop then getting an early dinner.

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #2
Around and about in Phoenix - Sat, 1 Apr 2023, 1pm

Although things were flowing well on schedule this morning as we waited at the airport we wound up taking off 20 minutes late from Oakland today. The crew opened the aircraft door again after locking it. They never open the door, not for me anyway. "Whoa, must be some super VIP late boarding," I figured. Then nobody came. I asked one of the flight attendants after it was closed the second time. "It was for baggage," she explained. What?

Running late carried through to arrival. We were about 15 minutes late there. And somewhere a few rows behind me was a child who coughed for the entire flight.

Hawk and I saved ourselves time in the schedule today by not checking a bag. We made that decision last night. Our original plan had been to take a large, checked bag, filled with our hiking gear. Then we decided, let's go gear-light and save ourselves the time and hassles of checking and retrieving a bag. I'm glad we did, because Oakland airport was heaving. And claiming the bag at Phoenix likely wouldn't have been fast, either.

One thing that has improved at PHX airport is the tram to the rental car center. Yes, there's a tram! It's still a long ride, but the tram is a vast improvement over the rattle-trap buses they ran for years. It's probably a loss for area dentists, who now have fewer patients needing to replace fillings that fell out.

Once we had our car we decided to go shopping. Yes, we traveled all the way to Phoenix to shop. ...But seriously, we figured the hotel may not be ready to give us a room at 12, and Hawk found a gem store nearby she wanted to visit. So we shopped there then ate a quickie lunch in the area. Now it's off to the hotel to enjoy the swimming pools!

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Phoenix Getaway Travelog #1
OAK Airport - Sat, 1 Apr 2023, 7:40am

We were up this morning at 5:30am— "O-dark-30," as some call it— to begin our weekend trip to Phoenix. This is the trip I mused Monday has been on-again, off-again, on-again. Obviously now it's on! We were on the road this morning by 6:30am, driving to Oakland as the morning sky was only beginning to brighten. Dawn wouldn't break until we were most of the way to the airport.

Now we're here at the airport, checked in and waiting at our gate to board our flight. Phoenix is just 1:45 scheduled flight time away, though that clock starts an hour from now. If all goes well we'll be on the ground at 10:30, getting into a car not long after 11, and able to arrive at the hotel before noon. If our room's ready we'll check in, stow our bags, and then get lunch. If the room's not ready we'll get lunch then check in and stow our bags. 😅 Either way, once lunch is done and bags are stowed, we'll change into swimwear and go splashing around at the hotel's waterpark.

...Okay, that's quite a plan... and it all depends on things running smoothly today. We'll see how it actually turns out. Hey, sometimes things actually go right!

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
We're going to Phoenix this coming weekend. That sounds like a nice little last-minute getaway, right? Well, it's not last minute. We've had this trip planned for months. What is last minute is us wondering whether to pull the plug. 😰

Five Things:

1) We planned this trip at the start of the year. Basically we spent part of the New Year holiday break discussing, "Where do we want to travel this year?" One of the ideas was to spend a few days in Phoenix at the hotel where we love splashing around in the pools. If you click click that link and look at the date of the journal I linked to, you'll see it's from 2017. Yes, that's the last time we were there!

2) The planning for this trip really goes back three years. We had this trip planned for April 2020 but canceled it when Coronavirus became a true global pandemic. It took us until this year to get it back on our calendar. It's not that we're taking a long trip; it's a 3-day weekend. But every day off takes planning as it's always a question of "What best could we do with our limited time off from work?" Finding the right time to reschedule this put it out into 2023. 😔

3) Weather WTF? We chose early April for this trip because it's shoulder season in Phoenix. It's a time of the year when weather is warm enough to enjoy swimming outdoors but not middle-of-the-summer 113° (45° C) 🥵 hot. In the past early April has always seemed like a good time. For the past two weeks, though, Phoenix has been in a cold snap. I've been watching the daily weather; for several days in a row the temps didn't rise about the 60s. WTF, Phoenix?

4) We almost canceled several times. Seeing weather in Phoenix way too cool for enjoying swimming I started considering alternatives. We could pull the plug on Phoenix without losing money (reservations are all refundable)... but where would we go? A lot of other places on our list are too snowy right now. We'll have to leave those for later in the year, especially with the big snow season we've had in the west this year. And trips further east than Phoenix don't really work in the short, 3 day timeframe we have.

5) Phoenix, it is. Getting warmer. Ultimately I didn't cancel the Phoenix trip because I refused to do so until I had something credible as an alternative lined up. Nothing lined up. And now the weather forecast for next weekend is getting a bit warmer. Forecasts of upper 70s have climbed to 80 and now to the low 80s. That's still not quite warm enough for real swimming weather... but maybe the warming trend will continue! And if it doesn't, we'll spend less time swimming and more time hiking.

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Sedona Travelog #2
Phoenix, AZ - Sat, 28 May 2022, 7:30am

When I stop over in a city en route from Point A to Point B I like to call it "8 hours and a shower in ___." That's not accurate for last night's stop in Phoenix. One, we'll been here more like 10 hours. Two, I'm not taking a shower. I plan to get dirty & sweaty during the day. I'll take one this evening to clean up & cool down. Anyway, our 8-10 hours and not-shower in Phoenix have been... as dull as that phrase is meant to imply.

Our flight to PHX last night was uneventful. We left pretty much on time and got in pretty much on time. Edited to add: Oh, and it was 100° F (38° C) when we landed just after 8pm. The daytime high had been 105. This is only late spring weather in Phoenix. In the summer daytime highs will top 110° frequently.

Could we have driven all the way to Sedona last night, as I remarked in my previous blog? Yes, though I'm glad we didn't. Everything after the plane landed seem to take forever. Our hotel is just a mile from the airport, yet we didn't get to our room until almost 9:45pm. Driving to Sedona would have taken until almost midnight. And I was totally ready for sleep before 11. I'm glad I wasn't driving 2 more hours.

This morning we'll drag our stuff back down to the car, get some breakfast at a nearby place like Del Taco— because the free breakfast at the hotel is all sugar-and-carbs crap— and hit the road for Sedona.

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