canyonwalker | Entries tagged with phoenix

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!

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.

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.

Sedona Travelog #1
SJC Airport - Fri, 27 May 2022, 5:30pm

Tonight we're flying to Phoenix. Our flight departs at 6:20pm and is scheduled to arrive PHX at 8:10. We'll stay in Phoenix for the night then drive to Sedona tomorrow morning. We'll be there through Tuesday.

I would've preferred to get all the to Sedona tonight. It's a 2 hour drive from Phoenix, so we could be geting in around 11pm after allowing time to collect our checked bag and pick up the rental car. But hotels in Sedona are expensive. We splurged on a nice hotel for 3 nights. Adding a 4th just to get in at 11pm (or later if there are any flight delays) wasn't worth it. So we'll be staying at an inexpensive but comfortable (hopefully comfortable) hotel near PHX airport tonight.

At the moment our 6:20 flight is showing on-time. The aircraft is already here as are... two... of the crew. Hmm, we may get delayed waiting on crew. Maybe I'll be thankful we didn't tack a 2 hour drive onto this air trip.

Update: I'm definitely glad we didn't drive to Sedona Friday night.

My Beer Tasting 2022 project has been on hiatus for about 4 weeks. It got stuck in my blogging backlog for most of the month of April while I was busy posting about our trip to Hawaii and other, shorter trips. I actually taste-tested these beers before I got busy... and then got so busy I forgot the nuances of the comparison. I had to go back and taste them again! So, here we go.

Ding-ding, Round 5! 🍻

Fat Tire Amber Ale vs. Kilt Lifter Scottish Ale (Apr 2022)

Fat Tire Amber Ale vs. Kilt Lifter Scottish Ale (Apr 2022)

For Round 5 I tasted a pair of amber ales that carve out different niches within the category. New Belgium Brewing's Fat Tire is an "easy drinking" amber ale, according to its maker, inspired by a classic Belgian style. It's brewed in Colorado and is widely available across the US.

Kilt Lifter is a Scottish style amber ale produced by Four Peaks Brewing in Arizona. What they mean by "Scottish style", apparently, is that it's a stronger ale; it has a higher alcohol content, at 6.0%, than most ales. Four Peaks beers are only distributed in 8 states in the US southwest and Hawaii.

Fat Tire tastes like a relatively normal amber ale but with a very slight fruity/citrus twist from its yeast and a slight sour finish from its hops. On the whole it's a beer that's fine for drinking on its own and also pairs well with a variety of food. Its slightly sour character isn't my... uh, cup of tea... though, so while overall I rate it a good beer it's not great in my book.

Kilt Lifter I first encountered on tap on a trip in Phoenix, Arizona, many years ago. I didn't see it again, except at bars around Phoenix, until a few years ago. I remember liking it as a rich, sweet amber ale years ago, so I put it into my taste test for this round.

Kilt Lifter is one of those richly flavored beers that practically jumps out of the glass and grabs your taste buds. This is a strong beer, not just in its slightly higher alcohol content but also in rich flavor. I thought it actually overpowered the food I ate it with— even rich food, like a deep-dish pepperoni pizza— so from that perspective it's not my favorite. I tried it again later on its own and found that, as with Black Butte Porter in Round 4 it works better on its own. It's still strong, and still a tad too sweet, but when I'm in the mood for enjoying a rich beer after dinner it's fine. Still, like Fat Tire, I rate it good but not great.

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Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Entries tagged with phoenix

O-Dark-30 to Oakland. Next Stop, Phoenix.

Phoenix this Weekend: On, Off, On Again

Ten Hours in Phoenix

Phoenix Tonight, Sedona Tomorrow

Beer Tasting, Round 5: Fat Tire and Kilt Lifter

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