Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Phoenix Weekend Travelog #2
Arizona Grand Resort - Thu, 9 May 2024, 9pm

After arriving in Phoenix this afternoon Hawk and I checked in at the Arizona Grand Resort. We settled in our room, a comfortable if not exactly luxurious suite. ...Well, not luxurious compared to where we've stayed the past 5 days, anyway. You can see pics of a suite here from our visit last year.

Since I already have pics of the inside, here's a photo of the view from the balcony:



This is similar to the view we had last year; same building but a floor or two higher this year. And this year we paid an upgrade fee to get this room. This hotel is getting pretty bad with nickel-and-diming for things. Their room rate looks low at first, but then there's a mandatory $75 per night "resort fee". Then the optional $30/night fee we paid for a room with a view. And the view's not even all that great. We mostly see the backside of the kitchen building for serving food in the pool area. Next time— if there is a next time— I don't think we'll waste $30/night on a "view". Anyway, enough fussing about prices. We're here for the waterpark!

After getting settled in our room by 4pm we went out to the waterpark for an hour or so. We rafted around the lazy river a few times. We pulled out a bit early to dry off, change in our room, and visit a gem store Hawk really likes in the area. After that we killed time for a bit until it was time to pick up her parents at the airport. They're flying in from the east coast to join us here for the next few days.

Now we've got my inlaws squared away in their room. They didn't pay the $30/night extra for a view but they've got a ground-floor room with a nice patio. It's at least twice the size of our balcony. I'm a bit jealous... though being on the ground floor means there's no privacy with people walking past, so they need to keep their curtains drawn when not fully dressed. We're looking forward to keep ours open this evening for fresh desert air as we go to sleep!

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.



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.



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.

Sedona Travelog #3
Cottonwood, AZ - Sat, 28 May 2022, 11:30am

On our way to Sedona this morning we took a detour. As we were passing hrough the small town of Cottonwood we saw signs for Tuzigoot National Monument. Hawk quickly looked it up while I was driving and found it was 15 minutes off our route. As we didn't have strong feelings about what to do at the end of our route we decided the detour would be worth it— to a park we've never been to before!

The oddly named Tuzigoot is a small park where the ruins of an ancient Puebloan village were discovered 100 years ago. The ruins themselves date from circa 800 years ago. We actually don't know what the people who build this place called it. Tuzigoot is an Americanization of the Apache name Tü Zighoot , which means Crooked Water and refers to the prominent bend in the Verde River below the settlement.



The greenery around the river in the picture above is remarkable, BTW. As we drove up from Phoenix this morning we started in low desert— which frankly looks like a volcano, minus the cone peak. We then climbed into high desert... which looks like a volcano but with some scrub grass growing across it (because it gets a smidge more rain). The ruins of numerous villages have been found along this river valley. Together they paint a picture of a relatively prosperous people farming and trading across the area.

At its height there were 110 dwellings in this settlement. There is architectural evidence some dwellings were built to multiple storeys. But by c. 1400 CE the people who lived here started to leave. Around 1600 when European settlers arrived these rock dwellings were already abandoned, and the descendants of the Pueblo builders lived in tents and huts down on the plain.

Where did the people who built settlements like this go? The Hopi say that settlements like this were never meant to be permanent. Instead, it was a stop on a migration... but to where, and why, they don't/can't say. The Zuni say the able-bodied left; the sick and weak stayed behind. The Yavapai say their ancestors left behind these pueblos and the cultivated farming to return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.