Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Today's the first day of June. And finally the weather looks like it'll be seasonally appropriate... no more spring in February, summer in March, and winter in May. Look at this beautiful 10 day forecast:



Ah, all this beautiful weather on tap. Maybe I'll even be able to enjoy it.

...What do I mean by that passive-aggressive sounding remark? Sigh. Yesterday was a beautiful day, too. And I set one goal for myself: Go outside and enjoy the pool. And I failed. I was too tired. Too tired even to go outside and relax by, or in, the pool. 😞

Guess what my goal is for today? Yup, same as yesterday. Guess what my chances of success are. Sigh. Right now I'd call it about 50/50. ☹️

I shouldn't be this tired.

Update, 4pm: I got out to the pool today. And not just for a quick soak; I did laps in the pool, followed by a soak in the hot tub, then sat out under an umbrella for a while. Woohoo!

Mexico Quickie Travelog #10
Cabo San Lucas · Wed, 13 May 2026. 2:30pm.

After breakfast and a walk around the resort this morning we headed back to our room for another few hours of relaxing in our private plunge pool.



Yeah, the beach is some distance away, but from here we can still see it and hear it. And the beach isn't that nice closer up, anyway. The sand is coarse, and the waves are too intense for wading or swimming. Plus, up here we don't need swimsuits. 😎

We stayed in the pool until about 11:15. That was when we'd set alarms to get out and do something else. The forcing function was that we'd scheduled housekeeping for noon. We figured that's a good time for us to head out into the city for shopping and lunch anyway. We showered and dressed, and left just before 12.

Shopping Fizzle

In town we browsed some of the three stores the town has dozens of copies of: drugs, jewelry, and shitty knickknacks.

The fact that the knickknacks were all so shitty bothers me. I wanted to buy a few things as mementos... but at every store it was the same, super-cheaply made shit. Like cynically made for the stupidest possible tourists. Aren't there any stores or bazaars with good stuff? Like, the flea market/craft fair in El Valle, Panama, totally aimed at tourists, had actual artisans displaying hand-made crafts. We bought that big painted wooden eagle! And the Panama hat I bought at a store there is a quality hat. I would've worn it on this trip but it's too nice and I feared damaging or losing it! But here everything is the same 10-cent shit sold for $10 at 20 different stores.

Our Own Personal Taco Truck

Walking through so many stores not buying anything got us hungry. Around 1:30 we stopped for lunch. I would've been happy to return to Las Guacamayas, where we ate yesterday. Hawk wanted to try someplace new. I understand. We looked at the menus in a few placs and agreed on Tequiza. It's a casual style restaurant with decent prices.

We ordered guacamole and a couple of drinks for starters. Our waitress prepared the guac by hand right in front of us, mixing ingredients on a cart. That was cool because we were able to leave out the jalapeños (Hawk is allergic). Then we ordered one taco each and...



...The tacos came on our own personal little taco truck!

The waitress was incredulous that we only wanted one taco apiece. I assured her we'd order more if we were hungry. The reality is we're both making an effort to eat lighter. For me, it's because I'm on a GLP-1 and purposefully cutting down my portion sizes. Hawk is doing the same (cutting down portion sizes) though without a pill that punishes her if she doesn't.

Also, I was saving room at lunch because I knew next I'd be doing a tequila tasting and didn't want an over-full stomach.

Mexico Quickie Travelog #7
Cabo San Lucas · Tue, 12 May 2026. 10pm.

Two years ago I coined #PoolLife for hanging out by the pool on warm afternoons, preferably for several days in a row in the warm weather, even on work days (taking a one-hour break for work). The term is even more appropriate for this visit to the Waldorf Astoria Pedregal, as we plan to basically hang out in our private plunge pool the whole stay. Except since we're in Mexico it seems like instead of Pool Life we should call it... La Vida Piscina.



When we got back from lunch and a bit of sightseeing and shopping this afternoon we headed straight for the pool. And by "headed" I mean we opened our balcony door and stepped outside. Because that's where our pool is!

We booked this hotel because we knew we could spent entire days basically in our own pool. And that's exactly what we did today, from around 4:30pm until almost 10.



Around 6 our evening guacamole landed. It's a little thing this hotel does: every evening they bring an appetizer of guacamole, chips, and a few beers. Since they know Hawk doesn't drink alcohol (she's allergic), a fact they heard and remembered when we told them at check-in, they put glasses of hibiscus juice on the tray for her. While this tray is meant to be an appetizer for us tonight it's basically dinner. Our late lunch has us still feeling a bit full, even though we ate lightly. It's not worth going out for dinner or going to the cafe downstairs. Remember, this is the home of the $133 "meh"-tasting lunch. (Reviews indicate that the hotel's expensive restaurant has excellent food... but it's at least 3x the price.)



We stayed out late at our pool, only going inside when we were both tired enough for bed. Ahh, #LaVidaPiscina!

There's good news/bad news with the swimming pool. First the good news: I've been enjoying the pool area pretty much every day this week.



...Well, not the pool per se but definitely the hot tub. It hasn't been warm enough to go swimming in the pool. That winter heat wave we had back in March subsided. High temperatures have only just started to poke up into the 70s again.

The swimming pool is heated. It's just not enjoyable to lounge around part in, part out of the water because the air's not warm enough. The 103° (F) water in the hot tub makes up for it.

There's an unwanted visitor who thought the pool water was great, though....



We had a pair of ducks move into the pool area at the start of Covid when everything was shut down. Fucking ducks. Fortunately I haven't seen them around for several years now. Until earlier this week, when this annoying quacker was paddling around. Hawk said earlier in the afternoon he was sleeping in our pool!

I chased him off by waving my towel at him, kind of like one might do to enrage a bull. All that did was scare the duck off as far as the roof of the pool house. He quacked at me indignantly from up there. Fucking ducks.

It's been a long, dry several months with the pool and hot tub out of service. The pool was closed seasonally. That didn't bother me as it's too cold in the winter to enjoy it. But the hot tub has been closed for several months for repairs. THAT bothered me as I enjoy having a soak in the hot water at least a few times a week but haven't been able to for 5 months. Yes, the repairs took longer than expected. But finally it reopened last week.



Today was our first day back in the pool. We went out this morning while it was still gloomy outside thinking a soak would be a nice contrast to the poor weather. But then the clouds started burning off moments after we got there. Hey, no problem; we'll enjoy a soak under blue skies even more!

I'm looking forward to a nice, long summer of being able to enjoy the pool on the regular. Since I'm retired now I won't have to work around my work schedule on weekdays to figure out when I can sneak out to the pool. In retirement every day is Saturday!

Now we just need the weather to cooperate. It would've been awesome if the pool were open 2 weeks earlier, when we had that no-really-it's-still-winter heat wave. If I could've done laps in the pool and then sat on a lounge chair for an hour each day in 90° weather, I would have. Now we're down to 60s and 70s as highs for the next week+ so the full #PoolLife experience will have to wait. Until then I'll try to make a point of using the hot tub regularly now that it's back.

I've been "caving" recently. As in, hiding in my cave. Oh, there are outward signs of life. I show up to work, I'm cheery at work, I've gone out for lunch most days this past week. But inside I've felt dead. I haven't wanted to do anything. For example, I haven't even been able to get myself out to the hot tub to enjoy a soak. Oh, I still still make forward plans for it. "I'd like to use the hot tub after dinner tonight," I tell myself. Then when 8pm or 9pm comes around I decide I'm just as relaxed lying on the floor in the house and would rather not change into swim trunks and go outside.

Things have looked up a bit this past week. I got back on the cadence of blogging. I had 7 "skip days" earlier this month, days when I didn't write to my journal. I think the last time I had that many skip days in a month was 10 years ago. But now I've been writing daily for a week-plus, including some days where I've posted twice. Small steps forward.

And this weekend I finally mustered the will to go out to the hot tub! I was going to do it Saturday morning but then the I-don't-wannas hit... but then I did it Sunday morning.

And Sunday afternoon I did a legit, major chore by dealing with the clothes washer. And good news after my check-it-out and clean-it-up efforts: it's not broken!

I noted ten days ago that the observed season of autumn had started. ...The observation being, "Hey, it's raining!" 🤣 Other observations I use to mark the start of fall and winter include "It's cool enough to turn the heat on in the house" and "It's cool enough that I prefer to wear trousers instead of shorts during the day." We're on the cusp of those markers now.

Yesterday evening I changed into pants to go out to dinner... not because I felt I needed to for fashion's sake but because I wanted to for comfort's sake in the cooling evening weather. Though as long as I was wearing pants for weather I classed it up to be fashionable by wearing a natty sport coat with an artfully folded pocket square.

Overnight it got cool enough outside that the temperature downstairs in our house was a brisk 66° (19° C) when I got up this morning. Up in the bedroom is was warmer, at about 68°. I hadn't actually felt cold overnight even though all I slept with was a light sheet and I'd left the bedroom balcony door open a few inches. Maybe chalk that up to reading articles recently that the ideal temperature for sleep is cooler than most people think. at 64-68°. (I'm glad my autonomous nervous system read those articles, too. 🤣)



As I got up and started puttering around the house with my normal breakfast routine it occurred to me that a soak in the hot tub would be a great way to shrug off the slight chill of the morning. I pulled on a light jacket for the walk out to the pool area. The jacket turned out not to be necessary as the air didn't feel that cold. Despite it being only about 62° the sun shine and lack of breeze made it feel warmer.

And once I got into the hot tub... well, all the thoughts of chilliness went away. Daaang, that water felt hot this morning! It was so hot it was bracing at first. Any weather is pool weather when the water's 103°!

Phoenix Getaway travelog #12
Now at PHX airport · Tue, 23 Sep 2025. 1:30pm

We're at the airport now, chilling before our flight home in 2 hours, but before coming here we did enjoy a last hurrah at the resort this morning.

We got up early this morning, around my usual weekday 6:45am alarm. Aren't we supposed to sleep in on vacation? Well, yes and no. When the sun's up early and sets early it makes sense to make good use of daylight. And it's not like we were up late last night anyway. We tried using the resort's hot tubs after dinner but both were broken. One had no heat, the other had no jets. So after a short soak we returned to our room for the evening.

Breakfast at the Cafe

Since we were up early today we opted to sit for breakfast in the hotel's small restaurant. The past few days we've contented ourselves with eating protein bars in the room so today we decided to splurge a bit. Plus, one of my elite benefits here at the Hilton hotel is a $30/day food credit. Yesterday we used the credit toward our lunch at the pool cafe. Today we figured we wouldn't stay late enough for lunch so we used it toward breakfast. Not that it covers breakfast. $15 each doesn't even get the job halfway done when breakfast plates are around $20 apiece, plus $5 for a juice or soda, plus tax and tip. But it changes the cost calculus enough that we enjoyed dining out instead of eating protein bars in the room.

Quiet Morning in the Water Park

After breakfast we returned to the room, relaxed a bit, and changed into our swimsuits to hit the lazy river just after its 9am opening time.



Yesterday was pretty quiet at the water park. Today seemed even quieter. Even though this is a great time of year for #PoolLife in Phoenix— the weather is hot but not too hot— the resort hasn't been too busy. I figure that's because school's back in session, so families aren't taking trips outside of the weekend. And even on the weekends they're buying fewer day-passes as kids are busy with sports and other activities on the weekends. And that was all part of my plan for why to make this trip now. We balance great summer-y weather— even though today's high of 100° is crisp Fall weather by Phoenix standards 🤣— with less crowding.

We spent a few hours at the river ranch this morning, alternating between floating around the lazy river and relaxing on lounge chairs in the shade. Come 11:30 or so we decided to call it a day... er, morning... and headed back to our room. I'd arranged a late checkout of 1pm so we could shower, change, and pack our bags after using the pool.

Making Time to Shower and Change

The late checkout wasn't strictly necessary. The hotel is fine with guests staying in the water park all day after the normal 11am checkout. We've taken advantage of that policy several times in the past... packing our bags in the morning, stowing them in the car, staying in the pool area until sometime mid-afternoon, and changing in one of the bathrooms when it's time to leave for the airport. But having a room to go back to is more civilized, and today the timing made sense for that. Plus, taking a shower in our private room instead of changing quickly in a public bathroom has made me feel a lot more refreshed.

Little Charge for Charging

Like I said at the top, we're chilling at the airport now. Oh, returning out rental car involved a bit of... weirdness. Remember I maligned renting an EV because figuring out charging without an annual subscription is a pain in the ass. And expensive. Well, I decided to simplify the conundrum of "a pain in the ass and expensive" down to just expensive and return the car with 60% charge to the rental depot and pay whatever ridiculous marked-up rate they charge for electrons. Y'know, like how they charge you $6/gallon for gas if you return the car less than full.

I noted the less-than-full battery to the attendant processing car returns and asked about the cost.

"It's only 12 cents," he said with a chuckle. "We'll email you a receipt."

"12 cents per kilowatt hour," I responded, "That's great. Without a membership the commercial recharging stations are charging 48 cents on up."

Except I'd misunderstood him. The rate wasn't 12 cents per kilowatt hour— which I estimate would've come out to $4 or $5 total to top off the battery. I checked the emailed receipt just now on my computer, and it shows 12 cents, total, for the electro-fillup. Bonus!

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.


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

Phoenix Getaway travelog #7
Hilton Resort · Sun, 21 Sep 2025. 3pm

I mentioned in my previous blog that we didn't spend more time at the pools at the Scottsdale Resort because we had other plans. As nice as that hotel was with the upgrade they gave us our plan had only been to stay there one night. Tonight and tomorrow night we're at the Hilton Resort at the Peak, one of our favorite "splashy pools" places in Phoenix.

Before splash down, though, we had a few other things to do. We grabbed some lunch on the drive over and also shopped at two jewelry stores. One in Scottsdale was pricey, but Hawk bargained them down for a few thunderbird pieces by knowing what pieces are worth and offering to pay in cash. The other store, in an industrial complex near the airport, had been Hawk's bonanza in the past but since our last visit they've raised their prices significantly. You win some, you lose some.

Then it was time to hit the Hilton!



Once settled in our room we changed into our swimsuits, packed a day-bag, and made a beeline for the pool area. Well, not exactly a beeline; there was some construction we had to go around. But if there's a type of bee that won't fly over or through fences, we were that type of bee. 🤣

The photo above shows us floating around the lazy river together. Hawk's in a dual tube because it allows her to keep her foot— the one with the broken toe— elevated. I'm in a tube behind her. That's my other hand (the one not taking the picture) holding onto her raft at the bottom of the frame.

BTW, did you know that iPhones are waterproof? The last several generations, at least, are. That's why I boldly took mine with me on loops around the lazy river, not worrying about it getting wet. I discovered that a year ago when my father-in-law accidentally left his iPhone in his swim trunks pocket when he went swimming for 10-15 minutes. He took it out and it worked fine. So I looked up online, "Are iPhones waterproof?" Long story short, they're water resistant at shallow depths for certain periods of time.