Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Saturday was the start of a Christmas-holiday vacation. Counting the two weekends I've got 9 days off from work. As I remarked at the start of the week this is an unexpected vacation. I only learned about the extra days off on Monday!

The late notice to me means I didn't have time to plan anything. ...Not that I could have planned much, anyway, as Hawk is still healing from her foot surgery. And if I had planned a low-key trip it'd be in jeopardy, anyway, as she took a spill last weekend that has made it really hard for her to move again. Hopefully this setback is temporary. One of her doctors says it'll take 2 weeks to recover. That puts it out at... the end of my vacation. 😞

"Oh, but we can stay home and celebrate Christmas!" you might encourage us. Except we don't celebrate Christmas. It's a nonfactor for us. Usually we simply use the time off to travel somewhere. That makes it extra annoying we can't travel. Especially that we can't travel and actually do anything.

But we did manage to do a little bit Saturday! Hawk and I went out for lunch together, did a bit of shopping, then came home to relax. She needed to rest as even moving between the car and a restaurant table and a motor scooter at the store exhausted her. But resting up in the afternoon recharged her for a low key evening with friends. We met a few friends at La Fiesta (a favorite Mexican restaurant) for dinner and then played board games together back at our place until 11pm.

Today (Sunday) we've got nothing planned. Ditto the next few days. I'm sure we'll get together with friends again a few times this week, so at least there'll be something to do. But even though there's not much I am glad for the time off from work, now that I think about it. I just wish I could find better value in my not-working time by having more fun.

It was a pleasant weekend... which I am only writing about just now, at 8pm on Monday evening, because today has been such a whirlwind of starting a new workweek that a blog I thought I might write at 8am I couldn't even start until now. 😰 But this young week's busy-ness is a topic for another day. Right now I just want to wind down a recount a quietly enjoyable weekend.

Hawk and I had no big plans this weekend. That's partly a consequence of her having limited mobility as she works to recover from foot surgery 3 weeks earlier. She tries to push her boundaries every day. Though every day those boundaries reassert themselves.by pushing back. After a few hours out she needs to nap for a few hours at home.

Saturday we went out for lunch together then visited a friend who was hosting a games day at his house. We gamed until about dinner time, playing a few different games each. some_other_dave was there— it's like he'd come from Hawaii just to play games every day— as was a newcomer to our group. "Ronald" was conspicuously younger than everyone else, an obvious and lone younger Millennial among a crowd of Gen Xers through young Boomers. It reminded me to ponder why our group is so sorted by age when we don't take any action or have any reason to filter people by age. (Other than "Are you mature enough to play a serious or semi-serious tabletop game?" Some parents bring their older teen children, for example.)

Sunday we went out together again. Again we started with lunch out. After that we went shopping. I made a quick run at Total Wine for a few more bottles of wines I'd really enjoyed recently. Then Hawk did a bit of clothes shopping at TJ Maxx for dresses or large skirts that fit with her surgical boot. Finally we shopped at Costco, which had been the impetus for the whole trip. And the specific impetus at Costco was a Lego set... a Lego set of 6 gems on a display stand! I bought it for Hawk as an early Hanukkah gift.

Just the walking around at Costco pushed Hawk's boundaries— according to her step counter it's easy to walk a mile in that store— but she still had energy to suggest we invite friends over to play cards on Sunday evening. We discussed going out for dinner together but then Hawk got the idea to volunteer me to cook dinner for everyone instead. 😅 I don't really mind; I moderately enjoy cooking and hosting, and we had the makings on hand, having just shopped at Costco.

Cards with friends was fun. Hawk's long day caught up with her, though, and she was fading badly after two matches of Spades. She retired upstairs as I wound things down with our friends Jeremy and Aliza. And by "wound down" I mean Jeremy and I split another round of beer before calling it a night.

It was a slow weekend after Hawk had her foot surgery on Friday. She napped a bit on Friday afternoon— and so did I. But while her sleepiness was unexpected, mine was... I don't know what.

Frittering and snoozing on Friday set a tone for the rest of the weekend. For Hawk, again, that's expected. She's getting over the physical stress of surgery and pain of incision. And she's hobbling around with a half-cast on one of her legs. Just getting up to go to the bathroom takes planning and determination. Me? I have no such excuses. I spent the weekend mostly sitting around like a bump on a log, and that's all on me. I wish I'd at least gone out to soak in the hot tub. But each time I considered it I decided I'd rather just sit inside like a bump on a log.

I'm disappointed that I couldn't even muster the will to write to my blog this weekend. Yeah, there was little new to write about; that's always a disincentive against blogging. But I have a backlog. I have things I've been meaning to write about from the previous weekend, the week before that, and the weekend even before that. Oh, and other stuff still in the backlog from earlier in the year and even last year. Now I'm wondering, will I ever get to these things? I don't know.

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 #9
Hilton Resort · Mon, 22 Sep 2025. 11am

Last night at this evening we've been taking it easy. ...Which has 100% been our plan, because we're on a taking-it-easy short vacation!

Last night we went out for dinner after we were done for the day with floating around the resort's lazy river. We found a pizza place we agreed on and split a pizza there. Afterwards Hawk announced that she'd like to visit a grocery store to buy some dessert (for back in the room) and possibly breakfast for the morning. We found a nearby branch of A.J.'s— the bougie grocery store we bought take-home dinner from last night— and went there. On the way we passed approximately 351 other pizza restaurants. Yes, I counted. Though I may be off by a few. 🤣

When we got back to the room we dug into our desserts right away. Mine was a delicious chocolate ganache cheesecake... and I'm glad to say I only ate half of it. (The other half's for tomorrow night!) We just vegged on the sofa for the rest of the evening. We forgot all about our plans to use the hot tub together and just went to bed a bit after 9pm. OMG we're getting old! 😆

This morning we slept in a bit. The weather was kind of crummy— for Phoenix. It was cloudy and only 80° out! But still we changed into our swimsuits and headed over to the River Ranch in time for its 9am opening.



We decided to wait out the dodgy weather by curling up on a pair of chaise lounges. 80° isn't exactly let's-jump-in-the-water weather but it is comfortable sitting on a lounge chair weather. We passed the time reading on our phones and chatting about things. And within an hour or so the sun came out. So we grabbed our inflatable rafts and went for a spin.

Now it's 11:00 and we're kind of hungry. That's not surprising as breakfast, at least for me, was a protein bar in the room this morning. We'll head over to the poolside cafe in a few minutes to place an order. If it's a long wait I may even ride the pool slide a few times while waiting for our food.

Phoenix Getaway travelog #6
Scottsdale · Sun, 21 Sep 2025. 10:30am

Last night we sat out on the patio of our casita until it was time for dinner. We enjoyed watching the hummingbirds come out as the sun began setting. At first it was one or two. Soon we saw at least 5 different hummers.

For dinner we decided to get food from the grocery store instead of visit a restaurant. We were still partly full from the surprisingly great taco-truck lunch we ate so we figured it'd be easier to eat lightly with stuff from the store. Plus, since this is the hotel I stayed at on a business trip a few months ago— though not in a room anywhere as nice as this— I remember a nice, high-end grocery nearby that sells plenty of ready-to-eat food.



My dinner was a couple dishes of sushi— albacore sashimi and a salmon-avocado roll— plus a few cans out of a six-pack of good beer to wash it down. (Alaskan Amber Ale is one of my top picks in the beer tasting I've done over the past few years.)

After dinner we considered going back out to the pool, perhaps even the hot tub, but we were both feeling kind of tired. So instead we holed up in our living room.



This is one of the areas where having a casita, or even a genuine suite, shines. There's all this space to sit. Or stretch out... not on the bed.

Sunday morning I began down here again. But then it occurred to me, "Hey, it's probably nice outside right now!" Indeed, at 8 in the morning it's only in the low 80s in Phoenix this time of year. 😅 So I went back outside to the patio to enjoy my breakfast.



Sorry, no breakfast picture here. My breakfast was just a protein bar, a few pieces of dried sausage, and a Coke Zero anyway.

After we both had a bite to eat this morning we walked out our gate over to the hot tub. Like the pool, it's just steps away.

Last night I saw other people using the hot tub searching around for the switch to turn on the jets. They were poking around all over the walls of that stucco cabana and couldn't find anything. That made me concerned the hot tub is broken and has no control. Well, this morning I looked around and saw a sign behind the hot tub "HOT TUB CONTROL" with a pointing arrow. Yay, being able to read. Though boo, the jets in the tub weren't very strong.

After a good soak in the hot tub (sorry, no pictures) we went over to the pool. The air was getting warmer but it was still a bit too cool to really enjoy the pool. So we sat on chaise lounges and enjoyed the warm air. It felt better stretching out on the lounge chairs than sitting up on the chairs on our patio.

Now the hour's winding on toward 11am, checkout time. Yeah, we could ask for a late checkout here, to enjoy this upgraded casita longer and have a dip in the pool, but we've got other plans for today. Bigger plans. Today we're moving over to the Hilton resort with a lazy river. An hour spent here in this bougie casita is an hour not spent floating around on inflatable inner tubes!

Napa Trade Show blog #6
Getting ready for Day 2 - Wed, 10 Sep 2025, 10am.

After staying up too late Monday night at the trade show then having to get up really early for a full day yesterday, I was careful last night to pace myself better. It wasn't so much that I made a mistake in pacing Monday night; I didn't. The problem was that I was already running at full speed when a bit of illness tripped me up for 4 hours. It reminded me that I need to under-schedule my day so that, if and when something goes wrong, there's spare time to devote to fixing it.

Thus last night I bowed out of the celebratory dinner, the post-dinner concert, and the post-post-dinner piss-up at the bar. Instead I went out for a quiet dinner offsite by myself, got back before 10pm, and was lights-out at 11pm. Then this morning I slept in until almost 8am. I was able to do that because I don't have any fixed responsibilities until the show at 11:30am. It felt so decadent getting 9 hours of sleep while at a trade show!

So far this morning I've been catching up on work. One of the things about working trade shows in sales is that sales remains the "day job" while the show is also taking up most or all of the day. So we salespeople are always stealing moments here and there to catch up on emails, respond to Slack messages, and keep business moving forward with all of our customers. It's relaxing, though, having only one day job this morning. 🤣 My shift in the booth begins at 11:30am. Update, 10:45am: Today's keynote ended really early, and my colleagues have called me to come to the booth as it's being mobbed.

Canada travelog #29
Maple Leaf Lounge, YYZ Terminal 1 · Fri, 29 Aug 2025. 2:30pm.

Getting through the airport shuffle at YYZ today was... well, I won't say swift, because par for the course at YYZ it felt like we had to walk to Mississauga and back, but it was at least uneventful. There weren't really any lines....



Passport control had more agents than travelers. I've read that trips from Canada to the US are way down thanks to our bellicose president. I wonder if the lack of crowding here at the passport queue is due to Canadians choosing not to travel to the US, or just due to the time of day. I'm certain it'll be more crowded late Friday afternoon, but how crowded?

It was also quiet here at the lounge when we arrived just after 2pm. Access to partner lounges is one of the benefits I get from my United Airlines Gold status, and Air Canada is a Star Alliance partner. If there were a United Club lounge here I would not get in for free, because United does not consider Canada "international" for purposes of its international travel benefits. (United was waaaay out ahead of President Trump, years ahead, in verbally treating Canada as "the 51st state".)



Hawk and I are sitting down now, enjoying a meal in the lounge. They've got a little buffet going that today has bulgogi, pesto pasta, and sauteed broccoli. It's an odd combination, but it works. And it's free and it's tasty.

Speaking of combinations, my beer in the photo is a combination. The lounge has a few beers on tap, including Smithwick's Red and Guinness Stout. I poured myself a Blacksmith.

Update: By the time I left the lounge around 6pm I'd eaten another plate of food and knocked down a Manhattan and 3 Gin + Tonics. 🥃🍸😋

How apropos that today's Labor Day and I'm continuing to take it easy. This is the third day in a row— the whole holiday weekend— that Hawk and I have relaxed at home, spending warm afternoons by the pool.



Why spend a holiday weekend at home? Don't we have places to travel? Well, we just got back Friday night from a week in Canada. Originally we had planned to be there through last night but called an audible to rebook to go home 2 days early due to a problem with dry balls. It was hard to come up with another weekend trip on the spur of the moment. And ultimately both of us felt we'd be happier just taking it easy for 3 days and enjoying the pool in the warm weather.

This weekend has actually been some of the summer-iest weather we've had all year. Several cities around the Bay Area saw their warmest day of 2025 yesterday or Saturday. Locally the temp peaked at 94° F.

The photo above shows that our community pool with only a few people in/around it. That's often the case with our pool— few people use it. But Sunday and especially today it's gotten crowded later in the afternoon. Yesterday there were 5 families (including ours) out there at the peak. Today by 4pm it was similar. The crowding is a bit of a nuisance because we no longer have the water to ourselves. But at the same time we're glad to see more of our neighbors enjoy it, too.