A vacation to Phoenix

Date published: January 30, 2007

So I did it, I finally took a real vacation. Sure, I travel annually to Seattle, Washington and back to my hometown for Christmas, but neither of them are really vacations; I go to Seattle for the Twin Peaks Fest, where I spend all day working, and Christmas is... well... Christmas, not a relaxing vacation by any means.

I decided back in November that I wanted to go on a trip somewhere, I picked Phoenix because an old Rochester friend of mine moved there about 3 years ago, and he had tried getting me to go out a couple times.

In an effort to actually get this post up, I'm going to be a bit brief in the details... apologies in advance.

My plane landed in Phoenix around 11pm Thursday (after some minor delays). Alex picked me up, and we back to his place where I crashed. It was a bit of a full house for the weekend. Normally it's just Alex and his roommate Paul, but Scotty was staying there too, and of course me. Friday morning, I woke up to Scotty making brunch for everyone in the house plus some other friends they invited over.

After all the food had settled from Scotty's great brunch, Alex and his friend Jonathan took me out for some sightseeing. First, we took a driving tour up part of the base of Camelback Mountain, just to see all the amazing and expensive houses. Next we headed over to Papago Park, part of Phoenix's Desert Botanical Gardens. It was there that I took 8 photos which were later seamed together to make the panoramic picture. After hiking briefly around Papago Park, we headed to go pick up and drop off Jonathan's niece. We stopped by a store and I bought a belt too.

We returned to Alex's and off he went to shave his beard. The final configuration was that of a horseshoe mustache... or whatever one would call it. With that task complete it was time to head out to some bars to end the night.

Saturday morning was a quick trip to McDonald's (those Ranch wrap things are pretty good!) and off to the rodeo that was in town. It was located in this sort of western theme park. Park of the theme park was this restaurant named Rawhide. This restaurant was really great, and it even feature live music. Another one of their specialties is rocky mountain oysters. I passed on trying them.

The food at Rawhide was really great though. They had mini cornbread muffins that had jalapeños in them, but it was the corn on the cob that stood out. This was the best corn on the cob that I've ever had, and I told everyone that. Sure, they sort of rolled their eyes a bit but after they tried it many of them agreed. :) After Rawhide, we stopped by a bar again before heading home.

Sunday, we had lunch at some diner-type place (I had a fruit crepe), and then after a quick tour of downtown it was off to meet Joey.We hung out for a bit and I got to play on the Nintendo Wii for the first time. Pretty cool, I played the original Super Mario Brothers on it. :) Dinner was at an Asian Buffet with Joey, James, and Bobby, and then some bar hopping. This time we went to two bars I hadn't been to yet. The first has this $1 a cup beer bust on Sundays, and it was at the other bar where I watched a band (including Alex's friend Zion) play some music. Back home at Alex's I fell asleep on the couch watching Mythbusters.

Alex had to work for a little bit on Monday, so I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing. That's when Paul stepped in and was gracious enough to take me out and keep me entertained a bit. First, we ate lunch at a place called Red Devil Pizza, and it was really good, then it was off to the Fashion Square Mall to watch the movie Children of Men. Paul even had a coupon for a free ticket for him and I, so that was and even better bonus!

Back at Alex's, I knew my time in Phoenix was almost up, so I decided to consolidate all of our photos. After that it was sort of just site and wait for my flight. Alex mentioned that I should probably check my flight to see if it was delayed due to the horribly cold weather (It was a high of 50 the whole time I was there). Turns out my flight was delayed coming in from NYC, and they suggested that I call back in an hour. It was in that hour that I fell asleep on the couch. Luckily Alex was paying attention to the time and not falling asleep (it was about midnight). I called the airport and they said my flight was going to be boarding in 30 minutes. Alex lives pretty close to the airport, so it was just a hop skip and jump to the airport and thus my trip was brought to and end.

So there you have it, my trip to Phoenix. Don't forget to check out my Phoenix trip photos.