Any day that begins with IHOP is a good day, I always say… um, starting now. And after grabbing some delicious grub with my older brother Ryan and his wife Kate, Denise and I hit the road with my parents from Tucson to San Diego.
Because of our leisurely pace (and almost running out of gas in the mountains… in the middle of nowhere… in the dark) we didn’t get to our hotel until about 8:30pm local time. We already got a great rate at the Pacific Terrace Hotel, but due to availability we were upgraded to junior suites with ocean views (although we can’t really see much of it in the moonlight).
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The room is really plush. And considering the last hotel room I stayed in a couple months ago was in Manhattan, it’s downright gigantic in comparison… and at a fraction of the cost. In addition to the ocean view, large wood beds, marble bathrooms, and a flat-panel TV that I estimate at about 42″, we get free wine! And as if all that wasn’t enough, they actually managed to dig up a charger for my near-dead cell phone since, like an idiot, I left my charger in Tucson.
I have no idea what the plan is for tomorrow but after spending all of Friday afternoon traveling to Tucson and most of today trekking to San Diego, sleeping in and taking it easy are definitely top priorities!
Woke up early this morning and hit I-93 north to Vegas. A hour or two later, we grabbed some breakfast at a McDonald’s on Route 66 in Kingman, AZ. An hour or two after that, we were driving across the Hoover Dam. Then it was on to good ol’ Vegas. That’s when the real fun began.
I headed towards the airport and drove out to where all of the rental car places are. But after driving through once, I never saw a Fox rental office. Confused, I looped around and drove through again. Still nothing. So I called Fox’s number only to be told that Fox rental no longer has a location in Las Vegas, despite what the agent told me. I had even paid the $150 drop off fee to drive to Vegas. Heck, he even gave me directions there.
So I spent several minutes with the Fox rental district manager while he kept repeating fairly obvious and unhelpful things like “How can you be in Vegas? We don’t have a counter in Vegas.” I kept telling him that wasn’t my problem since his own agent told me I could drop off in Vegas. Finally, he agreed to see if he could work out a deal with a rental agency here. After getting the runaround and being sent to a couple different agencies multiple times, we finally managed to ditch the car.
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From there, we went straight to the Paris hotel where we were staying. Our room was quite impressive. We spent the rest of the night walking the strip, playing slots and even visiting downtown. I tried to show Denise the fountains at the Bellagio, but much to my disappointment, they were turned off due to “high winds.” We finally went back to the room and crashed at around 4am.
Woke up to some rather unpleasant news this morning. Denise and I were supposed to be flying out of Phoenix this evening at around 8pm. But due to what sounds like some pretty heavy snowfall back in the Twin Cities, our flight was cancelled. After spending a good 20 minutes or so on hold with Northwest Airlines, I was told that we wouldn’t be able to get another flight until Tuesday. So it looks like we’ll be staying two more days.
But there’s a bright side. Since it was the same cost, we decided to get a flight out of Las Vegas (since Denise has never been) on Tuesday evening. So after some last minute preparations, we said goodbye to the family and headed north. We just pulled into a Best Western in a little town called Wickenburg, AZ, which is about halfway between my parent’s house and Las Vegas.
So tomorrow we’ll be getting up bright and early and heading to sin city where we should have most of the day tomorrow and a good share of Tuesday to bum around! Sweet!
After another lazy morning, the whole family had some lunch at a great little seafood chain up in Tucson called Rockin’ Baja Lobster. Afterwards, we all went to visit my grandma, who lives in a retirement home in Tucson.
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Then Denise and I took a very scenic drive up Mt. Lemmon, an incredibly picturesque mountain north of Tucson. There’s a little village up on top called Summerhaven but unfortunately the gift shop (and more importantly the Cookie Cabin where you can get freshly baked chocolate chip cookies) was closed by the time we got up there. But we weren’t disappointed for long since we managed to time our drive down just as the sun was setting.
The rest of the day was spent back down in Green Valley relaxing with the family and playing a little Phase 10.
Today was mostly spent in the car. The original plan was to get an early start and head north to Phoenix and then on to Sedona, but we took a few detours along the way. For lunch we dined on some delicious Magpies Pizza. Then we took the long way through the mountains to Prescott, AZ. We then managed to miss our turn for Sedona and ended up on a pretty cool gravel road that took us through the mountains where it began to snow. By the time we decided to turn around and finally got to Sedona, it was dark so we didn’t really get to see much of it.
After that, we headed back to Phoenix to pick up my oldest brother Matt and his wife Maria from the airport. After a tasty In-N-Out Burger, we headed back down to Green Valley.
Another gorgeous day in AZ. I believe the temps were up around 75 and not a cloud in the sky all day long. It was a little slow going in the morning for Denise and I since we were both still fairly tuckered out from traveling the day before. When we finally got ambitious enough, we headed to my parents house for a delicious breakfast of french toast and bacon, which my mom buys right from the butcher shop. Mmmm… bacon…
Then we made a run for the border. Even though I forgot to bring my birth certificate, we talked to some locals here and heard that you can park on the US side and walk over to Nogales, Mexico, and all you need to get back in is a driver’s license. So we hit I-19 and went about 40 miles south to the border.
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This might sound odd, but Nogales actually reminded me a little bit of New York City. Certainly not in size, but it’s essentially filled with dirty little storefronts and persistent street vendors that relentlessly hassle you to check out their knickknacks as you walk past. Oh yeah, and farmacias. Muchos de farmacias! But we did have a lot of fun exploring and buying some souvenirs. We also made friends with one store owner nicknamed “Fish”–he never explained the nickname, only telling us it was “a long story” (see picture at right).
Continue reading ‘Tucson: Day 2′
As always, day 1 is typically just known as “traveling day”. When you get up at 4am and don’t really stop moving until like two in the afternoon, it tends to wear you out. And it doesn’t help when yours truly isn’t exactly a huge fan of traveling; my 5-second attention span tends to hinder such things. However, this time wasn’t so bad since Denise brought her portable DVD player. So we watched Office Space and played some card game that I just learned and don’t know the name of.
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At the rental car place, what was described on Expedia as a “midsize, Toyota Corolla or similar” somehow turned into a PT Cruiser… yeah, no thanks. So after 10 minutes of the saleswoman trying desperately yet fruitlessly to talk me into upgrading to a Dodge Charger, I paid for a small upgrade to a Chrysler Sebring.
The rest of the afternoon was spent having lunch with my mom at the Quail Creek Grill and checking in at the hotel. Later on, we met up with my dad, my brother Ryan and his wife Kate at a pizza place called Sauce up in Tucson.
That was all the excitement we could handle for one day!
Always a shocker when the alarm goes off at 4am. Ugh. But fortunately, it’s for a good reason. Denise and I will be leaving shortly to head to the airport en route to sunny Green Valley, AZ!
