Fountain at the Arizona Grand Resort

The Arizona Grand Resort, located in Phoenix, Arizona, just completed a 52 million dollar renovation. This AAA Four Diamond Preferred all-suite hotel is offering the “Grand Opening Summer Splash”, from Thursday May 21st through Monday September 7th, with rates starting at $129 per night. Visitors who stay for two or more nights receive a $50 gift card that can be used toward any of the numerous resort services and amenities.

The Arizona Grand Resort has something for everyone in the family. The full service spa and salon can be enjoyed after a round on the resort’s 18-hole golf course. The Lobby features a bar and grill, and a marketplace with everything you might need, and a few things you might just want. Aunt Chiladas Mexican Restaurant is within walking distance, and the Phantom Horse Grill and Sports Bar is on the resort property. For the fitness minded, a 20,000 square foot athletic club is available, complete with 45 fitness classes offered per week. The 17,000 acre South Mountain preserve is right at the back door, with 60 miles of trails for hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. The Oasis Water Park, rated among the top 10 resort water parks in the nation by The Travel Channel, has water slides, a “river ride”, and an enormous wave pool. During the “Island Nights at the Oasis” visitors can enjoy a “dive-in” movie on the big screen behind the pool.

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We spent most of the recent Memorial Day weekend in the city of Davis, CA, attending the 23^rd Annual Davis World Cup Soccer Tournament, in which my son’s under-12 team was participating.

(davisworldcup.org)

In addition to plentiful fresh air and sunshine, it gave me the opportunity to do a little al fresco blogging, courtesy of my office laptop and a borrowed air card. Never having blogged al fresco before, I found it both invigorating and refreshing.  All I needed was a nice tall cocktail. Unfortunately there were no cocktail waitresses to be found at Sandy Motley Fields, so I had to settle for water and Diet Coke®.  Alas.

The City of Davis website describes Davis as a “university-oriented city with a progressive, vigorous community noted for its small-town style, energy conservation, environmental programs, parks, preservation of trees, red double-decker London buses, bicycles, and the quality of its educational institutions.”

Personally, I’ve always been a fan of college towns, and Davis is a good one.  Located 70-miles Northeast of San Francisco, and 11-miles West of Sacramento, Davis is home to UC Davis, one of the nation’s top universities.  

Like most college towns, Davis boasts its share of great bars and restaurants. On Sunday we lunched at The Graduate (affectionately known as “The Grad”), which is about as college town oriented as you can get. The Grad offers 55 different beers – 50 of them on tap – so you’ll be hard-pressed not to find something to quench your thirst. They also offer a Monday – Friday All-Day-Happy Hour, from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM, when all beers, well drinks, ½ liter Long Islands and Smirnoff Cocktails are just $2.79. Oh, and a free Nacho Bar. SCORE!(Wikipedia)

But we were there on a Sunday, so we didn’t score any of that. I did enjoy a ¾ pound Ultimate Burger and fries. It was quite tasty but in hindsight I think my man-sized hunger would have been happier with the ½ pounder. Lisa had the BLT, which came on a Sciambra Sweet Baguette.  I think she enjoyed it. Hold on a second….yes, she did…

The boy, a hot dog freak, had the hot dog, and the girl joined me in bovine delight. Our friends, KC and Jenny went the pizza route, ordering (I think) the Chicken Club Pizza – Grilled chicken breast-bacon-tomatoes (cooked)-green onions & ranch sauce. I managed to abscond with a slice and it was delicious, a nice change from your basic pepperoni with red sauce.

(davisgrad.com)

The Grad offers dozens of TV’s for all your sporting event needs, in addition to pool tables and various video games. In other words, feel free to bring the kids; just get them out before the Spicy Salsa Tuesday.

After lunch we were back at the fields for game #4. A win would have put us into the semi-finals and required us to be back for an 8:00 AM game on Monday. As such, we came prepared for the possibility of spending the night. We didn’t win so we didn’t stay, but had we stayed Davis offers numerous accommodations from which to choose.

(Hotelscombined.com)

One such accommodation is The Aggie Inn (and I’m a sucker for any place with the word “Inn” in it). Located adjacent to the university, it offers “an elegant combination of tastefully decorated rooms and quaint, secluded two-room Cottage Suites.”

Perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to stay there during the Davis World Cup Soccer Tournament 2010. 

Aggie Inn
245 1st Street
Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530.756.0352
Fax: 530.753.5738
Reservations: 530.756.0352
info@aggieinn.com

The Big Lake campground, located in Springerville, Arizona, is the “Best Kept Secret in the White Mountains”. It takes some determination to get there (the elevation is at 9200 feet, accessible only by a vast network of dirt roads), but once you do, it’s easy to spend four or five days, or even more, enjoying the area.

Big Lake as seen from our campsite, at dusk.

The hosted campgrounds boast such amenities as well-maintained outhouses and public showers ($5 per shower, which seems worth it after not bathing for two or three days!). There are charcoal grills, fire pits, and picnic tables at each camp site. A general store sits at the head of the campground complex, right on the lake. Row boat and motor boat rentals are available, and the store stocks plenty of what you may have forgotten, such as matches, charcoal, tarps, bait, tackle, ice, snacks, and fresh coffee. You can even get a fishing license at the General Store – required for anyone aged fourteen and older who plan on trying to snag the elusive lake trout. Unleaded gasoline is also sold, but is limited to five gallons per customer.

There’s lots more information and pictures! Click here to Read More »

This view was what started the whole ordeal.

Some would blame the 2 hours of sleep I was going on – I’m open to that being one of the catalysts for not one, but two airlines, and their passengers being upset at me.

It was kind of my fault.

That being said, how in the world I can go through 2 checkpoints, my shoes and belt being removed, laptop out of its case, bag scanned twice and then swabbed for residue, a pat-down and half of my toiletries being thrown away and still manage to board the wrong airplane is beyond me.

Seriously.

Not that I blame the nice, healthy-looking staff of the Redmond, OR Airport, but somewhere along the chain of command couldn’t one of them raised a hand and, at least, suggested they leave little signs indicating which tiny plane went where?

See, this is where my sleep-deprivation comes in; I should have asked. And I didn’t. I chose the plane that looked most like it was about to make the 30-minute hop over to Portland.

I ducked into the machinery that surely didn’t fall under the ‘if you lose one engine, you can still fly on the other’ category and the attendant immediately could tell my bag wasn’t going to fit into the overhead.

“Why don’t you go ahead and take your seat and I’ll put it down below for you?.”

I took my seat – 3C, as requested, for a view of Mt. Hood at sunrise, followed by the ruggedly gorgeous Oregon Coast.

More filed in and I laid my head back. A man sat down in front of me and quietly asked the same attendant (there was only room for one) something to which she sweetly shrugged off:

“Oh, this happens a lot, don’t worry.”

I didn’t worry and closed my eyes again.

And then we sat.

And sat.

When a murmur begins in a cabin that small, everyone can feel it. For some reason, we weren’t going anywhere.

“We’re almost ready to go,” crackled the redundant intercom.  “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be getting you on your way to Salt Lake City.”

I didn’t want to go to Salt Lake City. Ever. But especially not this morning, as I had a connecting flight to Honolulu.

I repeated most of this to the attendant.

“You’re supposed to be on the Portland flight, right?”

Yes I was.

“They’ve been trying to find you.”

Trying to find me? In this day in age? Anyone could look at my blog, my Facebook, my Twitter and tell you exactly where I was, but the airline lost me?

In my twenties, there was a phrase having to do with a walk, and shame. I’ll spare you the origin of that, but just know that the exiting off of flight #1 and then the stroll to #2, was anything but confidence boosting. When the pilot’s face carries the same expression as the now late passengers, you know you’ve screwed up.

I got on the wrong plane this morning and have to admit that I’m kind of impressed.

If only I could say the same for the rest of those involved…

Aric Q. is traveling to Hawaii and he’s trying to do it on the cheap.  We will be following his adventures here on UpTake and we will be wishing him well, but we will NOT be wiring him money.