Friday (3/26)

We landed in Phoenix after a pretty good 4 hour flight from Cincy.  We grabbed our SUV for the week and headed off to Mesa.  Arrived at the Westgate Painted Mountain resort, unpacked and had pizza down the road at a place Tessa found – Venezia Pizza.  It was New York style pizza and was literally the LARGEST slice of pizza I had ever held.  I got two pieces, and didn’t finish them both.  It was probably the equivalent to a large pizza.  The taste wasn’t stellar, but hit the spot tonight. With jet lag, we turned in pretty early.

Saturday (3/27)

I woke up twice in the middle of the night, only to realize it was the middle of the night so I forced myself to go back to sleep.  Early in the morning, we walked down to Mesa Donuts and got some great sweets.  We then headed over to Papago Park and hiked to the Hole-in-the-Park.  We spent several hours in this really cool place,  check out the photos below.  From the park, we went to Old Town Scottsdale.  I really love this place and had been telling Heather about it for years. We spent most of the rest of the day walking around Old Town Scottsdale, and of course, got some ice cream at the Sugar Bowl.  After dessert, we drove through the Arizona State University campus and saw Sun Devil Stadium. We then came back to the resort and started to figure out dinner.  I watched some basketball while the others hung out at the pool. Being it is Saturday night and we didn’t plan, we had a great deal of trouble finding a restaurant less than 90 minute wait.  We finally decided on Nando’s about 10 minutes from the resort.  While waiting on our table, we found a place called Cups & Cakes and bought some great sweets there.  Next door there was a really cool cigar lounge named RJ’s which reminded me of something similar named Easy on the 5th in Toronto.  RJ was really cool and gave me a tour of the place so I ended up buying a Padron from him.  We had dinner and came back and watched some of the NCAA Sweet 16 games.

Sunday (3/28)

GAME DAY!!!! We got up early because Taylor had her 1st college soccer game today against Wooster which began streaming at 8a our time.  Due to Covid, it has been a year since we have seen her on the pitch. The last game was her CUP team going undefeated and winning the IMG Classic in Florida last March. Well Taylor continued her winning streak with her 1st college victory! OWU upset the reigning conference tournament champions, Wooster 2-0 and Tay in her normal aggressive play, earned her FIRST YELLOW CARD in his 1st college game!  Gotta love it!

A friend I graduated high school with over 30 years ago lives in Arizona and came to visit with us.  Belinda Mobelini and I had literally not seen each other in over 3 decades and it was as if we spoke last week.  Pretty crazy stuff.  Belinda came over to our resort and we all sat by the pool and Belinda and I drank beers for a few hours as we all got caught up with each other.  We then went over to Belinda’s partner’s shop and walked around for a little bit before heading to dinner at The Keg Steakhouse in Gilbert.  After spending most of the day with her and Julie, we headed back to the resort.  Played some games, watched some basketball and turned in for the evening.  Our lives are forever changed!

It was so much fun that my stomach is still hurting from all the laughter.

Monday (3/29)

We got up this morning and headed to Paradise Valley, AZ to visit Cosanti’s. Heather found this really cool compound where they make windchimes.  We watched the team heat bronze to over 2000 degrees into a liquid and into the special forms for the windchimes.  We then went back to Old Town Scottsdale and walked around and shopped some more.

Then we had lunch at the Taco Guild.  It is a former United Methodist Church that is now transformed into a very cool restaurant.  The food was awesome! If you ever go, be sure to get the Chipotle Cherry Steak tacos or quesadillas.  You will be amazed how good they are.

After lunch we came back and did a relaxing day of pool, basketball, volleyball and shuffleboard.  With all the food throughout the day, we had ice cream for dinner!  Tomorrow we head to Sedona!

Tuesday (3/30)

We spent the day in Sedona hiking and shopping.

Wednesday (3/31)

After the 9 mile hike yesterday, we decided to take it easy today and make this a pool day.  We hung out at the pool for most of the morning and then early afternoon the group went back to Julie’s shop while I stayed behind and did some work.  We then had dinner at Uncle Bear’s Grill & Tap (on Greenfield Road) and then played putt-putt at Golfland before returning to the resort. Saguaro National Park tomorrow!

Thursday (4/1)

We spent the day at Saguaro National Park.

Friday (4/2)

We learned last night that our flight was a little delayed, so we got to sleep in a bit and then headed to the airport, dropped off the SUV, and headed back to Cincy!