We had a wonderful trip to Phoenix! As Brian has said, "I regret nothing. Unless in 3 days I regret everything." :'-D So far, we are all still feeling perfectly fine, so I guess we will find out in a few days whether or not we were careful enough and/or got lucky and didn't catch this crazy virus.
Tuesday
We dropped Jasper off at the dog sitter Tuesday around noon, and frantically finished packing and getting ready. Why does it always feel like such a rush? I can be as organized in my mind as I possibly can be, yet it's still always a drama to get out the door for a big trip. Of course in pandemic times, you have extra things to think about like masks and sanitizers etc. Anyway, we made it to the airport without any hiccups. We had actually timed it all pretty well, we got to the gate only about 15 minutes before we were supposed to start boarding. That was apparently too long for Adam. He started ranting about getting on the plane, and wouldn't quiet down. He never escalated to unmanageable, but he was loud enough that we were definitely feeling a bit conspicuous. Thankfully, Adam and Brian were sitting in Premium, so they got to board first - as soon as they called those rows, Brian and Adam were off! He was a bit touchy on the plane ride Brian reported, but did settle down after the beverage and snack cart came around. It had been a year since we had flown with him, which is too long - he needs regular practice with all these things so he knows what to expect! Anyway, we got to Phoenix around 8 mountain time, picked up our car, and off we went to the hotel. I was still feeling a bit anxious at this point because I didn't know what to expect when we got to the hotel, but I had a wonderful guy helping me at the front desk and I felt at ease immediately. Our room wasn't anything spectacular, but it was clean and comfortable and spacious enough for a few days. Adam of course immediately wanted to go swimming (at this point it's after 9) and the only pool that was open was the family pool right by our room. It was not a warm pool. That did not stop Adam, and the other two kids also got in eventually! I went up to my calves and that was it, hot tub for me! They were just so happy to be out in the water that they didn't mind the frigid temps! It felt so good to be on vacation again, we had missed it so much=<3.
Wednesday
We started the day on Wednesday by going for a walk on one of the trails attached to our hotel property. It was very convenient that we had such nice easy walks so close by! The kids tried to have a good attitude, even though it wasn't their favorite activity. At one point, I waited with Nathan and Lynsey while Brian and Adam walked up a bit further to a higher peak, since Brian really wanted to go up there and Adam was not about to let Dad go anywhere without him! It was a nice morning, although the kids would probably say the walk was a bit too long:-/.
We got ready for the pool and went down to have lunch at the Water Park. The sun was nice and warm, so even 18 degrees Celsius made for lovely pool weather! It was really helped by the fact that they warmed this pool a lot more than the family pool we had been in the night before, but this pool was only open until 5pm so it was never a nighttime option. We had a great afternoon at the pool and went back to the room around 4 for some downtime. We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and ate outside all by our lonesome - the hostess seemed quite surprised when we asked to sit outside! I was really determined that this was one line I was not going to cross - even though we were traveling, I wanted to minimize our exposure to the virus as much as I could. The kids once again wanted to go to the hot tub that night, although Adam was quite adamant that he wanted to go to the water park (warm water) and not to the family pool (cold water). We had to explain that the water park was the "daytime" pool, and the family pool was the "nighttime" pool, and he did seem to accept that after a while. He pretty much stuck with the hot tub that night, as did everyone else! Nice end to a lovely day!
Thursday
Thursday morning we decided to switch things up a bit and go for a drive. Brian had found this ghost town only about an hour from our hotel, so off we went! It was a cool touristy stop and a nice drive! We decided to do a mine tour, and very naively decided to take Adam and all go as a family. It was only 25 minutes long, and he was totally fine for about 10 minutes, but then he started asking to be done. Imagine that you are underground on a tour with 15 other people (yes, this was the least Covid friendly activity we did, I did not think it through!). Brian and I spent most of the tour trying to keep him simmering instead of boiling over, and making sure he didn't bother everyone else that had paid to do this tour. Thankfully he did not go full freak out, but it was not a good experience. Lynsey and Nathan enjoyed the tour quite a lot so I'm glad we did it, I just wish we had decided to split up and not try and take Adam. He just isn't quite ready for this kind of activity!
We wandered around some more, watched a "gun fight" in the streets, had some lunch on a patio. Lynsey wanted to do the zip line so Brian did it with her. After we left the ghost town, we kept driving a bit longer on the Apache trail and saw some lovely scenery. Once again though, we pushed Adam's limits just a bit too much, and when we were 46 minutes from getting back to our hotel, he decided he was completely done with driving. Let's just say it was a very long 46 minutes. He escalated pretty high at this point, and there was nothing we could say to settle him down. He wanted to be at the hotel and since we weren't there yet, he was not happy. I have never been so happy to see a hotel! We got back around 2:30 or 3 and went to the water park again for a bit. It was never very busy on any of the days that we went, which was nice. Adam wanted pizza for supper and since it was his birthday, he got to the choose! We got some pretty good pizza from a place just down the street to eat in our room, and then we went to Dairy Queen to get some mini blizzards in lieu of ice cream cake to celebrate Adam's birthday. The kids decided to watch a movie together that night after instead of going to the hot tub. I guess since the pool wasn't warm enough anyway, Adam didn't really need to have that second swimming session! We watch the new Disney movie "Soul", it was good! Needless to say, as has become custom, we did not stay up to ring in the New Year. Unfortunately, as has also become custom, we were awakened by other people at New Year who WERE staying up to ring in the New Year. Oh well, we have decided this is a price you have to pay if you are in a populated place on New Year's Eve!
Friday
New Year's Day we didn't have a big agenda, I wanted to go for another walk in the morning and that wasn't met with very much enthusiasm. We went anyway, just not for very long. There was this steep hill close to the end that I wanted to climb and no one else did, so I went by myself. I quite enjoyed the alone time! We had some pizza leftovers for lunch and off we went to the pool again! I have to say, I was not expecting that we would be able to spend so much time at the resort using the pool, but I was pleasantly surprised at how usable those amenities were. I can definitely see why people like to winter in Arizona, it's not hot but perfectly pleasant on sunny days! We decided to get Italian take out for dinner (well, 3 of us got Italian - Lynsey and Nathan wanted McDonalds instead and since it's vacation, you just say yes to these things!) and it was delicious! Again the kids didn't ask for the evening pool time, so we just hung out in the room again. Perfectly relaxing day!
Saturday
Our last day! We got a late checkout, so we were able to grab some pool time one last time. We got there at around 10:15am and had the entire water park to ourselves. As I mentioned before, it was never terribly busy, but what a cool experience to have it all to ourselves! And while the temperature was not warm (only around 10 or 12 degrees Celsius), the sun was so nice and warm that we had a great time in the pool - it didn't feel cold at all! Lynsey tried out her new waterproof case for her phone and got some cool pictures of us in the water:-). As usual, packing up to check out was a bit stressful, especially because we were in a bit of a hurry to make a 1pm appointment for Lynsey and I to have a trail ride. She was feeling a bit down on Friday, so I booked a trail ride so she could get back on a horse - it's been a while for her! We had a nice time, it was a very easy, relaxing ride. Even I didn't feel threatened being on top of that beast for 45 minutes:-D. I'm glad we were able to get Lynsey some horse time! While we were on the trail ride, Brian took the boys to a local park and to get some donuts.
After our trail ride, we still had several hours to kill so our plan was to go to the Botanical Gardens. We were going to have to make reservations, which we didn't realize until we got there, but then the price was so high we decided it likely wouldn't be worth it for us. So, we explored Papago Park in the same area instead. It was a beautiful place! After that, we went into downtown Phoenix and had some drinks and snack on a patio at an English pasty place. It was a nice experience, although the food was really slow - it ended up working out okay since we were killing time anyway! Downtown was so deserted of people, it's definitely a strange experience to be in the middle of a bunch of buildings and have there be almost no people around.
Our trip home went very well with no real hiccups. Adam did really well on the plane, and even fell asleep! We were not sure at all that he would sleep so Brian was really relieved! Nathan has started to be a bit nervous flying, which he never used to be. He hates taking off, and when we hit some turbulence close to the end, he grabbed my arm really tightly. I feel bad that I probably passed on this nervousness to him, since I hate turbulence as well! Hopefully he gets over it and doesn't let it stop him as he gets older, I would hate for him to actually get really nervous and not fly because of it!
We got home after 11 and everyone was so tired, yet happy to be home. Another great vacation with great memories made!
