Trip XII: Firesky Resort

Captain's log: stardate July 5th, OK, at least I thought it was funny. We arrived at the Firesky in time for the wine-tasting held every evening. If you remember, the Firesky was where we had first arrived the week before where we spent the night before heading to Sedona. The problem this time was they did had lost our reservation, luckily, the front desk which was outstanding was able to come up with a room for us.
You would think that Scottsdale, Arizona would turn into a virtual ghost town in the summer as the temperature spike into the 110s. Not so! The Firesky was rockin' and rollin' and the pool was alive with "Girls Gone Wild" set. As I had said before, there was a bar at the pool and a good looking bunch of kids were having a wonderful time acting crazy. Also there was a family reunion and a wedding going on at the Hotel.
I wanted to take Deb to Tempe and look at the Arizona State University campus. The front desk told me that Mill Street had some great Restaurants and clubs. We wound up eating a great Italian meal at a new place called La Bocca. We headed back to the Firesky and went for a late night swim. Around 3 in the morning, we were awakened, the kids, who were having a great time in the pool had stayed drinking and a couple were having a serious fight. A girl in the hall was swearing up a blue streak and the situation was turning very ugly. Apparently it caught the attention of the front desk because when I looked out the door, there was hotel security there to help solve the problem.
We got to the airport and ready to board our flight, but there was a problem. We were not allowed to bring some Margarita mix on the plane. We had to have it shipped to us. After that was resolved we were able to board the plane and fly back to Seattle.

The Trip III

We spent Saturday night at the Firesky. It was a warm peaceful night once we arrived--the next day we would head to Sedona. The next morning, the temperature was well in the 110s as we got right to the pool. The pool had a service bar, which will have significance later.
Since Deb had not been to Phoenix before, and I had not been there since 1982, we braved the heat to snoop around Scottsdale, a beautiful western themed town. We had lunch at the
Cafe Carumba which was very good. Afterward we checked out a couple of stores. There was a free trolley that chugged around town and we decided to board. That was a big mistake. We got off the trolley after it made it's run around town and realized that we were lost again. Everything in Scottsdale looks alike. After walking the town on the verge in hundred plus heat with no water, we finally asked where the restaurant was. In the nick of time we found the Cafe and began our drive to Sedona and normalcy.

to be continued...

Arrival In Phoenix

The saving grace to arriving in Phoenix late at night, was that temperatures would be cooler, boy we were wrong. The minute we stepped outside, it was like walking into an oven, and this was around midnight. The plan was to rent a car, spend the night at the beautiful Firesky Resort in Scottsdale and drive to Sedona in the morning.
After checking out our rental car, we were giving instructions on were to find the vehicle, we could not find the car that we to drive until we realize that we had read them wrong. This was after walking all over the garage. At the end of our rope we were glad that googled the directions to the Firesky. This should come in handy, while traveling in what I believe one of the 10 largest cities in the nation. We left the airport with Google directions in hand, we just had one problem, a sea of flashing lights. We had run right into a police dragnet, there were helicopters above and television news cars all around. We asked at a gas station how to get to the resort and no one could tell us. We did find out that someone had shot a police officer. We finally where able to call the Firesky and get directions. More to follow....