Phoenix Trip Review Part One

For those that aren’t familiar with our trip, we headed back to Phoenix this weekend.  The reason behind our journey is that a local band that we used to follow was getting back together for one final show and Rob was one of the opening acts for it.  This was a pretty big deal for him and I was happy to support him on this.  🙂

Rob let me sleep in as late as he could Thursday morning but finally had to rouse me, and then it was up and showering and finishing the final packing details.  While I was showering, Rob deposited our furry babies to the vets where Shilo was scheduled to get fixed on Saturday(poor baby)anyway.  This was our first time leaving her and it was kinda hard but I know she is in good hands.  The vets LOVE our dogs there and totally spoil them.

We made it out of the house with no drama and thankfully the traffic into San Jose was light so we made it in no time.

Everything was going smoothly through security until I realized I forgot about the liquid rule. I had visions of tossing out all my make up and an expensive trip to the store until I was able to scrounge a plastic baggie out of the bottom of my purse(finally, a bonus to puppy training cleanups!) so I didn’t have to throw away perfectly good make up.

Other than that, security was uneventful.  I guess I am unsure of what the big deal is on the new pat down procedures.  If you go through one of those scanner deals you don’t even have to worry about it.  It’s not much different than going through the metal detector other than having to strike a pose and wait for just a second to have them review the scan.  It was very painless.

The flight was good.  It was a little nerve wracking for me during take off because I hadn’t flown in a while but Rob was a doll.  Hugging on me and being silly to make me laugh.  I adore that he can totally crack me up even when I want to be nervous/mad/sad  🙂

Once we were safe on the ground in Phoenix, we gathered our bags and caught the shuttle over to the rental car place to pick up Chevy’s answer to the PT Cruiser.  I think it is called an HHR or something like that and it was pretty nice for a rental car.  Probably not something that we would purchase though, since we are currently in the market for a new car, the engine wasn’t strong enough for our needs.

With our car secured, I placed a call to DD to let her know we were on the way and then put Caryn’s address into the GPS on Robs phone.  The GPS proceeded to give us the longest directions EVER to get there as it avoided all freeways for no apparent reason.  It was a bit of a pain in the butt but we decided that we were on vacation and not in any hurry so we weren’t going to let it ruin the day.

DD had to jump on a conference call as soon as we got there so we hung out with Caryn and discussed what to do with our evening.  It turned out they had built a new Indian casino about a half a mile from her house so the decision was a pretty easy one to make.  🙂
Once DD was off her call we headed out to lose some money. I texted Renee on the way there and she agreed to meet us there.  I was shocked at how many ppl were there on a Thursday night, yet we still managed to find some machines together and deposit some money into the Gila River community.  Around nine thirty I realized I was starving.  The original plan was to get some killer Thai food from this place around the corner from Caryn’s but I guess they closed at nine.  Renee suggested a Chinese place nearby but DD and Caryn were tired so they bailed leaving us to go it alone to Phoenix Palace where we ordered and ate some fantastic yuminess.    We all split sweet and sour chicken, beef chow fun and crab puffs and still had enough leftovers to make at least one more meal.  We sent said leftovers home with Renee and headed back to Caryn’s house where we crashed hard.

Friday morning Rob woke up and got ready to go meet up with his old college buddy Vince.  He woke me up when he left around eight thirty so I decided to get up and face the day.  DD was at work but Caryn was awake.  She works from home so we were able to hang out all day and chat and catch up and it was awesome.

There are very few friends that I have had in my life where you can go for months, even YEARS without speaking.  Not through any faults in the friendship, simply because life gets busy and you don’t have time to talk, yet you once you finally DO get together, it’s like no time has passed at all.  Ever.  DD, Caryn and Renee are these kinds of friends and I adore them with all my heart.

So Caryn and I ate cookies, chatted, smoked and laughed our asses off as we watched the movie “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” on demand until Renee showed up.

Renee took me out for a late lunch at Olive Garden where we caught up and ate ourselves sick.  If you have never had the Lasagna Fritta’s at Olive Garden…Holy Crap!  HEAVEN!  Anyway, we finished eating and then headed to TJ Maxx.  Renee needed an outfit for the show that night and my purse was threatening to bust a strap and fall of my shoulder.

For very little money we both found what we were looking for and headed back to Caryn’s so I could get ready for the show.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!