to Phoenix, AZ

I was up bright and early to catch my morning flight. I checked my email at 5:30am only to find out my direct flight to Phoenix was cancelled. The main reason I drove to Austin the night before was because it was an early direct flight. I quickly jumped on the phone to US Airways and was told I was on a flight at 9:05pm . . . ummmm NO that isn't going to work since that is 14 hours later than my original flight. I asked to be rebooked on American Airlines and in 30 minutes was on my way. I knew there were earlier flights so wanted to fly stand-by. I arrived at the airport at 6:05am to the most helpful lady . . . she asked if I wanted a flight that left in less than 30 minutes that stopped in Dallas and continued to Phoenix . . . of course! So off I went. I was starving since breakfast did not become an option in the chaos . . . the flight was boarding so no food for me. I walked right on the plane to an exit row all to myself! We made a 30 minute stop at DFW where I got off for a muffin and iced tea. When I arrived in Phoenix I had several messages from my friend that was meeting me for the weekend; her flight was about to take off when a tire blew . . . they went back to the gate and realized it was a bigger issue. She had no departure time so I took a shuttle to the hotel to hang out. The resort was in Carefree, AZ and called The Boulders. AMAZING! My shuttle driver then decided to chat the entire time about the cactus and wildlife on the side of the road. It was educational but I just wanted silence. First he talked about the big dust storm earlier in the week . . . I had seen photos and it was pretty amazing. He gave me a lecture as if i was a three year old about touching cactus or getting near them or stepping on them . . . then he moved on to the scorpions and javelinas. I soon forgot about his constant chatting when we pulled up to the resort . . . it was pure beauty and I knew at that point I did not have to leave this place for 3 days . . . I just wanted to sit and look at everything! I went and ate breakfast at the main restaurant and it was divine yumminess! It was beyond mouth watering yummy! The pool was calling my name so off I went . . . the view from poolside . . .
I spent 4 hours in the sweltering heat but with this view who cared. It was about 107 but only 29% humidity; so much better than Texas! Marilyn finally arrived so we went to check out the room . . .


It doesn't look that special but trust me it was. Since M travels so much we got an upgrade to a Casita . . . a free standing house with two or four apartments . . . top notch and I can only imagine what a suite looked like because this was beautiful . . . the bathroom and closet were about as big as the bedroom and living area . . . and a wood burning fireplace how nice that would be in the winter! We were both tired so back to the pool for relaxing! We walked to an area on property called El Pedregal and ate at The Spotted Donkey. It was wonderful food; Mexican with a twist or maybe I'm just used to Tex-Mex?

No matter where you went on the property we always saw wildlife . . . some I would have rather not seen, but I fell in love with all the quails and their babies that crossed our paths. Just SO stinking cute. It was very dark walking back to our casita after dinner and we were laughing having a good time when we turned to the path that lead to our place . . . we both stopped dead in our tracks. About five feet in front of us was a snake . . . I wasn't moving but Marilyn didn't see any harm and was going to walk around it. One of the front desk people were approaching in his golf cart when he stopped to check it out . . . rattlesnake . . . he grabbed his 'stick' and put it in the bucket to move later. It was between 4-5 feet long and needless to say we were on our toes the rest of the weekend. We walked a few feet when Marilyn said there was something in the bushes . . . I wasn't going to stop to figure it out but quickly glanced and saw two big javelina pigs . . . NICE! Of course I wanted to snap photos but didn't want to become dinner either. Needless to say we also did not sit on the patio off our room either.

We called it a day because tomorrow I had a very AWESOME event planned that required a 1:45am wake up! So VERY excited.