Mike’s Tips and Pics From Phoenix Vacation

My wife and I just returned from our vacation with friends in Scottsdale.  We love the Phoenix area in the spring because the weather is so nice and there is so much to do. But I do have a few dos and don'ts along with some pictures from our trip.

First of all, the lesson we learned is to spend some money on your condo or hotel. You get what you pay for and in our case we paid twice because our first condo was so disgusting.  Not only did it have a bedroom with 2 twin beds, it was very dirty and very dated.(as in 1970's)  We immediately started calling around and checking for a new and better place to stay. Unfortunately this time of year is very popular, so there was very little to be found at a good price.  We found a few places available for $1,000 a nite.  That's right a grand per night. WTH?

We finally found the Scottsdale Resort and Athletic Club.  I bring this up because I would encourage anybody who is visiting Scottsdale to stay here in one of their suites. They were amazing and nice and when we told them of our plight, they worked to get the price down to a manageable $280 a night. The Suite was huge and had a full kitchen, patio, fireplace and was close to the pool and hot tub. It was very quite and pretty laid back and very centrally located.  Now I don't know if we will get all our money back from the first condo we were supposed to stay at, so this might cost us a couple thousand more after all is said and done, but hopefully we will get our original money back.

The pictures show some of the fun stuff we did while in Arizona including a stupid hike that my wife made me go on with her to Camelback hiking area.  Now I don't mind a hike, but that hike shouldn't require a 20 minute drive then a 1 mile walk just to get to the hiking area.  That just seems ridiculous to me. Luckily it was on Monday, because apparently if you don't get to this place by 6 am on the weekends you will be walking about 3 miles from you parking spot, just to take a hike, after your walk. Who does that?  Sunrises are pretty, but nothing is worth waking up that early for a 20 minute drive followed by a 3 mile walk to get to the hiking starting point.  Cripes give me a donut and some chocolate milk and I will look at a hike on the Discovery channel

You will also notice a couple of critters that we saw on the golf course that were pretty cool and or scary.  We say a Diamond Back Rattler 5 feet off the tee box and right next to a golf ball.  We scared the three foot snake off and retrieved the golf ball, so no one would be bit. The ball was about a foot away and if you reached for the ball, you wouldn't have seen the snake till it bit you.  The other picture is of a herd of wild horses.  While on the course we also saw coyotes, jack rabbits and road runners.

We had an amazing time and would encourage you to make the trip with your family.  It's the 4th time we've been down in the past 8 years and it's a great spring break place for the family too, with lots to do and the weather is always awesome.  We had 90s every day last week.

As much fun as it was, it's great to be back with all of our 12 listeners.  Oh wait, 6 listeners, since many are now on Spring Break vacations themselves.