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mistressofmuses) wrote2025-02-20 08:22 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2025-02-20 08:22 pm
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Friday, Feb 14: Arizona Trip Part 1, travel + the hotel
I spent last weekend going as Taylor's +1 on their company's annual trip. (And since my mom works there as well, she was also there.)
This year we went to Scottsdale, Arizona!
I thought our flight was early on Friday, but it was actually late. Taylor worked a half day before we headed to the airport.
We parked in an off-site garage that provides a shuttle to the airport, which was nice. Definitely easier to park than at the airport itself (and wound up being very good when we got back, ha.)
Happy belated birthday, blurry Blucifer! (I love Blucifer. He just had his 17th birthday on February 11th.)
The airport was... annoying as always, though nothing went wrong. Getting through security took forever, but moved steadily. Counting the three of us (mom, Taylor, me), we saw maybe 12 masks total in the airport? Ugh.
The flight itself was fine. I was toward the very back of the plane. I was seated next to one of the only other two masked people I saw on the plane: a teenage girl who was reading The Handmaid's Tale. Timely! While I had an extremely unpleasant woman in the row behind me, and a kid kicking my seat for much of the flight, at least she was fine to sit next to. There was a lot of turbulence both during takeoff and landing, which wasn't great, but everything was on time and we made it safely.
We met up with a handful of Taylor's coworkers and their guests, and took Lyfts over to the hotel.
(There were a bunch of those "Waymo" self-driving rideshare vehicles around, too. Hadn't ever encountered them before, didn't know that Phoenix was the third city to get them. Don't trust those fuckers, haha.)
The hotel was a resort-casino, haha.
Checking in was very slow, but we eventually made it!
But hey, there's a wall-safe in the room!
We found out the rest of the group was in one of the resort's many restaurants. They were at "Tash," which was apparently one of the fancier ones. We were warned it was hard to find, and they weren't really kidding. It's marked on the map, but with no indication that you have to go up a flight of stairs to get there.
But they were the best stairs ever:
Not obvious from a still image, but the rainbow does move. And the steps turn white when you step on them!
Taylor was grudging about having to find everyone, because they were tired. It would have felt wrong to be some of the only ones who didn't come socialize, though. Someone had ordered a couple pizzas, and when they said we could have some, we basically inhaled a couple slices each, haha. Suddenly we felt human and it wasn't at all grudging to hang out for a bit, lol. We each had a drink (and Taylor and I were both carded, lol. Flattering.)
Apparently about eight people in the party headed in, and then the last guy in line got stopped with an "Excuse me. Do you have a reservation!?" The boss's confidence just let the rest of them charge on in, lol. Apparently they worked it out long before we arrived, but it was a little funny.
We were glad we came to hang out for a bit, but we were also pretty tired from the day. Travel is always exhausting. So after an hour or so we headed back to the room to go to bed.
This year we went to Scottsdale, Arizona!
I thought our flight was early on Friday, but it was actually late. Taylor worked a half day before we headed to the airport.
We parked in an off-site garage that provides a shuttle to the airport, which was nice. Definitely easier to park than at the airport itself (and wound up being very good when we got back, ha.)
Happy belated birthday, blurry Blucifer! (I love Blucifer. He just had his 17th birthday on February 11th.)
The airport was... annoying as always, though nothing went wrong. Getting through security took forever, but moved steadily. Counting the three of us (mom, Taylor, me), we saw maybe 12 masks total in the airport? Ugh.
The flight itself was fine. I was toward the very back of the plane. I was seated next to one of the only other two masked people I saw on the plane: a teenage girl who was reading The Handmaid's Tale. Timely! While I had an extremely unpleasant woman in the row behind me, and a kid kicking my seat for much of the flight, at least she was fine to sit next to. There was a lot of turbulence both during takeoff and landing, which wasn't great, but everything was on time and we made it safely.
We met up with a handful of Taylor's coworkers and their guests, and took Lyfts over to the hotel.
(There were a bunch of those "Waymo" self-driving rideshare vehicles around, too. Hadn't ever encountered them before, didn't know that Phoenix was the third city to get them. Don't trust those fuckers, haha.)
The hotel was a resort-casino, haha.
Checking in was very slow, but we eventually made it!
But hey, there's a wall-safe in the room!
We found out the rest of the group was in one of the resort's many restaurants. They were at "Tash," which was apparently one of the fancier ones. We were warned it was hard to find, and they weren't really kidding. It's marked on the map, but with no indication that you have to go up a flight of stairs to get there.
But they were the best stairs ever:
Not obvious from a still image, but the rainbow does move. And the steps turn white when you step on them!
Taylor was grudging about having to find everyone, because they were tired. It would have felt wrong to be some of the only ones who didn't come socialize, though. Someone had ordered a couple pizzas, and when they said we could have some, we basically inhaled a couple slices each, haha. Suddenly we felt human and it wasn't at all grudging to hang out for a bit, lol. We each had a drink (and Taylor and I were both carded, lol. Flattering.)
Apparently about eight people in the party headed in, and then the last guy in line got stopped with an "Excuse me. Do you have a reservation!?" The boss's confidence just let the rest of them charge on in, lol. Apparently they worked it out long before we arrived, but it was a little funny.
We were glad we came to hang out for a bit, but we were also pretty tired from the day. Travel is always exhausting. So after an hour or so we headed back to the room to go to bed.
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Those rainbow stairs are so fun!
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The stairs were so cool! Though I'm glad I wasn't tipsy when I first encountered them, lol.
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The stairs were great! Though like I said to someone else, I'm pretty glad that I wasn't tipsy when I first encountered them, lol.
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The stairs are cool, but I wouldn't want them to change, would make a cool lounging-on-rainbow selfie harder.
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Same - I would genuinely love a self-driving car as a legitimate option... but the tech isn't to a point I trust it, and while they can brag about their safety, the times it DOES malfunction are often worse.
The stairs were very cool! There was a casino employee who kept asking if I wanted her to take our picture on the stairs, and she seemed so surprised when I just wanted the picture of the stairs, haha. But seriously, would be SUCH a great aesthetic selfie shot, but timing it to get the rainbow at the right spot would be a pain. So agreed, I'd like it better if it was a still rainbow.
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That's cute they they wanted to help with selfies!
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It was sweet of her to offer! I should have taken her up on it, but at the time we hadn't actually yet realized that we had to go *up* the stairs to find the restaurant, so everyone was still impatiently trying to find the right place, ha.