mistressofmuses

Monday was our last day in Arizona. Our flight was late in the afternoon again, so we still had some time to kill.

Taylor needed to work a half day, so got up super early. They worked in our hotel room for the first chunk of the morning.

Alex asked me to go to Starbucks and look for one of their Arizona mugs if I had a chance to. The nearest Starbucks was a mile or so away, so my mom agreed to go on a walk with me to go get some coffee and a souvenir mug, lol. They didn't have any Arizona mugs, but they did have a Phoenix one, so that's what Alex got, haha.


Little cactus beds in the hotel's courtyard. Not as exciting as all the cacti at the gardens, but I was still excited to see saguaros everywhere.

On the walk back to the hotel, my mom and I saw a cactus wren building a nest in a cholla!


We watched him for quite a while, flying off and coming back with more materials for the nest.

Two more of the wren:

A little after we got back it was checkout time. The resort was fully booked for Monday night, so didn't have any late checkout options. They did have storage for luggage, though. Taylor set up to finish their workday in one of the sort-of lounge sort-of restaurant areas. Mom and I hung out outside and just read or killed time on our phones. I think I fell asleep for a little while, ha.


There were flocks of grackles in the courtyard. They had lots to say and really hoped we had snacks for them to poach. (We did not.)


One of the bigger saguaros in the courtyard. (This one is just slightly visible in the first pic in this post - the second garden bed toward the top, but it's almost entirely obscured by the tree.) I do love how many of them have woodpecker nesting holes. We did see a few gila woodpeckers, I just never got a good pic!


And the little saguaros that are in danger of tipping over... this is how we keep them standing, I guess.

The flight back was fine. There was a lot of turbulence again, but we arrived fine. Taylor and I were across the aisle from each other, so we could at least make faces at each other about the screaming child. :|


Welcome back to DIA. I love you, luggage gargoyle.

It was miserably cold back in Denver. It was well worth the cost to park at one of the offsite indoor garages, since at least we didn't have to chip ice off the car. The drive back to my mom's sucked for a bit on the slick roads, but we made it. I picked up the rest of my stuff, and then she took me back home.

Didn't get home until pretty late, but it was nice to be back. <3

One of the group things that's always included in the company trip is a nice dinner. This time it was at one of the fanciest of the resort's restaurants.

We had a private area on the rooftop, which was quite lovely.


A nice view, even with the parking lots and all.


A lovely sunset. Again, even with the parking lots.

Four pictures of food:

Really tasty tomato soup.


Wedge salad. Also quite good.

For the main course, we had the choice of steak, chicken, or salmon.

All three of us picked the salmon.


It was so good! Cooked absolutely perfectly. Served over polenta, with asparagus and mashed potatoes as the sides. The potatoes were also shockingly good, ha.


Desert was a hazelnut cake with chocolate ganache and mousse, with a bit of caramel drizzle.

The desert was very good, but one of the waiters told someone who'd asked about it that "it has the flavor profile of a Twix" which was a) not terribly accurate and b) extremely hilarious to all of us at the table. We were all I think a bit tipsy at that point, but we all found it way too funny.

I went with mojitos for my drink of choice for the evening, and those were really good too. My mom went with those as well, and she also really liked them. I don't know if she'd ever tried a mojito before?

And then Taylor's boss gave all of us edibles, lol.

It was a really nice evening, and fun to hang out and chat with everyone. It started to get a wee bit chilly on the rooftop (though I think it didn't dip below the 50s, but there was a bit of a breeze) but they did have some portable heaters to keep it pleasant.

I think we tragically missed some drama later in the night where someone took a swing at some other dude on the dance floor inside and got dragged out by security? (Not any of our extended party!) We always miss the crazy shit because we're boring and wimp out earlier than most, haha. (Long day + three drinks + a couple hours of socializing absolutely did me in, lol.)

On Saturday we opted out of the group hike, since my mom wasn't sure her foot would be able to handle it. She felt okay to walk, just on easier terrain.

We picked two attractions along the Arizona Boardwalk. The first one was Butterfly Wonderland.

I'm very familiar with the Butterfly Pavilion here in Colorado, having interned there for a year. This place was similar, but also had some definite differences.

The biggest difference was that the Butterfly Pavilion is specifically an invertebrate zoo. They have sections devoted to non-butterfly insects and arachnids, plus the water section devoted to invertebrates of the ocean. There are a couple fish in the ocean section (something my internship supervisor was very opposed to, lol, but she was overruled because kids love to see Nemo and Dory, lol), and there's a dove that lives in the conservatory (having been "donated" years and years ago, so he gets to live his life out there) but for the most part there are no vertebrates.

Butterfly Wonderland bills itself as "A Rainforest Experience," so they do have vertebrates of various types as well.

But time for the butterflies!


I was very taken with how shiny the blue on this guy was! He looks like a holographic sticker.


When you match your meal.

( Nine more below the cut: )

And now for the not butterflies!


There's a koi pond in the butterfly conservatory!

( Seven more below the cut: )

After this, we sat outside by the carousel for a while to let Taylor have a break. Fortunately they started feeling better, and we were able to head to the aquarium after a little bit.

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.