Phoenix 2008
The City
I think on my last post, I describe the area we were staying as a mix between Bakersfield and Pacoima. These are not compliments. In fact, I wouldn't go so far as saying it's insulting, but it's definitely not a good thing. Ultimately, I found that the city is very much like the Antelope Valley. Generally, the shopping areas are full of great stores (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Staples) and the residential areas are pretty... well, not pretty.
It's definitely not a city I'm interested in living in. Well, if someone gave me season tickets to the Suns, I may consider it. But when I saw the SFV as I drove over the 134, I was like "HOME!!!!" Yeah, I do love the Valley.
The Hotel
As I said before, I ripped myself off. I apparently booked out hotel in like Hotel row and everyone seemed to be competing for the lowest price. However, Travelodge didn't seem at all interested in charging lower rates. Maybe it was the great breakfast. But still, there seemed to be some better places (like right next door) that were way cheaper. All I could do was chalk it up to my enduring devotion of Travelodge which despite this incident and one in Durango, CO, still seems to maintain it's place in my future lodging needs.
Things I was displeased about include the fact that I brought a DVD player so we could watch BSG:S3. I brought the cables, remote, everything neccesary for this to work. The only thing I wasn't counting on was that the TV in our room seemed to "accidentally" broken back there where the yellow cord went. Accident, my ass. Clearly, previous patrons had fucked it up and consequentially screwed us over. That, or hotel management doesn't want us watching DVDs. Meh. Also included in this list: the fact that there was only one bed spread and one sheet on the bed. The fact that I considered bringing another blanket with me and did not only fed to my annoyance. Also, the lock on the bathroom door did not work and I had to make Rey swear to me every time I went to the bathroom that he wouldn't bug me. Our refrigerator also seemed to be broken.
Things I was pleased about: The jacuzzi. It was worth the $20 extra a night for the 20 minutes I spent in that thing. Man, I am a fiend for hot water. Add some "therapy" jets and I am fit as a fiddle. Also, John Adams was playing on HBO and we had TNT. That was cool.
The Drive
Or more appropriately: Rey's Driving. I've always sort of admired my boyfriends skills in this particular area. He's an excellent driver, very safe and cautious yet not slow or audacious. He understand the rules of the road, both known and unspoken. But for some reason, some... inexplicable friggin reason, his driving during this trip was astoundingly, distinctly, appallingly SHIT. The man cannot drive to save his life in a city where he was no idea where he's going. He jerks the car at sudden stops, tail gates, roach passes, cuts people off, breaks hard then speeds up, tries to demolish the engine by redlining a fucking Lancer then giggles about "how much torque the car has." He was terrible. Fucking terrible. My head hurt and consequentially, we spent a lot of time in the hotel while I, despite his obliviousness of these matters, needed to recuperate from his vehicular antics.
When I volunteered to drive, he just did that ridiculous male dominant thing of "Oh, just tell me where to go." This worked until I told him I wanted to go to the parking structure adjacent to the US Airways Center. Then, we he made a right instead of a left, I said "Where are you going?" To which he replies, "I'm going exactly where you told me to go!" Up until this moment, I'd been quiet and I had put up with his shitty driving. But after dealing with 3 days of this unbearable crap, I finally let him have it. "JUST GET OUT OF THE GOD DAMN CAR AND LET ME DRIVE! I KNOW WHERE WE NEED TO GO." Anyone with any sense of how decent communication should work in a relationship should be well aware of what happens when this sort of break down occurs. In this case, it resulted in a screeching stop in the middle of the street (with a car behind us) and Rey putting on the emergency break and getting out of the car with a huff. As I moved over to the drivers side and he moved over to passengers side, he slammed the door with an expected huff. He did look truly upset. I apologized and did my best to quell the situation. Apparently to success. He got over it pretty fast. But it was a scary moment when I lost my patience and Rey lost his temper.
There was an episode on the return trip that almost resulted in this same incident. Thankfully, we had learned each others tones of voices to know that the other one was being serious. Or more specifically, when I said (in a tight voice) "You're tired. Why don't you let me drive." Rey pulled over and we switched and he fell asleep promptly because I think he felt he was supposed to.
The Food
We started at IHOP in the Redlands as per the now established tradition that we must stop there when driving to Arizona across the 10 freeway. We all know what I think of IHOP. It's magical and delicious. More importantly, however:
We were right next to Sonic's! I don't know if you know this, but I am huge fan of Sonic's. It's strangely a comfort food because the first time I had it was last year on my Colorado Road Trip. Because that trip was so awesome, I only have great memories of Sonic's. So, we had that a lot. We would just go over there during happy hour and get large Cherry Limeades (I highly recommend those) and then go back and get more. Hey, for less then a dollar, you really can't beat the price. They also have those delicious Sonic's Blasts which are essentially Blizzards. They didn't have that delicious Cookie Dough one anymore, but it wasn't all that difficult to find an alternative. Oh, and they have tots! TOTS! Yummmm...
Side note: I swear the resident pigeons at this Sonic's look terrible. And when I say terrible, I mean that they looked as though they have been born in radioactive goop and then spent their nights in some nuclear power plant and their mornings in a barrel of oil. They were huge, oily, disgusting hellish looking birds. The only thing that could have possibly made them scarier was if they had red glowing eyes. At that point, they would simply be spies of Satan. Poor creatures. I fed them my tots.
Our first night we ate at Ruby Tuesdays. Rey and I have a strange affinity for this establishment because they show Ruby Tuesdays commercials on our local television but the closest one is actually the one we ate at. They always have good food and after we ate there, we ready to crawl in bed and slip into a delicious food coma.
An amusing observation I made was that we went all the way to Arizona to finally eat at California Pizza Chicken (Kitchen). It was awesome, expensive, and delicious. We were supposed to eat Pizzeria Bianco's. Alas, we were not willing to wait for 2 hours for our pizza.
Finally, on our last evening with got to eat Stoudemire's Downtown. This restaurant is owned by Phoenix Suns player extraordinaire Amare Stoudemire. The restaurant is overly fancy, the food is mediocre at best, the bar is well stocked, but the experience is complete. Especially with 1/2 lb "Stat Burger." And as a Phoenix Suns fan, our trip would have felt incomplete without eating there. I enjoyed it.
Breakfast was the complimentary continental breakfast supplied by Travelodge. It was surprising good with lots of variety to choose from. I also made some new acquaintances of mostly older men attending the various Baseball spring training games. These guys are hardcore. Most of them had been there for weeks already and wouldn't be leaving until their respective teams go home. They were nice guys.
The Activities
Our first night out, we spend some time at various Wal-Marts and K-Marts looking for acceptable Suns merchandise at discounted prices. I found two shirts that I bought, but ultimately most of the apparel was Shaq related or just ugly. Except they did have these awesome Phoenix Suns pajama bottoms. I was close to buying those, but there were $17 and in the end... that money went to something else.
Our second day, we decided to find "The nice area of town." So we headed out to Phoenix's Soy-Drinker locale of Paradise Valley. It seemed pretentious enough. Yet ultimately, it just did strike me as good enough. (Hey, Beverly Hills is 20 minutes away from me so I have high expectations. )
Realizing our defeat, we headed out to Apache Trail. Our first stop on this endeavor was Goldfield Mine. Your typical tourist trap "ghost town" with plenty of shops and activities to last at least a day. We spent... 45 minutes. And the only reason we spent so long was because there were these construction guys yelling at each other and telling lewd jokes. They were far enough away from all the tourist and seemingly out of site as well. But I happened to wander a little farther then I should have and couldn't be dragged away from their hilarity. As we walked back to the car, my camera's battery died and at that point, I could not be bothered to contribute any ideas for further activities. Thus, there was little to be done after this. We drove the first few miles of Apache Trail. Let me take a moment to share this with you as this is what I read that initially interested me in making the trip over there
"Treacherous is the adjective that comes to mind when I recall those days of driving the Apache Trail. Now, wider lanes, more pavement, and significant grading help make the trip a bit less harrowing. Still, I have a warning for you: This drive is not for nervous drivers, and definitely not for nervous passengers."Driving in Chatsworth is worse than this mountain road. Well... okay maybe not that easy. But any road that takes you through Angeles National Forest is far worse. I don't even know why this stretch of road gets so much acclaim. It's not that amazing nor that beautiful. So, like I said, after the first few miles, Rey and I had seen enough and turned back toward Phoenix and more importantly, Happy Hour at Sonic's.
On Friday, we went over to Glendale and to check out the University of Phoenix Stadium. This is where the Superbowl was this year. Strangely enough, this stadium is not the stadium of the University. It's just sponsored by them. Like the way Staples sponsors Staples Center. It's kind of confusing. Anyway, the Arizona Cardinals (their big football team) plays there. It's an impressive structure and was neat to see.
What was even more neat was telling Rey to drive over by the AMC theater because I wanted to see what it looked like. Next to the stadium is the plaza filled with restaurants, a few shops, and huge movie theater. I was curious and Rey obligingly drove over toward the front of it. As I told him that we could go through a minor street that was right in front of it, I saw a cool sports store and thought we should stop and give it a look. But as he kept going to make a u-turn, I saw some toys in the front of a store. Then, after taking a second to process it, I realized that I unknowingly stumbled across the McFarlane store. I went nuts. Squealing and pointing and demanding to be let out of the car right there (I was not and I had to wait until the car was parked). The store was everything I hoped it would be minus an unlikely surplus of Where The Wild Things Are Action Figures. It was awesome. I bought an old Steve Nash toy that I did not have and an action figure of Locke from Lost. I could've blown an entire paycheck in that place. Alas, a sense of moderation and good judgment prevented such an act. It was fantastic. I would love to go back there.
The Game!
The game was in a word: AWESOME! I had such a good time. I bought my foam finger! I really wanted one of those for the Suns. Alas, they did not have the purple one. They were also out of thunder sticks... damn. Steve Kerr has got to get on the ball. I was tempted to by a $5 shirt that said "2007 playoffs. Beat L.A." Hyuck! That would've been too funny. Alas, the humor was not enough to wait in line for 20 minutes. When we finally got to our seats, they were fantastic. Way more valuable then what we paid for them. It was amazing. We saw Stat and Boris Diaw (aka 3D) come out on the court and practice shooting. Stat had his son with him and it was adorable! They went off to sign autographs and I was tempted to join the mob, but in the end enjoyed the view from a distance.
When the Sun came out of the locker room, the crowd went understandably nuts. So did I. I cannot express how wonderful it was to be in a stadium full of fans that are cheering for the same team I'm cheering for. Usually, the only Suns games I go see are the ones at Staples Center when they're playing the Lakers or the Clippers. And I'm always on the short end of the stick of support. But sports fans (in my experience) are often good natured and will exchange light verbal jostling but are never hostel or ill-natured. Nevertheless, the point is I was cheering for my favorite team and so were 18,000 other people. If you know about why I love this game so much, it's because of the overwhelming feeling of emotion that literally sweeps over you during a game. And when like I said, when 18,000 people collectively go "Awww" when a player misses a shot, it's beyond hysterical. You can't even laugh because it's just so... awesome.
Anyway, the game was brilliant. Seeing these athletes that I watch on TV week after week being mere feet from me was too cool to describe. Actually seeing there faces was they played was fantastic. Ultimately, Suns won 122-113 and had a hefty lead the majority of the game. Apparently we sat in the section that the Phoenix Suns wives also sat in and Steve Nash's wife was 4 rows in front of me along with his twin daughters. Stat's wife and children sat just a few rows in front of her. This is was mostly awesome because the players would look up to where we sitting and wave. And despite my knowledge of who they were waving at, I waved back furiously and would let out a high pitched "Hi!" that was often drowned out by the noise and completely disregarded by the players. Pretty damn funny.
Overall
It was a good trip. Despite those driving problems, Rey and I got along great and the whole thing was pretty restful. I'd have to say it was about 4 out of 5.
**Please note: I wrote this in one long stretch. I may go back and re-read it. But now I'm tired and want to go to sleep. Until I do go back over it, forgive my spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. I'll post some pictures soon.
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