Before I forget, I thought I better mention the great artists' street fair that we walked through in Tucson, AZ. Apparently this is a regular fair occurring in March and December sponsored by the 4th Avenue Merchants Association. You can find the fair schedule here.
I was very impressed by the creativity and variety of vendors at the fair. Some of the ones that stood out for me (and that I was able to get business cards for their Web sites) were:
Woodeye Studios @ http://www.woodeye-glassware.com/
This guy had some really awesome glassware I particularly like his "flaming" shot glasses, which used some vibrant colors combined with etching. He has a variety of designs that are carried through to all different types of glassware and you can custom order them through his Web site.
Kevin Eslinger @ http://www.kevineslinger.com/
Like life with a little dark humor? I loved this guy's portraits. While I wouldn't necessarily hang this type of art in my house, they are definitely worth a good laugh and creative. My favorites were a set consisting of a Japanese Geisha and a Samurai. He has a picture of the Geisha on his flickr site.
Artward Bound @ http://coolwallclocks.com/
Like the URL says, very cool wall clocks--modern, fun, and full of visual appeal. If I could have carried them home easily I definitely would have bought a couple.
Duly Mitchell - Crystalline Porcelain @ http://www.dulyaz.com/
Beautiful pottery "glazed" using willemite crystals that generate bright, vibrant colors that were a wonder to the eye. Check out the images on his Web site, but they really don't communicate the same feeling of life and brilliance that seeing them in-person in the sunshine provided at the fair.
A Taste of Eden @ http://www.atasteofeden.com/
And of course you know I had to find some good food there, and the one actually ended up buying to bring home was from A Taste of Eden. They have a variety of bakery goods and related items (e.g. jams) on their Web site, but it was their White Chocolate Raspberry Bread that I got to taste that sold me on their products. It was moist and not overly sweet, and according to the directions, I could make it by just adding some eggs, vegetable oil, and water to their pre-packaged mix. Definitely much better stuff than the boxed stuff they sell in the supermarket. You can order their mixes online, or even order the already baked breads, delivered fresh to your door!
And many many more...
There were actually quite a bit more vendors that I was very impressed with. I guess it's actually a good thing that I live in Hawaii, otherwise I probably would have spent a lot of money at the fair! LOL
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Phoenix/Tucson Hotels
Just wanted to get these out there since I had time to upload and caption the pics. I stayed at four different hotels on this trip:
1. Arizona Grand Resort (http://www.arizonagrandresort.com)
It was definitely grand in that it was big, but definitely not grand in service or dining. Highlight of the resort was probably the "water park" with a very tall slide. Dining all around was just average, as was the room (ok it was a very nice average). :-P The gym thought was AWESOME and this was definitely grand. Big room of machines (weights and cardio), separate yoga studio, separate free weights room, several separate racquet ball courts, and not to mention a large outdoor pool. See my pictures of the Arizona Grand Resort on Picasa, shucks, now that I think about it I should have taken pictures of the gym!
2. Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix North (Go to hotel's Web site)
I chose this primarily because its Web site said it was located near a mall. The mall was in walking distance and there was a variety of restaurants all around. The room itself was pretty old, but clean and comfortable. Bonus was that the room came with a free breakfast buffet, which turned out to be pretty decent food (even if not much variety). See my pictures of the Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix North on Picasa.
3. Four Points by Sheraton Tuscon University Plaza (go to hotel's Web site)
This was definitely conveniently located. It was close to the University, but also to 4th Avenue, where I definitely would be hanging out if I came to this city more often. The room wasn't the nicest, but it was clean and comfortable. The pool here was pretty good, gym was weak but passable. Sorry forgot to take pictures of this one, but it really wasn't much to see, very old property.
4. Aloft Tempe (go to hotel's Web site)
I don't normally like modern-ish design, but this one was really well done and still felt warm and pleasant even though it was very modern. I actually hung out in the lobby to do one of my trip updates, and if I had more time, I probably would have hung out by the pool. Gym was very nice, not super extensive but enough to get my workout done. See my pictures of the Aloft Tempe on Picasa.
Read more of the trip updates for details on the hotels...enjoy!
1. Arizona Grand Resort (http://www.arizonagrandresort.com)
It was definitely grand in that it was big, but definitely not grand in service or dining. Highlight of the resort was probably the "water park" with a very tall slide. Dining all around was just average, as was the room (ok it was a very nice average). :-P The gym thought was AWESOME and this was definitely grand. Big room of machines (weights and cardio), separate yoga studio, separate free weights room, several separate racquet ball courts, and not to mention a large outdoor pool. See my pictures of the Arizona Grand Resort on Picasa, shucks, now that I think about it I should have taken pictures of the gym!2. Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix North (Go to hotel's Web site)
I chose this primarily because its Web site said it was located near a mall. The mall was in walking distance and there was a variety of restaurants all around. The room itself was pretty old, but clean and comfortable. Bonus was that the room came with a free breakfast buffet, which turned out to be pretty decent food (even if not much variety). See my pictures of the Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix North on Picasa.3. Four Points by Sheraton Tuscon University Plaza (go to hotel's Web site)
This was definitely conveniently located. It was close to the University, but also to 4th Avenue, where I definitely would be hanging out if I came to this city more often. The room wasn't the nicest, but it was clean and comfortable. The pool here was pretty good, gym was weak but passable. Sorry forgot to take pictures of this one, but it really wasn't much to see, very old property.
4. Aloft Tempe (go to hotel's Web site)
I don't normally like modern-ish design, but this one was really well done and still felt warm and pleasant even though it was very modern. I actually hung out in the lobby to do one of my trip updates, and if I had more time, I probably would have hung out by the pool. Gym was very nice, not super extensive but enough to get my workout done. See my pictures of the Aloft Tempe on Picasa.Read more of the trip updates for details on the hotels...enjoy!
Arizona Grand Resort, Phoenix, AZ
Hola from Phoeniz, Arizona!
This was my first time in this very warm and desert-clad state. Even now in March, the weather already feels like Hawaii's summer temperatures (high 80's and low 90's) but MUCH much drier. The odd thing is that the winds still have a nice chill nip to them, which actually made me feel like the environment here had the best of both of my favorite cities: the warmth and sunshine from Hawaii, and the nippy crisp wind from San Francisco—without the humidity (sticky warmth or bone biting chill) from either city.
My flight path took me from Honolulu to Dallas, then back over to Phoenix (yup you guessed it American Airlines). On the flight into Phoenix, all I saw was brown, brown, and more brown. My initial thought was that this was going to end up being like North Carolina, where the brown ended up being all the brown folage from the trees and brush that didn't like the Fall cold (I was last there in September). However, I later was reminded that Arizona is a lot of DESERT—and what a beautiful desert it is!
I actually got here last week Wednesday and finished off the week attending another AICPA IT Executive Committee meeting. We stayed at the Arizona Grand Resort which was about a 10 minute ride from the airport.
The resort was nice, but somewhat of an odd hodgepodge of a resort experience. Upon arriving at the lobby, you're greeted by valets in white polo shirts and khaki pants, who instruct you to go into the lobby and up the stairs to get to the front desk. Once you get into the lobby, it's obvious why something just didn't seem right…they're actually trying to sell units in addition to running a hotel.
At the front desk, the front desk clerks are wearing full suits—just as if you were at a five star hotel, however their demeanor and interaction are more at three star: check you in and get back to whatever they were doing before—all very courteous. Back with the valet, I boarded an extended cart (it could have easily held six people) and was driven to the building that my room was in, shown to my room and once there, the valet explained the property to me and gave me suggestions for places to eat on property.
One of the interesting features of this property was the "water park" that was located in the middle of the property. I could see it being a key feature to get families coming to the resort and it sounded very busy (my room was on the ground floor with the bedroom looking right at the water park). When I checked in, I was given two wristbands, which I was told was needed to access the water park. While the area of the water park seemed pretty large, I don't think it was any bigger than many of the many faceted pools at any of the Maui or Big Island resorts.
However, the distinctive feature of this water park was definitely its waterslide, which originated at the top of a tower that was at least five stories tall. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to try out the park (the slide was really the only draw for me, and I decided that I rather spend my time exploring the city rather than by the pool) but I can see where being in the desert, it would have been a nice treat for the other families that were there.
I took a short nap, and then ended up meeting a colleague for a late lunch at the on-property bar/casual restaurant, the Phantom Horse (they don't have a Web site, but here's a PDF of the Phantom Horse menu). The service there was VERY slow, it took a while for us to get our food (a club sandwich and a burger), and there were only maybe three or four other people in the bar (and they weren't even eating). The food did have a good taste, but it was just on the cool side of warm so was just passable from an overall dining experience. We later found out that the room service menu also matched the restaurant menu exactly, and another colleague waited over an hour for his room service and when his food arrived it was pretty much cold. But rather than risk waiting another hour, he decided to just eat what was delivered.
Turns out we also ended up having dinner in the same restaurant on Thursday night, and the dinner menu consisted of pretty much standard American fare. I ordered the pre fixe menu, which provided a choice of salad or soup, steak, pasta or salmon, and cheesecake or a chocolate brulee, all for $29.95. The steak entrée itself costs $25, so I figured it would all be smaller portions. However when everything came, it all appeared to be full size portions since the portions for the two of us that ordered from the pre fixe were comparable to everyone else's portions.
The soup was a cream of turkey with vegetables, which actually felt like I was eating turkey-ala-king except with a very heavy chowder-like consistency. It had a good taste, but I was definitely expecting something a little lighter and more fresh tasting. The steak was a peppercorn crusted steak that was so heavily crusted that with my first bite, all I could taste was peppercorn. Both of us that ordered the steak, both ended up scraping all of the peppercorns off to be able to eat the steak—and with that, the steak was just a basic steak, not particularly flavorful.
I definitely wasn't impressed so far, but the description of the dessert: a triple layered chocolate brulee was something that I definitely glad that I had room for. However, when it arrived, I was somewhat disappointed. I was expecting a crème brulee, but what showed up in front of me looked like a piece of cake. And that it was...with more than three layers. It actually had probably nine layers, three layers that were repeated three times. I must admit that while it wasn't necessarily what I was expecting, it was good and pretty moist, not overly sweet, and had a nice balance of cake and mousse. I used to be a hard core chocoholic, able to finish an entire piece of Cheesecake Factory Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake in one sitting, but now, three or four bites is normally good enough for me—not sure if it's age and outgrowing the sweet tooth, or my subconscious trying to make me more healthy. In any case, I was definitely able to finish the chocolate brulee, and I didn't feel like a pig afterward, so I guess that was a good thing. =)
Another colleague ordered the baked cookie ala mode, which felt like it took a long time to come out. Turns out it was fresh baked in a cast iron single serving pan (similar to how many places serve their cobbler) topped with a generous scoop of ice cream nicely melting all over it. It definitely looked good when it came, but my colleague reported that it was much too sweet and he ended up eating all the ice cream and just a couple of bites of the cookie.
Oh, and that reminds me too, several people ordered cappuccinos. Now technically the basic cappuccino is a shot of espresso with some (not a lot) steamed milk, and then covered with (a lot) milk foam. Compared to a latte, which is a shot of espresso with steamed milk (most of the cup is milk) topped with (a little) milk foam. Well, turns out this restaurant doesn't distinguish between the two because what arrived was definitely lattes. So I can't recommend coming here just for dessert, it definitely wasn't that good.
However, the other on-property restaurant we ate at was definitely an experience to share, but since this is getting long,
you'll have to wait for the next update for that one...I'm off to the pool. Yea, sounds strange huh? Hawaii boy goes to Arizona and goes to the pool…well there's definitely no beaches here for me to go to…so gotta settle for the next closest thing. Actually this pool at the Aloft Tempe is pretty cool looking, will post pics in another update too...
This was my first time in this very warm and desert-clad state. Even now in March, the weather already feels like Hawaii's summer temperatures (high 80's and low 90's) but MUCH much drier. The odd thing is that the winds still have a nice chill nip to them, which actually made me feel like the environment here had the best of both of my favorite cities: the warmth and sunshine from Hawaii, and the nippy crisp wind from San Francisco—without the humidity (sticky warmth or bone biting chill) from either city.
My flight path took me from Honolulu to Dallas, then back over to Phoenix (yup you guessed it American Airlines). On the flight into Phoenix, all I saw was brown, brown, and more brown. My initial thought was that this was going to end up being like North Carolina, where the brown ended up being all the brown folage from the trees and brush that didn't like the Fall cold (I was last there in September). However, I later was reminded that Arizona is a lot of DESERT—and what a beautiful desert it is!
I actually got here last week Wednesday and finished off the week attending another AICPA IT Executive Committee meeting. We stayed at the Arizona Grand Resort which was about a 10 minute ride from the airport.
The resort was nice, but somewhat of an odd hodgepodge of a resort experience. Upon arriving at the lobby, you're greeted by valets in white polo shirts and khaki pants, who instruct you to go into the lobby and up the stairs to get to the front desk. Once you get into the lobby, it's obvious why something just didn't seem right…they're actually trying to sell units in addition to running a hotel.At the front desk, the front desk clerks are wearing full suits—just as if you were at a five star hotel, however their demeanor and interaction are more at three star: check you in and get back to whatever they were doing before—all very courteous. Back with the valet, I boarded an extended cart (it could have easily held six people) and was driven to the building that my room was in, shown to my room and once there, the valet explained the property to me and gave me suggestions for places to eat on property.
One of the interesting features of this property was the "water park" that was located in the middle of the property. I could see it being a key feature to get families coming to the resort and it sounded very busy (my room was on the ground floor with the bedroom looking right at the water park). When I checked in, I was given two wristbands, which I was told was needed to access the water park. While the area of the water park seemed pretty large, I don't think it was any bigger than many of the many faceted pools at any of the Maui or Big Island resorts.
However, the distinctive feature of this water park was definitely its waterslide, which originated at the top of a tower that was at least five stories tall. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to try out the park (the slide was really the only draw for me, and I decided that I rather spend my time exploring the city rather than by the pool) but I can see where being in the desert, it would have been a nice treat for the other families that were there.I took a short nap, and then ended up meeting a colleague for a late lunch at the on-property bar/casual restaurant, the Phantom Horse (they don't have a Web site, but here's a PDF of the Phantom Horse menu). The service there was VERY slow, it took a while for us to get our food (a club sandwich and a burger), and there were only maybe three or four other people in the bar (and they weren't even eating). The food did have a good taste, but it was just on the cool side of warm so was just passable from an overall dining experience. We later found out that the room service menu also matched the restaurant menu exactly, and another colleague waited over an hour for his room service and when his food arrived it was pretty much cold. But rather than risk waiting another hour, he decided to just eat what was delivered.
Turns out we also ended up having dinner in the same restaurant on Thursday night, and the dinner menu consisted of pretty much standard American fare. I ordered the pre fixe menu, which provided a choice of salad or soup, steak, pasta or salmon, and cheesecake or a chocolate brulee, all for $29.95. The steak entrée itself costs $25, so I figured it would all be smaller portions. However when everything came, it all appeared to be full size portions since the portions for the two of us that ordered from the pre fixe were comparable to everyone else's portions.
The soup was a cream of turkey with vegetables, which actually felt like I was eating turkey-ala-king except with a very heavy chowder-like consistency. It had a good taste, but I was definitely expecting something a little lighter and more fresh tasting. The steak was a peppercorn crusted steak that was so heavily crusted that with my first bite, all I could taste was peppercorn. Both of us that ordered the steak, both ended up scraping all of the peppercorns off to be able to eat the steak—and with that, the steak was just a basic steak, not particularly flavorful.
I definitely wasn't impressed so far, but the description of the dessert: a triple layered chocolate brulee was something that I definitely glad that I had room for. However, when it arrived, I was somewhat disappointed. I was expecting a crème brulee, but what showed up in front of me looked like a piece of cake. And that it was...with more than three layers. It actually had probably nine layers, three layers that were repeated three times. I must admit that while it wasn't necessarily what I was expecting, it was good and pretty moist, not overly sweet, and had a nice balance of cake and mousse. I used to be a hard core chocoholic, able to finish an entire piece of Cheesecake Factory Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake in one sitting, but now, three or four bites is normally good enough for me—not sure if it's age and outgrowing the sweet tooth, or my subconscious trying to make me more healthy. In any case, I was definitely able to finish the chocolate brulee, and I didn't feel like a pig afterward, so I guess that was a good thing. =)
Another colleague ordered the baked cookie ala mode, which felt like it took a long time to come out. Turns out it was fresh baked in a cast iron single serving pan (similar to how many places serve their cobbler) topped with a generous scoop of ice cream nicely melting all over it. It definitely looked good when it came, but my colleague reported that it was much too sweet and he ended up eating all the ice cream and just a couple of bites of the cookie.
Oh, and that reminds me too, several people ordered cappuccinos. Now technically the basic cappuccino is a shot of espresso with some (not a lot) steamed milk, and then covered with (a lot) milk foam. Compared to a latte, which is a shot of espresso with steamed milk (most of the cup is milk) topped with (a little) milk foam. Well, turns out this restaurant doesn't distinguish between the two because what arrived was definitely lattes. So I can't recommend coming here just for dessert, it definitely wasn't that good.
However, the other on-property restaurant we ate at was definitely an experience to share, but since this is getting long,
you'll have to wait for the next update for that one...I'm off to the pool. Yea, sounds strange huh? Hawaii boy goes to Arizona and goes to the pool…well there's definitely no beaches here for me to go to…so gotta settle for the next closest thing. Actually this pool at the Aloft Tempe is pretty cool looking, will post pics in another update too...
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