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...