Living La Vida Loca

Bliss. My weekend was pure bliss. Hugh and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Phoenix and I wish we could have stayed longer. The Arizona Biltmore is one of the most beautiful resorts that I have ever had the pleasure of staying at and the weather could not have been lovelier.

So, details, lets see…

Friday morning, Hugh and I kissed the kids goodbye and thanked my parents for making the trip from my hometown in order to spend the weekend supervising (which is Grandparent-Speak for spoiling, apparently) the children. Then we drove to the neighboring city to catch our flight.

We had a lay-over in Salt Lake where I managed to stay true to my vow of observing meatless Fridays throughout the duration of Lent by dining on a vegetarian plate served at a Chinese buffet. Hugh was impressed by both my dedication and the fact that I ate the entire meal using chopsticks; a neat little trick that Hugh perfected during his childhood and with which I have struggled-mightily-lo these thirteen and a half years of our marriage.

When we landed in Phoenix, we picked up our rental car. I had printed directions to the resort as well as from the resort to the mall and to my girlfriend’s house but Hugh was interested in trying out a GPS system, so we upgraded. Best decision, ever. Not only was the GPS system a snap to use, it saved us untold arguments over left versus right turns or merge lanes versus non-merge lanes, allowing us to arrive at the Biltmore completely relaxed. Our weekend was off to a most impressive start.

The Biltmore is, as I have said, beautiful. I would try to describe its splendor but, why bother when you have pictures?

Hugh and I dressed nicely and attended the cocktail reception that night. It was held on the front lawn and it was quite impressive. We enjoyed an hour of free drinks and spent the time catching up since, believe it or not, it was the first trip that Hugh and I have taken alone together since….um….huh….I cannot even recall. Too long, obviously.

After the reception, we attended the dealer’s dinner (sounds somewhat illicit, does it not?). The dinner was surf and turf. We all know how I feel about the surf portion of that particular meal and there was the whole meatless Friday issue so, I ate the veggies and resigned myself to being hungry until morning. Once we were back in our room however, Hugh ordered me a cheese pizza from room service. My hero! How romantic, no?

And, it was. We were two fools in love and alone in a fabulous room with a gigantic bathtub and a huge king-sized bed. I will not, however, elaborate on the remainder of our evening as I would not wish to impose undue discomfort upon my family members who read this.

No need to bleach out your mind’s eye, folks! You’re welcome.

Saturday morning, Hugh attended the meeting portion of the program while I retired to the pool with my iPod, a good book and a bottle of sunscreen. Clearly, I got the better end of that deal.

Once he was finished with the meetings, however, Hugh joined me and we toured the rest of the resort, played a little lawn croquet and enjoyed the sunshine. Then, we programmed the GPS and were off to the mall! Whee! Our shopping trip was short and to the point; I knew what I needed, I knew where to find it and I accomplished the mission in record time, bringing no end of happiness to my devoted husband who always begins to look a bit green about the gills once we enter a shopping center. The brevity of the trip was probably the most romantic thing I did for him all weekend.

Next, we toured historic downtown Scottsdale, picking up some new tee-shirts for Hugh and enjoying lunch at Fuddruckers.

This is such a fun word to say; Fuddruckers. And, I digress.

After lunch, we ventured to my college roomie’s house and spent the best part of the weekend catching up with her, dining on good food, imbibing untold number of Chambord Margaritas and laughing until we thought for certain that we would pee our pants. Our very tight and fashionable pants, I might add.

For women of a certain age, I must say; we looked hot. And, I’m not bragging since 99% of the heat radiated from my girlfriend. I was, however, quite happy with my 1%.

Unfortunately, the battery on my camera died so there will be no pictures of how very hot we looked so, you will just have to take my word for it.

Convenient, no?

Anyway, I missed my girlfriend the second we all parted at roughly two a.m. We would have loved to stay longer but, we had an early flight to catch and that is exactly what we did.

The children were delighted to have us home if only because they wanted to brag about the fun things that they did with my parents while we were away.

Which means we all got spoiled the weekend.

Eh, I can think of worse ways to spend my time