Commercial Meeting and R&R in Arizona

The first week of March, I was in Scottsdale, AZ for my company's annual sales meeting. Rachel flew in Thursday evening, and we took a long weekend of R&R. Late March/early April is the perfect time to be in the Phoenix area, as the weather was sunny and mid to high 70's all week.


We stayed at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, which is absolutely beautiful. The lawns were very well manicured, and the flowers were already in bloom.






Our sales meeting ended early on Thursday. I caught a ride with my coworkers (who were flying back to Philadelphia) to the airport, where I picked up our rental car for the weekend. I then drove to Phoenix Municipal Stadium for an afternoon Cactus League Spring Training game.


I chose to see the Oakland A's, for no other reasons than: 1) their spring training location was between the Phoenix Airport and Scottsdale and 2) the Oakland A's are an easy spring training ticket to obtain. My planning was not perfect, as the A's were playing the hometown Diamondbacks, so the stadium was pretty much full. Luckily, because I was a single, I was able to get a ticket in the shade behind home plate.




It was an extremely relaxing afternoon. Perfect weather, baseball and good food - three of my favorite things. I sat next to a family from Chicago, who had retired to Phoenix (the grown daughter was visiting for the week from Chicago). They were very nice, loved baseball, and were a fun group to sit with.

On Friday, I sent Rachel to the resort spa for a massage and pedicure, as part of her birthday. It also allowed me to catch up on work email and get a few things done. I was surprised how much more enjoyable it is to do work from beautiful, sunny surroundings, than it is from an office (don't worry folks, I did take a day of vacation. I just took this opportunity to make up for my detour to the spring training game on Thursday.)


After her spa pampering, Rachel and I caught lunch at one of the resort restaurants. We then headed to the pool for the afternoon. The weather was warm enough to get into the water. However, with the low humidity, you quickly dried off once you got out of the pool.



I took Rachel to dinner at my favorite restaurant in the world - Element at the Sanctuary. I ate there twice last year with customers. The food is awesome, and the views are spectacular, especially at dusk. Chef Beau MacMillan cooks the best steaks I have ever eaten (he beat Bobby Flay on a Kobe Steak challenge on Iron Chef America). Unfortunately, Rachel was suffering from a sinus and ear infection and couldn't really taste her food.
Although she was unable to taste the food, Rachel was able to enjoy the scenery and views from Element. Positioned on the side of a hill, Element at the Sanctuary, sits over the resort pool and overlooks Paradise Valley, which is adjacent to Scottsdale.



After dinner, Rachel and I met up with some of her friends from high school back at the resort. David Latimer and his wife, Dani, and Jason Payne and his sister, Samantha, met us at the resort restaurant. We had a really nice time catching up with them (David, Dani and Jason all live in Phoenix now; Samantha was in visiting Jason for the weekend).




Saturday, Rachel and I headed into Phoenix, where we visited the the Arizona Biltmore. Owned and managed by Waldorf Astoria, the Arizona Biltmore was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, who served as a consultant on the project for several months during construction in the 1920's. His trademark style architectural is obviously displayed throughout the resort.
The inside of the resort is also obviously inspired by Wright, as most of the structures display his horizontalism design. The furniture is also obviously Wright designed and matches much of the furniture at Falling Water, just outside of Pittsburgh.


Passing through the lobby from the front of the hotel, you enter a courtyard in the rear. This courtyard has beautiful gardens and a multitude of restaurants and shops. It is a very nice area to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery.


Rachel on the lawn chess / checkers grounds. Apparently, this was an extremely popular pastime for the rich in the 1930's and 1940's. Several old photos in the hotel showed guests playing lawn chess.
The pool area at the Arizona Biltmore was spectacular. It was large, well maintained, and on this particular Saturday... crowded.
The most awesome aspect of the pool was the large waterslide.
Adjacent to the pool area were more flower gardens. The Arizona Biltmore is certainly an oasis in the desert.
Saturday afternoon, Rachel and I headed two hours south of Phoenix to Tucson, to visit Jeremy and Ginny Graves (pictured with us in this blog's title picture). Jeremy is one of my best friends from college. His wife Ginny is also one of our favorite people (like many of my other friends, he definitely married up). We spent Saturday afternoon and evening with the Graves family eating pizza, playing Wii and socializing.

Jeremy's and Ginny's daughters, Olivia and Madison, are absolutely adorable and extremely well-behaved. They let us Wii bowl with them. We also enjoyed watching the Graves family establish their Wii sports ages.

After Olivia and Madison turned in for the evening, Rachel and Ginny humiliated Jeremy and me by beating us in a round of Tiger Woods Golf on the Wii. Rachel and I then had to head back to Scottsdale to turn in for our early flight on Sunday morning.

The rest and relaxation was much needed, and catching up with old friends is always an enjoyable event.

Due to the length of this blog, there will be no Reflection. You are probably tired of reading by now anyway.