Day 2 in AZ
I woke up early - in part because I was an hour earlier time-zone wise, and also because I'm me. I snuck out of the room to go get breakfast and journal a little. The hotel provided a nice breakfast buffet, and there were a lot of people in the dining area. I chose a table in the sun and wrote while eating. I kept an eye on the time in case I needed to stuff some food down my pants and sneak it to Marit, who I figured would have difficulty getting to the buffet before it closed. Some guy sat down at my table because there were no other empty places. I felt very european eating breakfast with a stranger. Then, Marit wandered into the breakfast area and apparently woke up very quickly when she saw me eating with some strange guy. Her morning-clouded mind had forgotten that I wasn't that kind of girl...
After we ate, we packed our things and many of the hotel's complimentary things into our bags and hauled ourselves out of there. We made our way through the expensive Scottsdale neighborhood over to the famous Biltmore Hotel. It's not actually possible to find the place on purpose, though. However, it is easily findable by accident. Under the mysteriously authorized wing of Marit, I walked right into the place and took a chair by one of the luxurious pools and began reading my Dean Koonz book. That's a funny thing about Marit: you find yourself doing things that you'd never have the confidence to do by yourself. We read in the sun for a good while. Then, after Marit had an encounter with a maid's cart containing hand lotion, we toured their beautiful gardens and architecture. I touched the piano that the Rat Pack would gather around and say drunken witty things to each other.
After the Biltmore, we went back to a fabulous Chinese place that I don't remember the name of. I had a bowl of wonton soup that was bigger than my head. It was sooo good. It had wontons, but also vegetables and other delicious things in it. Marit had some chicken mango stuff and I have it on good authority that it was very very good, as well.
Then, we went back to Fashion Square where Marit found the perfume she wanted, tried on several pairs of size 0 jeans, and showed me a very very good chocolate place. See's Chocolate. She got marzupan chocolate thingies - and it was actually good marzupan and not the too-sweet clay-like crap that you get everywhere. I fell in love with a tart raspberry creme with dark chocolate covering it. I dragged Marit into Ann Taylor and she found a nice pink sweater that's going to be great for interviews. Marit works well with pink things. We returned to Anthropologie where Marit purchased the future Anderson heirloom: the chicken puppet. I dragged Marit into a place that sold large photos of bears doing stuff.
Then, we went to our next hotel. This place had our info, and there was no real drama when it came to getting the room. The room was also big, and had 2 huge beds, plus a sofa, a TV and some chairs. By this time, it was getting late and we had to hurry to make our reservation at Ray's Polynesian Grille.
Ray's Polynesian Grille was a nice place, in a nice country club, with a nice valet service, and I was wearing nice jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt. Yet again, under the celebrity-like aura of Marit, I snuck into the place and had a delicious meal. Marit enjoyed a lobster bisque, and I had the pan seared mahi mahi encrusted with roasted macadamia nuts. Then, for dessert, we shared a moulten fudge souffle thingy. I took a photo of it with my cell. I think I even randomly emailed it to some people. After dinner, we didn't know how much we were supposed to tip valets, so I poked a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing. He said 3-5 bucks. I like asking random people strange questions, sometimes.
When we got back to the hotel, Marit crashed and I read more Koonz for a bit. Apparently, that night I talked in my sleep a little. Marit didn't answer me, though. I felt slighted when she told me that...
After we ate, we packed our things and many of the hotel's complimentary things into our bags and hauled ourselves out of there. We made our way through the expensive Scottsdale neighborhood over to the famous Biltmore Hotel. It's not actually possible to find the place on purpose, though. However, it is easily findable by accident. Under the mysteriously authorized wing of Marit, I walked right into the place and took a chair by one of the luxurious pools and began reading my Dean Koonz book. That's a funny thing about Marit: you find yourself doing things that you'd never have the confidence to do by yourself. We read in the sun for a good while. Then, after Marit had an encounter with a maid's cart containing hand lotion, we toured their beautiful gardens and architecture. I touched the piano that the Rat Pack would gather around and say drunken witty things to each other.
After the Biltmore, we went back to a fabulous Chinese place that I don't remember the name of. I had a bowl of wonton soup that was bigger than my head. It was sooo good. It had wontons, but also vegetables and other delicious things in it. Marit had some chicken mango stuff and I have it on good authority that it was very very good, as well.
Then, we went back to Fashion Square where Marit found the perfume she wanted, tried on several pairs of size 0 jeans, and showed me a very very good chocolate place. See's Chocolate. She got marzupan chocolate thingies - and it was actually good marzupan and not the too-sweet clay-like crap that you get everywhere. I fell in love with a tart raspberry creme with dark chocolate covering it. I dragged Marit into Ann Taylor and she found a nice pink sweater that's going to be great for interviews. Marit works well with pink things. We returned to Anthropologie where Marit purchased the future Anderson heirloom: the chicken puppet. I dragged Marit into a place that sold large photos of bears doing stuff.
Then, we went to our next hotel. This place had our info, and there was no real drama when it came to getting the room. The room was also big, and had 2 huge beds, plus a sofa, a TV and some chairs. By this time, it was getting late and we had to hurry to make our reservation at Ray's Polynesian Grille.
Ray's Polynesian Grille was a nice place, in a nice country club, with a nice valet service, and I was wearing nice jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt. Yet again, under the celebrity-like aura of Marit, I snuck into the place and had a delicious meal. Marit enjoyed a lobster bisque, and I had the pan seared mahi mahi encrusted with roasted macadamia nuts. Then, for dessert, we shared a moulten fudge souffle thingy. I took a photo of it with my cell. I think I even randomly emailed it to some people. After dinner, we didn't know how much we were supposed to tip valets, so I poked a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing. He said 3-5 bucks. I like asking random people strange questions, sometimes.
When we got back to the hotel, Marit crashed and I read more Koonz for a bit. Apparently, that night I talked in my sleep a little. Marit didn't answer me, though. I felt slighted when she told me that...