Our get-a-way to Scottsdale, Arizona!
Richard and I spent a week in Arizona on an incentive trip, thanks to his district doing so well last year. We went with about 498 other managers and spouses to stay in the Fairmont Princess in Scottsdale. I have to tell you this was one amazing trip. The resort was awesome,
they went above and beyond to make sure we were all having a great time. IT WAS WONDERFUL! I got to meet the other district managers, whose names I had heard over and over, and wives, as well as Richard's bosses. We got there on Sunday around lunch time to Phoenix. Some of you may not know, but this was my first airplane ride. So, yet another thrill for me! We settled into our room, huge king sized suite with giant bathroom, and balcony overlooking the pool and TPC course. We had lunch in one of the 5 restaurants at the resort with some other managers and wives. The lunch was delicious, and that was when we realized how expensive this place was. 4 people,3 lunches, 1 cocktail=$150. Lucky for us, the trip was all inclusive, so all meals were included. Every meal we ate was like this, yummy, fancy, and pricey. The rest of the day we hung out in the courtyard, and by the pool. That evening the resort has a little western town set up, and we had dinner there, steaks, pork loins, smores pie, and they had gun slingers, a cowboy doing rope tricks, card tricks, and the biggest buffalo with cowboy riding it. It was fun, and the start of one relaxing week. The next morning we went on a sunrise hot air balloon ride with breakfast where we landed in the desert. It was so beautiful to see all the mountains, and cactus. We even saw a coyote. We landed in the Sonoran desert, and our van pulls up and starts setting up tables, tablecloths and breakfast. It was really cool. That night we had dinner in the desert. Same idea, these charter buses load us up and drive off the road down this path to the most beautiful dinner. They had set up fully dressed tables lit with candles, and built fire pits all around. They had a small orchestra set up. They had these portable barnlike bathrooms, and the pod storage things. The dinner was delicious, and very romantic even with 500 people. They had a couple of the biggest telescopes with views of Orion's belt and Saturn. The next day Richard played golf at the TPC course complete with his own caddy, he was really spoiled. I went to Taliesen West, the Frank Loyd Wright museum/property(He built the Falling Waters home with the river going through it), and lunch at the cutest cafe called Micheal's. Taliesen West was really cool, this man was an architectual genius. The buildings were really interesting, and our tour guide was very informed. That evening we had the awards banquet, which was amazing. It was in the resort's ballroom, and had beautiful table settings, there were 10 pieces of silverware when we sat down! We had a 7 course dinner that was very elaborate, and yummy. They even had homemade chocolates at the end. Really wonderful! They even had photographers when we got there to take our picture just like prom. HAHA! The next day we went on a day trip to Sedona. It has beautiful red rock mountain formations. And the town is adorable, all these really cute shops, galleries, and houses. It was beautiful. We had a blast walking around, and exploring. That evening was a dinner and dance. They had set it up so that each area had a musical decade theme, tye dye table cloths, and chair covers, polka dot,etc. Of course, Richard was in heaven because they had lobster tails, crab legs, sushi, and gigantic shrimp on one of the buffets. It is a wonder he never got sick. They also had a casino set up in the back, and gave everyone $2K in chips. We played Texas Hold Em, which I came very close to winning at our table, blackjack and roulette. Hey, it wasn't real money! The trip was so much fun, and we look forward to other incentive trips, we hear that they go to Hawaii!!