Arizona, Day 1

So after a 3.5 hour drive from Norfolk to Raleigh and 4 hours of sleep on a couch, I had to wake up at 3 am to catch the plane. I got into panic mode quickly since the Lyft driver took about 10 minutes longer than he should have to get to the apartment; he actually missed two exits off of the highway! And sure I was nervous, on the Friday before Christmas, I figured the RDU airport would resemble a mob scene. 

But there were 6 or 7 security lines open, it actually wasn't too tough to get through. We made our first flight to Chicago with no issues and I got the middle seat. The second flight to Phoenix was pretty easy as well, though this time it was me in a middle seat for four hours.

Amazingly, the rain was falling in Arizona, but it was only going to be first day we were there and maybe into the next morning as well. The rental car took a while to get. First, after claiming the luggage, we had to take the sky train to the rental car center. And then the line for Budget was maybe 20 people long and then we had to take two escalators downstairs. I got to the car first and there were other people's luggage in our car! I'm not kidding, there was a backpack in the passenger seat, water bottle in the center console, and a suitcase in the trunk. Eventually a guy showed up, apologizing. How the car company assigned the same car to two people in a row, I don't know. But we took another car, ironically, a silver Hyundai Elantra, the same car that I drive. 

Since were famished, it was straight to Portillo's in Tempe, which is located in the District a major shopping center. For me, I ordered an Italian beef with cheddar, sweet peppers, and hot giardiniera. And for good measure, a Chicago hot dog as well, and we split the large fries. I got an extra jar of giardiniera to go, sadly, I would leave it behind in my hotel room. 7 bucks wasted, oh freaking well.

The traffic around that mall was crazy, not surprising only 4 days before Christmas. It took about 15 minutes to travel one mile. But we made it to the Aloft hotel in Tempe, right across the street from In n Out burger, Jersey Mike's and Starbucks. Very dangerous trifecta for me.

The water and coffee are included. but everything else, we had to pay for, no breakfast was included. And the rooms have that Euro feel to them. No closed drawers in the room, only a Book of Mormon, and no Bible, which was ridiculous. One of the weirdest things was the TV turns off on its own after a certain amount of time and it can't be stopped. It displays a 60 second timer that it'll be shutting off and you have to hit OK on the remote to stop it. Except hitting OK didn't do anything. So several times, we had to turn the TV Back on and let it load back up. I hope other hotels don't do this too. Maybe it's for saving electricity?

Anyway, we headed to the bar where I drank a Four Peaks Hazy IPA for ten bucks. Pretty decent beer. Then it was off to Lou Malnati's, in the same shopping center for dinner, Strange that we had flown through Chicago and then had Portillo's and Lou Malnati's for our food stops the same day.

Anyway, my mother's friend, Leah, joined us. I guess they met in Virginia at a retreat center for women and the center helped Leah lose about 200 pounds. She was nice to talk to, she has her own photography business. We started with the Malnatis salad, and had most of it. Then it was the deep dish Lou's pizza with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and three cheeses. More leftovers, not that I minded.

Back to the room for the night.