Trip Index
- Pre-lockdown road trip: Palm Springs, Prescott, Phoenix
- Tucson: gem shows, hiking, Pima Air and Space Museum, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
- Tucson Gem and Mineral Main Show, hiking, Titan Missile Museum, Nogales
- Arizona Biltmore Resort, return home, future travel cancellations
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In 2019, we were blessed to have opportunities to travel every month of the year. 2020 seemed to continue the trend, having recently returned from Las Vegas in January, Napa earlier this month, and now, a road trip to Arizona for the
Tucson Gem and Mineral Show to celebrate Kate's milestone birthday. She and Jarrett would fly out to Phoenix and we would meet them there.
PLANNING
I considered flying to Phoenix or Tucson, but we would need a car to get around all of the smaller gem shows as well as do some sightseeing. Rentals were pretty expensive, so we decided to drive to Arizona. We would schedule overnight pitstops at various places along the way there and back to break up the journey.
We used Kaleb's free night certificate (from having the IHG Select credit card, no longer available for application) at the
Kimpton Rowan, a hotel located in downtown Palm Springs. Cash rate would have been around $475 a night or 60k IHG points, a fantastic redemption value for the $49 annual fee. Too bad the certificates were recently devalued down to a 35k point value, eliminating premium hotels such as the Rowan and the Palazzo in Las Vegas, where we stayed
back in 2017. It was too good a deal to last.
In Phoenix, we planned to meet up with friends and stay overnight at Frank and Tanya's house. The last time we saw them was in Sedona
back in June.
Kate planned a visit to
Skyline Type Foundry in Prescott for her letterpress printing hobby. We would head there right after picking them up from the Phoenix airport. Since it was in the opposite direction of Tucson, an overnight stay was planned at
SpringHill Suites Prescott. Cash rate was around $300/night for a 2-queen studio, but I was able to use a free night certificate from having the
Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business card, providing a substantial discount for the $99 annual fee.
In Tucson, we would stay a week in a quaint 2-bedroom mid-century solar-powered Airbnb home, located within walking distance to downtown and the Tucson Convention Center where the main gem show would be held. The first half of the balance due was paid with discounted Airbnb gift cards and the second half using a credit card that had a 5% off Airbnb offer. It cost less than a hotel room to have a whole house to ourselves. Having a full kitchen and a living room makes an extended stay more enjoyable.
Once the week was over, after dropping off Kate and Jarrett at the Tucson airport, Kaleb and I would make our way back home via Phoenix and Southern California. I redeemed a
Hilton Aspire free night certificate at the
Arizona Biltmore. Cash rate would have been around $560/night. The annual fee for the Aspire credit card is high at $450; however, you receive the free night certificate, along with a $250 airline credit, a $250 Hilton resort credit, and Hilton Honors Diamond status, which gets you free breakfast and room upgrades. I planned to use the $250 Hilton resort credit for
afternoon tea and dinner at
Frank & Albert's, with reservations made via OpenTable. I would have preferred to eat at the fancier
Wright's restaurant, but it was not open the night of our stay. There happened to be a timely "
spend $350, save $60 at Waldorf Astoria hotels" AMEX offer on the Aspire card to offset food costs even more, as the Arizona Biltmore was part of the Waldorf Astoria chain. Now, normally I would balk at paying high prices, but with all the discounts and credits from the Hilton Aspire, we would be indulging ourselves for the price of a mid-tier hotel and restaurant.
In Southern California, we would crash at my brother Ed's house for the night.
Let's get this show on the road...
GOING
Our drive from Northern California to Palm Springs was uneventful. We made it to the Kimpton Rowan as the sun set. Thank goodness for complimentary valet as there was hardly any parking due to the street closure for the
VillageFest on Thursday evenings.
While checking in, I mentioned the current Kimpton secret password "
Stay Human" to the front desk clerk. He showed us a marker board with superheroes listed on it; we chose Superman and ended up getting coupons for two drinks at the bar...how fun! The Kimpton "
secret password" promotion is offered a few times a year. Based on guest reviews, other gifts can include free breakfast, free souvenir, or free wine.
The room was decorated in a contemporary style, with interesting features such as a white noise generator, a window into the shower from the bedroom (there was a blind, but the control is in the bedroom), and a yoga mat. Each Kimpton hotel has a unique feature in the closet; in the Rowan, it was a green camel figurine atop the closet shelf, a funky nod to an obscure (yet still valid) law in Palm Springs that one cannot walk a camel down Palm Canyon Drive between the hours of 4 and 6pm.
 | crisp comfy king bed
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|  | white noise generator
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 | (paid) mini-bar
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|  | | interesting items in here |
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 | shower show
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We left the hotel on foot to
Wilma & Frieda, with reservations made on OpenTable. VillageFest was well under way, with vendors set up along the closed-off portion of Palm Canyon Drive. The weather was a bit brisk; thankfully, there was a heating element above our outdoor balcony table. Dinner was okay; I suspect the better reviews were for breakfast and brunch. Eating on the balcony was lively with all the activity below.
 | | funky hotel elevator |
|  | VillageFest
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 | duck fat fries
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|  | short rib ravioli
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 | fish special
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|  | | Pokemon Go-friendly |
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For dessert, we crossed the street to
Lappert's. We settled on a date shake, fitting for Palm Springs.
We returned to the Kimpton Rowan and redeemed our drink tickets at the pool bar. As we requested them to-go, the bartender mixed the drinks into plastic glasses to take back to the room. There looked to be comfortable seating next to fire pit tables, but I felt it was too chilly to hang out.
Friday morning, we checked out of the hotel, then texted my ticket number to the valet for pick up - very cool. While waiting for the car, I went to Starbucks next door to grab some breakfast to-go.
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view out our room, my car in valet
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The weather was bright and sunny on our drive to Phoenix. We made it to Frank and Tanya's house as scheduled. Other friends arrived and we enjoyed a night of
Rock Band like old times.
The next morning, we left for the airport to pick up Jarrett and Kate, then grabbed lunch to go from a Subway off the freeway on the outskirts of Phoenix. We made it to Prescott in time for our meeting with the foundry's owner, Sky. He gave us a tour of the facilities. It was very interesting to see the equipment and learn about the type-making process.
Sky and his wife Johanna were so welcoming - we had an impromptu happy hour in the foundry, and as we were leaving, invited the four of us to dinner at
The Palace on Whiskey Row in downtown Prescott. Since we didn't have any plans, we were glad for the company.
Before dinner, we checked into the
SpringHill Suites. The room was spacious, typical of the brand. Complimentary breakfast for all guests was served in the morning.
We walked a short distance from the hotel to
The Palace, located on
Whiskey Row. Sky and Johanna were already there. The restaurant and saloon was historic, the staff dressed in period clothing. The bar was original, dating back to the 1880s.
 |
| like the Earps and Doc Holliday |
|  | | large portion of fish and chips |
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The atmosphere was lively and the portions were tasty and huge. Our conversation tended towards enticing Kate and Jarrett to move to Prescott and work at the foundry. At the end of the meal, the server came directly to Sky with the check; he slapped a credit card down despite our protests. Thank you for a lovely dinner...I'm sure Kate will remain a loyal customer!
On Sunday morning, I woke to find everyone else had already gotten up, had breakfast and were exploring the area around the hotel. Eventually I made my way to breakfast. The buffet in the lobby served the basics, enough to fill you up.
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| breakfast buffet setup |
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It was an hour-and-a-half easy drive from Prescott to the MIM. What a fascinating place! Most of the museum was divided up by geography. It was fascinating to see regional variations of the same instrument. The
Experience Gallery offered visitors hands-on opportunities. The
Mechanical Music Gallery had a huge orchestrion that would be played twice a day. Seeing the different parts of the orchestrion operating together to create rich sound was impressive. For lunch, we enjoyed the food at Cafe Allegro inside the MIM.
|  | | air guitar on display :) |
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| from tiny violins to... |
|
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| ...large basses |
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| electric harp-lute |
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| even "garbage" can be made into music |
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| orchestrion |
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| Cafe Allegro |
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| in the Experience Gallery |
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8-second clip of ringing the gong in the Experience Gallery: (click
here if you cannot see the preview below)
I could have spent a couple more hours here, but with limited time, we headed to our next destination, the
Desert Botanical Garden. There were so many different kinds of desert flora to see, ranging from small to large, with varieties of colors, textures and shapes.
|  | great for Pokemon Go
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I made OpenTable reservations for dinner at
Gertrude's, a casual farm-to-fork restaurant inside the botanical garden. It was pretty tasty.
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| morsels |
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| duck |
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tamales
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After the garden closed, we drove another two hours to get to our Airbnb in Tucson. We had no trouble following our host's instructions to enter the property and found ourselves feeling right at home.
We will continue hitting the ground running, visiting gem shows and sightseeing around Tucson...stay tuned!
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
