Tucson

Just got back from Tucson on Wednesday. It was a great road trip.

Because we took the car rather than flew, we were able to stop at a number of places of interest on the way there and back, including the Treasure Island Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, the rest stop on highway 58 near Boron and a Denny's someplace way the hell east of L.A..

We stayed at the Hilton El Conquistador, which the kid just loved.

"Kids," I should say. In addition to David, we got to visit our friend Deidre's three grandchildren, who live in Tucson. That's a total of 4 kids, ranging in age from 13 to 4. It's the closest experience I've ever had to being Mormon.

Anyway, there was plenty fun stuff for the kids to do. There's a little kiddie splash pool with little fountains and a sort of a mushroom shaped waterfall that the kids can run under and a little 4-hole putting green and a nature area for observing bunnies and quail.

And then there's this restaurant on the property called The Last Territory where they give you a funny hat to wear and you can sing along with various family-oriented musical acts, throw peanut shells on the floor and fraternize with saloon hall hostesses. They all got a big kick out of that, even the teenager!

We also went to Chuckie Cheese one night. Mercifully, it wasn't very busy, I guess because of the three-day weekend. When we got back to the hotel, I didn't even bother to fix myself my usual post-Chuckie-Cheese cocktail, which is a good thing because those minibar prices are out of control! I think it was five bucks for the little mini Jack Daniels bottle, which is a small price to pay after you've just spent two hours in an enclosed space with five-hundred kids playing whack a mole and skee ball, but it's the principle of the thing.

Kurt "big daddy" True
10 september 2004