Chirple
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2009
Disclaimer: This is my first trip report and all coming from memory. There will be spoilers regarding activities that took place that might not necessarily occur on your adventure.
About us: we are a middle-aged married couple with no children. We are DVC members and platinum DCL cruisers. We decided to give ABD a try after I read so many glowing trip reports here on the DIS.
The Grand Canyon has been on our must-see list for many years. After taking a Mediterranean cruise and a Baltics cruise, my husband wanted to do some travel within the U.S. This adventure seemed to match exactly what we wanted. I am the vacation planner (not by choice), and I was thrilled to let someone else take care of all the arrangements. However (yes, there is a however), my husband REALLY wanted to visit Tombstone while we were in AZ so I built that in as a pre-adventure trip. We were debating whether we wanted to do the adults-only adventure the week prior; but with the Memorial Day holiday built into our week, it was one less vacation day we used.
Leading up to this much anticipated ABD, I was having a horribly stressful time at work. By stressful, I mean my hair was falling out in clumps and ended up with shingles on my leg just one week before we left for vacation. The afternoon before we left I was hit with yet another issue and took about 15 minutes to meltdown. I have been in the same job position for over 10 years, and I had never experienced anything like this in the past. At 4:30 pm I brushed myself off, got back to the task at hand, and then kissed that project goodbye at 7:30 pm!
We saved packing as our last thing to do since we were checking weather reports for the different areas we'd be visiting. We do not mind doing laundry on vacation, and it helped keep our clothes to a minimum. Well, maybe not the amount of nice tops I packed and never wore.
On May 21st we arrived at the airport with one checked bag and one normal sized backpack each. We had a nonstop flight into Phoenix from Newark, and it was pretty uneventful. We had booked Saturday and Tuesday nights at the Hampton Inn; the ABD started on Wednesday, May 25th. FYI on the Hampton Inn--as a Hilton Honors member we could pre-select our room in advance.
We grabbed our luggage and made our way to the rental car shuttle bus. Got our car pretty quickly and drove to the hotel. This is where memory fails--I cannot remember where we went for dinner that first night.
The next morning we checked out of the hotel and started our 3 hour journey to Tombstone. Since I was the driver, there aren't any photos of the scenery on the way. It was really interesting to watch the geography change so much in that timeframe.
After arriving in Tombstone, we checked into the Larian Motel. I had checked www.tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews and found this one got some good ones. At first glance it didn't look like much, but it turned out to be a great place to stay. The courtyard had some beautiful cacti, and the rooms were spacious and clean (and had wifi!). We were one block parallel to the main street in Tombstone so our car sat in its spot for the two nights we were there. Pictures to follow.
About us: we are a middle-aged married couple with no children. We are DVC members and platinum DCL cruisers. We decided to give ABD a try after I read so many glowing trip reports here on the DIS.
The Grand Canyon has been on our must-see list for many years. After taking a Mediterranean cruise and a Baltics cruise, my husband wanted to do some travel within the U.S. This adventure seemed to match exactly what we wanted. I am the vacation planner (not by choice), and I was thrilled to let someone else take care of all the arrangements. However (yes, there is a however), my husband REALLY wanted to visit Tombstone while we were in AZ so I built that in as a pre-adventure trip. We were debating whether we wanted to do the adults-only adventure the week prior; but with the Memorial Day holiday built into our week, it was one less vacation day we used.
Leading up to this much anticipated ABD, I was having a horribly stressful time at work. By stressful, I mean my hair was falling out in clumps and ended up with shingles on my leg just one week before we left for vacation. The afternoon before we left I was hit with yet another issue and took about 15 minutes to meltdown. I have been in the same job position for over 10 years, and I had never experienced anything like this in the past. At 4:30 pm I brushed myself off, got back to the task at hand, and then kissed that project goodbye at 7:30 pm!
We saved packing as our last thing to do since we were checking weather reports for the different areas we'd be visiting. We do not mind doing laundry on vacation, and it helped keep our clothes to a minimum. Well, maybe not the amount of nice tops I packed and never wore.
On May 21st we arrived at the airport with one checked bag and one normal sized backpack each. We had a nonstop flight into Phoenix from Newark, and it was pretty uneventful. We had booked Saturday and Tuesday nights at the Hampton Inn; the ABD started on Wednesday, May 25th. FYI on the Hampton Inn--as a Hilton Honors member we could pre-select our room in advance.
We grabbed our luggage and made our way to the rental car shuttle bus. Got our car pretty quickly and drove to the hotel. This is where memory fails--I cannot remember where we went for dinner that first night.
The next morning we checked out of the hotel and started our 3 hour journey to Tombstone. Since I was the driver, there aren't any photos of the scenery on the way. It was really interesting to watch the geography change so much in that timeframe.
After arriving in Tombstone, we checked into the Larian Motel. I had checked www.tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews and found this one got some good ones. At first glance it didn't look like much, but it turned out to be a great place to stay. The courtyard had some beautiful cacti, and the rooms were spacious and clean (and had wifi!). We were one block parallel to the main street in Tombstone so our car sat in its spot for the two nights we were there. Pictures to follow.