CE Review - Day 1

Hey, well as promised here is a first day review of Creative Escape:

We arrived in Phoenix around 5pm and shuttled over to the hotel. It took us a while to get there, as we had a few other drop-offs, and the driver seemed a little confused, but it was a nice ride up. I loved seeing all the mountains and the cacti and all the other scenery. Then we met up with the rest of the gang.

Once we met Jules and Janet in their room, the lot of us went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, Lantana Grille. Food was okay, a little pricey, but we were just glad to be there. We also met Karen and Pam there and they joined us for dinner as well. We had a great time. After that, we checked into our room (which was an ordeal, the desk clerks were not the friendliest!) and just chilled the rest of the night. We knew we had to get up early for our Desert Tour.

So at 6am local time, we were up and at them. I tried to take a shower, but my ineptitude got in the way. We won’t discuss that. LOL!!! From there we grabbed breakfast at Lantana again, and met up with our tour. Jill, Janet, Jules and Kip decided to their own tour of Arizona by traveling to all the different scrapbook stores in the area. They also were very successful.

So, off on our Hummer tour. Man, what beautiful scenery. Oh, yeah, the desert was pretty too. Seriously, though, our tour guides were awesome. That they were easy on the eyes was an added bonus. They did a top notch job. We saw mountains, climbed an Indian fort, and got to dig around in an old Turquoise mine. Very cool.

After the tour we were very hot and sweaty. I wanted nothing more than just take a shower. Linda had to find a nail salon, and we found them right across the street in a little strip center. She got over there, and then I went and grabbed a sandwich from the place next door. It was pretty tasty, and the best part was that it was less than $10! When I was done, I walked back and got my shower. It felt good to get all the grime and dust and sweat from the morning off. Next stop: Registration and Technique Boutique!

Registration was easy-peasy. Technique Boutique? Ehhhh... Well, first of all, really long lines. You’d think they would learn something after seeing all the lines at CKU? Nope. There was a cute project making tags that say Escape. And then we had to stand in three different lines, to stamp out a gazillion flowers for Rhonna’s class tomorrow. More on that tomorrow! Once we were done, Dawn and Linda were hungry, and you know me, I can always eat, so we went to the Hole in the Wall, which was over by the pool area.

The Hole in the Wall was a vast improvement over Lantana Grille. Great food, reasonable, and our waitress was really cute. Linda and Dawn both had quesadillas, and I had the enchiladas. Dawn even had a cosmo!!! How about that? Later on, we met up with the rest of the girls and went to the opening ceremonies, where Heidi Swapp and Mr. Bazzill gave us a little pep talk.

The girls were going back to the Hole in the Wall for another round of drinks, but I was too beat. I hit the hay pretty early, probably because I hadn’t gotten used to the time change yet. And tomorrow was going to be a full day of classes.