Robin and I took a break from baseball to check out the Botanical Gardens in Scottsdale. The Sonoran Desert exhibit was fascinating. Seeing how the Native Americans lived in the harsh settings showed innovative adaptive behavior we should tap into today.
We stayed at the Ramada Plaza in Glendale, which is centrally located and has a great breakfast buffet. They have renovated since Robin and I were there last year. Kind of a Yuppie weird motif. The ventilation system was so bad that you could hear conversation from the next room....clearly. Kind of weird. The motel was infested with teenage ballplayers that caused havoc in the pool and hot tub. When we checked out, I grabbed the receipt and handed it to Robin and commented about the double tax. (State and City) She noticed a $65 charge from the cafe that we did not use. I had to go back and have them check the receipts and sure enough, they made a mistake. I wonder how many people would not check the receipt and pay that "mistake?"
Rob and I drove across the desert to Palm Springs Thursday. We called the Best Western for a room for the night and were quoted $179. I told them I was a gold card Best Western Member and AAA member and they knocked the price to $169. I said no thanks and used a coupon for the Palm Court motel for $47. Their rooms were clean and their pool and hot tub area was huge and accessible. Very nice. Thursday night was Main Street on Palm Canyon Drive. A fair street fare, but the Arcata Plaza celebrations and Farmers Market blow them away art wise, veggie wise, music wise and people wise. (Although I did like the "Nearly Willie" dude that imitated Nelson.) And people of Palm Springs, get your dogs and children under control!
We left the high desert today and ended up in Sacramento in the rain. Looks like we will drive home tomorrow in lousy rainy weather. Oh well. I look forward to seeing green again!
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7 comments:
Sounds a lot like our spring baseball trip this past week! I too was surprised by the $10+ state transient occupancy tax besides the local city tax on the room rate. Also upon our return we were greeted with a steady rain from Windsor to Fortuna but that is the nature of the beasts, heat in AZ rain on the north coast.
Anyway, sounds like you all had fun, I know we did, and that’s what it’s all about – welcome back!
Pooh,
It sounds like you had a good time. Its hard not too, when you are watching the boys of summer.
Rember you can always click your heels twice and say there no place like home. And your home.
Rick
Rick-We just got home. In the 40's. In our house the temp was 46! Made a fire and started all heaters. I bet Denver is alot warmer. Robin and I met a some people from Golden, Colorado while waiting in line for tickets in Scottsdale. Then we met another family from Golden that sat right next to us! They had three well behaved children under 7. Hard to find in today's time.
eel river ernie-What was up with those huge taxes anyways? Are they chasing our types away? I was nasty from about Stockton on for us to Sac-Town. We stayed there to see family and stuff. (High class Hyatt for $89 in Rancho Cordova with Huge 42" screen TV and Huge room with couch.)
Rich – we stayed at the La Quinta in West Mesa, AZ our room was $148.50 per night, the state occupancy tax was $10.50 and the city occupancy tax was $7.06 bringing the nightly charge to $166.36 which equals about a 12% TOT rate. The TOT rate for Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna and I believe the unincorporated area of Humboldt is 10%, San Francisco is 14% all of which is returned to the imposing jurisdiction. The interesting part of the AZ tax is the state share which goes to fund the Arizona Office of Tourism (AOT), while I don’t pretend to understand it you might want to look at http://www.azleg.state.az.us/legtext/44leg/2r/summary/s.1519fin_final.doc.htm to see the authorizing legislation.
Let’s hope California doesn’t get as innovative and start dipping into the local transient occupancy taxes.
Yes it was yesterday 68 the official high, But going to be in the 40s and snow today and tomorrow.
It would be interesting to know if Arizona has the same taxes in the summer, When nobody is around.
Rick
Welcome home! It is going to be even colder tonight.
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