Thursday, March 7
The Vegas trip had come to an end, but we still needed to hit up my favorite breakfast place on our way out. That, of course, was the breakfast buffet at the Gold Coast casino. It is still the best dollar for dollar value buffet in Vegas. For about $10, you get a lot of wonderful breakfast foods and they were in especially fine form this day. Their legendary French Toast was in fairly fine fettle and they also had some great chicken fried steak and an excellent corned beef hash as well.
Properly fueled we began the long drive back to Phoenix. Dave and I once again waged battle in Super Mario Party where he managed to get the duke over me.
We got back into town about 4:30pm and just relaxed until Carolyn came home from work. Then we went to dinner at Venezia’s Pizzeria which specializes in New York style slices of pizza. I had never had a proper New York slice before and my Buffalo Chicken slice hit the spot.
When we got back to the house, Dave, Mat, and I took a little walk around the area to work off the meal before settling in to watch the latest episode of The Orville before turning in for the night.
Friday, March 8
This was definitely an easy day for us. Mat had a doctor’s appointment so Dave and I were left to our devices for an hour or so. Mat came back with doughnuts from The Hurts Donut Company which are still the greatest doughnuts on the planet and I very much look forward to the branch coming to Omaha. I savored an Andes Mint doughnut while Mat introduced us to the web series, Cobra Kai, which continues the story of Daniel LaRusso and his rivalry with Johnny Lawrence from the movie The Karate Kid.
It’s actually a very entertaining and interesting series. The focus is mostly on the character of Johnny Lawrence and it’s nice to see William Zabka get to show some depth with a character as his heyday as an actor in the 80s pretty much had him playing one dimensional bullies.
When we watched half the series, I suggested we go out and play some mini golf to get some exercise and enjoy the weather.
So we hopped into the car and made our way to Golfland Sunsplash were we once again dueled on the links. In some ways, it was the most entertaining round of mini golf I’ve played as I shot video footage of some of our toughest holes. In some ways it was the worst round as I shot pathetically average. In one sign of the apocalypse, I finished last to Dave. . .again. In another sign of the apocalypse, Dave won the ace award (most holes in one). This left me in a fog where I muttered over and over, “Dave? Ace Award?”
We returned to the house and did our own thing for an hour or so until Carolyn came back from work. For dinner we went to Rubio’s which is famed for its fish tacos. I had a Wild Alaskan salmon taco with a side of fresh greens and it really hit the spot.
From dinner, we went to the movies to watch Captain Marvel, the latest blockbuster from Marvel. I found it to be a decent film buoyed by strong performances from Brie Larson as the title character and Ben Mendelsohn as a sympathetic war victim. I gave it a 7 out of 10 and was especially impressed at how Marvel altered the traditional origin story formula.
But it was back to homestead and bed as we readied ourselves for the final day.
Saturday, March 9
This was it. The last full day of fun with Mat and Carolyn.
Mat and Carolyn slept in. I rose at my usual early hour and was surprised to find Dave up and about already as he watched the news on his phone. I ate a banana and the last 2 pieces of bacon from the batch Mat had prepared the previous Sunday. After eating, I decided I wanted to go for a long walk and persuaded Dave to join me.
Except for the little nighttime excursion taken a few nights prior, I had never really walked around this neighborhood as I was under the mistaken belief that the area was just a few lanes of houses buttressed up against a business area.
How wrong I was.
Once you cross the street, there are actually quite a large number of houses, schools, and neighborhoods to enjoy. Dave and I ambled for about an hour before returning to the house.
As each member of our group held a victory in Super Mario Party, we decided to crown a winner. We played an abbreviated version where Carolyn decimated us. I mean it wasn’t even close. But I did finish in second place.
Carolyn left for the afternoon to visit her brother while the three of us finished Cobra Kai and noshed on some sausage sandwiches Mat prepared. The sausage was tasty, but I could have eaten a sandwich consisting solely of the delectable vegetable concoction prepared by Mat.
About 4pm we headed to Scottsdale where we would close the adventure as it started: with an escape room.
We visited Escape Room 101 where our group was joined by Mat’s old friend, Rod, and his new girlfriend, Lisa. In this room, we would be assuming the role of Baker Street detectives who were contacted by Oliver Byron, son of Lord Byron, the painter. Oliver Byron had been approached by a cousin who held a will saying that he was the sole heir to Lord Byron’s fortune. Oliver stated his father would never cut his children from the will and needed us to locate the real will before the reading of the fake.
The puzzles in this room were awesome and really required you to think. The downside is that some of the devices activated by our solutions didn’t work as they should. For example, Mat and I solved a symbols puzzles and nothing happened. Mat unsolved and resolved it later which finally caused a hidden compartment to activate.
This one went down to the wire, but we managed to find the will with about 3 minutes remaining. I would have combined the two rooms we had done as Blaine’s Basement had better presentation and pageantry while The Baker Street had better puzzles.
After another victory, we visited Carlos O’Brien’s for dinner which was a fusion of Mexican food and Irish pub fare. I enjoyed a chicken and beef quesadilla while we conversed about various items.
Back at Mat and Carolyn’s we decided to have one final, all out battle at maximum turns on Super Mario Party. It seemed as if Carolyn would crush us again, but we managed to start mounting a comeback. However, my two “friends” decided to unfairly target me for purely their own amusement instead of focusing on the greater threat of Carolyn. Dave stole a star while Mat stole my money to keep me from buying stars. Due to their chicanery, Dave ended up winning and I vowed eternal warfare on both of them in all future games.
And so the end had finally come. Having the old team back together added that x factor that made this trip quite a bit more fun. Sadly, it will be a while before I see Mat and Carolyn again. I may try a trip this summer or possibly even at Christmas as my family will be celebrating the holiday early. Mat mentioned the possibility of road tripping to San Diego next time and that is a most intriguing idea indeed.
I see our first flight home has been delayed, so this trip really has come full circle.
Till the next adventure.
Chris' Corner 