Mel, Shar & Amy's Excellent Adventure

So I just got back from an amazing vacation with 2 of my girlfriends. Our final destination was the Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson AZ. We made the executive decision to fly out Sunday and stay the night in a hotel by the airport since they were coming to pick us up from there. Our visit started Monday and we didn't want to waste any time of it in travel. Let's just say the airport hotel experience was a range of emotions! From uncertainty to nervousness, a quick jump to fear, back to wary, finally to acceptance and then laughter! We weren't in the best part of town and we were hungry. Locating a restaurant, even though we didn't know the terrain couldn't be that difficult though. We're moms, how hard could it be?

To make a long, and probably only-funny-if -you-were- there-story, short, we couldn't find a restaurant nearby that didn't look either deserted or questionable. We finally sweetalked a hotel employee to drive us to the taxi lane at the airport in efforts to find substanence. We were getting very hungry at this point and all we could think of was finding good food and lots of it. We asked for some suggestions from both the hotel worker, and the cab driver and after we weeded through ideas such as Taco Bell, McDonalds and Denny's, we decided on the place they both had mentioned. A "really good steak house" called SilverSaddle Steak House. Excellent we think! To the SilverSaddle, driver!"
We exchange a shared look of fear when we pull into what looks like a Motel 8. And although the restaurant wasn't the Motel, it was in the same parking lot. We've just paid 20 bucks to get here. If we turn back we pay another 20 bucks and we still would not have eaten yet. We thank our nice taxi driver Victor and walk into the steakhouse with as much trepidation as Dorothy, the Lion and the Scarecrow into the forbidden forest.
It actually ended up being just fine. Our waitress was so nice and even though they only served the meat in the size of "half a cow", the rolls were amazing and now being fed, we were happy troopers again. We didn't even mind the additional 20 dollars and haunting Indian music Victor played for us on the ride back to the hotel.
Since our bodies were 2 hours ahead of Arizona time and we didn't dare venture out again, we found the only solution was to get in our jammies, watch tv, talk, laugh and finally go to bed by 9:20. Well, Shar and I made it till 9:20. Amy was asleep by 8:10. Oddly enough we all woke up around midnight and started laughing and talking again.

After our "deluxe continential" breakfast we were dressed and ready for the Miraval pickup. Not that we didn't love our little Tucson Airport adventure but, needless to say, we were all smiles when our ride rolled up. Let the real vacation begin...