In the spirit of catching up with things, I will now post about my trip to Phoenix.  Did I mention I went to Phoenix?  Well, I did. 

I went for some soil meeting thingy-majobber.  Basically, we went to tell another agency(ies) how our methods are way more awesome than theirs.  Okay, not really (well, not totally, anyway).  I went because I wanted to know how the other agencies worked.  Because things vary from one place to another, whether it is in a different region or a different agency, and I generally get a very biased version of how things are "supposed" to be done.  I won't get into the details of Ecological Site Descriptions, because that would be boring, but that's pretty much the gist of why I was there.

But if we really want to be honest, then I went because I wanted to stay at my favorite hotel in Phoenix, The Embassy Suites.  I attempted to make a video blog, all travel channel style, the last time I was there.  Unfortunately, my camera and I are not that awesome, so this time you are just getting pictures.

Since the last time I was in Phoenix, some hotel policies have changed.  The first one, although it didn't directly affect me, was somewhat unpleasant.  They now charge $5 to park in their lot.  Lame. 

The second change, however, was much better.  The last time I was there, we were given tickets that allowed us to have 3 free (alcoholic) drinks per night.  This time, happy hour lasted several hours each evening, during which time you could have as many free drinks, and snacks, as you wanted.  That was pretty darn cool.  Except for that for my first drink, I wanted Jack and Coke, but all they had was... bourbon?  It was not delicious.  I decided to stick with the old standby, vodka and cranberry, for the rest of the night.

But you want to look at pictures, I'm sure... so, here are some pictures.

Dining Room

Living Room

Kitchen.  The water from the sink tasted weird.  Like mold.

Bedroom

Cool fountain outside the lobby

The best hot tub ever