The heat is on

By the time we awoke on Saturday it was already 1 million degrees outside....or 108 - same difference. Toxicesq and China met us at our hotel so we could follow them to breakfast. Along the way we saw surefire proof we were not in Kansas anymore.

And just so you know those Arizonians aren't liars:

Toxicesq and China brought us to Butterfield's for breakfast, which Thatboy quickly realized was along the same lines as our favorite - Original Pancake House. So of course, everyone ordered eggs.

After breakfast, the group split up. China, Thatbrother, and UDubb headed to the mall, while Thatmom, Thatboy, Toxiesq and I headed over to Taliesin West.

Taliesin West was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as his winter home with his third wife. The above sign is a petroglyph found by the architect during construction which he took on as his own symbol.

Wright built the property out of three materials - wood, stone, and canvas. The walls are made of boulders rolled and stacked, the roof of wood, and every opening was originally covered in canvas until his wife, sick of sweeping, forced him to install glass.


Taliesin West is made up of several buildings which are connected by open walkways. So if you wanted to go from the kitchen to the living room you'd have to walk outside between the two rooms. Kinda like a mall.



The house is supposed to be cohesive with the environment - the slanted roof mimics the angle of the mountains behind the house.







There's even a cabaret theater, built almost underground with great acoustics.



And a movie room with no windows and a stone ceiling.


We spent a lot of the day at Toxicesq's house, submerged in her pool trying to keep cool. Eventually the sun went down and we were headed to dinner. Toxicesq and I had both separately chosen the same restaurant for us - Roaring Fork. We took that to be a good sign, but it was all downhill from there.

When I tried to get reservations for us, because of the size of our group, they wouldn't give us a reservation until 8pm. That's A LOT later than we usually eat, but we figured that on a Saturday night they were trying to ensure we sat at a time they could give us the best service.

We ordered our drinks and our waitress disappeared. Someone brought Thatboy a coke and the rest of us just sat and waited. Eventually someone brought by bread and butter and dropped them off without any explanation. When we asked for more bread, it took 3 separate requests before more bread appeared.

Finally our drinks arrived and we hurried to order our meals before the waitress disappeared again. Nevertheless, anytime we had a question about the menu, our waitress would "go ask" and not reappear for several minutes while we watched her check on her other tables.

As we watched table after table being served, we sat and waited for food. Finally some of our appetizers arrived. It wasn't until 10 minutes later we all finally had our first courses.

One hour and 30 minutes after we ordered our meals finally arrived. By this time it was almost 10pm and we were exhausted. Especially those of us who go to bed between 9:30 and 10. Thatboy asked to speak with the manager who wasn't quite able to explain why service had taken so long. Toxicesq noted that she brings all her visitors to this restaurant and this was extremely unusual. The manager ended up comping a lot of our meal but I can't do a great job reviewing the food since at that point all we really wanted to do was go home and get into bed.

We brought dessert home and heated it up before we all fell FAST asleep. It was late and we had an early morning the next day.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how Thatboy almost killed me and how we left a little of us behind in Arizona.