Tucson, part 1 (hotel and dinner)

A couple months ago my husband came home from work with a gift bag, and announced to me that he had earned an award for making the top 1% (nationally) in goals at his work--and that the award was a four-days/three-nights all expenses paid retreat to Tucson, Arizona in April. Woot! It's called the President's Circle of Excellence and out of 27,000 employees nationwide only 170 get to attend (along with their guests).

I've blogged about the times when Gene has made the 'Bravo' events here and here (plus another one that I forgot to take my camera to). Bravo is based on a six month review of the local employees and he's made that three or four times in his career, but to make it at the national level in the 'President's Circle' is really quite the achievement! I'm very proud of him!

We had so much fun--at first I thought I'd be apprehensive and feel guilty about leaving my kiddos for so long, but we left them in the very capable hands of my niece, Alyssa so we had absolutely no worries. We were pampered and spoiled the entire time, around the third day I thought "I could get used to this reeeeal fast!"

Anyway, I've broken the trip down into three posts because of the plethora of photos and information. Oooooh, so many fun stories to tell, but can I just say how much I really enjoyed Tucson...and how much I love hotel rooms?! Seriously, every time I'm in one I fall in love all over again. Just sayin'. So, please come with me on our retreat to Tucson.....

After a lay over in Phoenix and a half-hour bus ride to the hotel, what's the first thing we did? Get on the laptop. They had ran out of rooms with King beds, but we got our own private balcony. Here's Gene looking forward to the weekend.

The view from our room: a hill with Saguaro cactuses (cacti?), or as someone said 'a forest of giant pickles'. ;)

About 4 hours after arriving I got a pedicure by a guy who reminded me of Prince. After only 3 hours of sleep and 5 hours on a plane my feet are ridiculously puffy.

We got to the hotel before noon and had the entire afternoon to do whatever we wanted, then at 6:00pm dinner was served in a 'meet & greet' fashion. All 170 employees and their guests mingled and listened to Mariachi bands.

There were probably a dozen stations with different foods from seared Ahi Tuna to macaroni & cheese balls, from baby-back ribs to pulled pork over a bed of beans. Here is a salad bar (loved the avocado halves w/ crab salad at the end).

This was one of my favorites--a cornbread pancake w/ brisket & slaw. Yummo!

Here's the dessert buffet w/ berry cobbler, s'mores, churros, flan and...

...peanut butter cups. I thought they were pretty, but didn't have one (not a fan of PB & chocolate together. Now you know).

We mingled until 11pm, and then when we got back to our hotel room we had a gift waiting (more on that later). Here's the breakfast buffet in the morning. Already I was feeling like I was aboard a cruise ship, as I've heard rumors about the abundance of food around every corner!

And, my personal fav, the waffle and 'lemon souffle' pancake bar. I mean really! They had quiche, Irish oatmeal w/ creme brulee atop, breakfast burritos, panini sandwiches, a pastry bar to die for (seriously, just looking at it could give you Diabetes) and every milk (if you prefer goat) and juice you could ask for. Thursday's dinner and Friday's breakfast = 10 lbs gained alone. I kid, I kid. But seriously. On to part 2.....