Rob's Vacation to Arizona
March 28th, 2008

Every year, we try to get to Tucson to visit our friends, Tony and Carolyn. (Tony is also a mentor, adviser and business partner as well!) In years past we have gone for Memorial Day weekend, but since my wife is half penguin, the triple digit temperatures of late May have not always been conducive to her internal thermometer. This year, we tried a mid-March trip.

Every trip begins in the most horrible of all places, the airport. Made better only by the presence of the always popular airport bar.

With a few drinks in us, my wife Janell and I are all smiles and ready to go.

I took these pictures just for Dawn as we landed in Phoenix since she seems to think that anytime you can see another airplane our of your window, a crash is imminent. By the way, this plane followed us all the way down and landed simultaneously on a parallel runway. Dawn would have crapped herself.

We always fly to Phoenix and drive to Tucson, since there are very few direct Sacramento to Tucson flights and the drive along 1-10 allows us to see some pretty reminders that we are, in fact, in Arizona.

We arrive to discover Arnie’s worst nightmare; our friends’ TV is gone and in the shop with a replacement TV not due until after we leave. We all laughed regularly at how Arnie probably would have insisted on staying in a hotel.


Here are shots of Tony & Carolyn’s backyard, which rests along a wash on 2 acres in virtual total privacy. I love this piece of land and it plays perfectly to Tony’s Howard Hughes-like solitude and borderline disdain for people (you should now understand clearly why he and I get along so well)
Our plan has worked! Not only is the mid-March weather gorgeously comfortable (75 degrees most days) it’s even raining!

Tony & Carolyn’s bedroom has an enormous picture window that looks right at Mount I-forget-what-it’s-called, which is a beautiful view whether covered with clouds or snow or both.

This is their master tub, which I just love. No, I didn’t use it…but I thought about it.

My wife and I get our wing of the house, on the opposite end of our friends’ bedroom, complete with our own bathroom, deck door and everything.

This is a rock Tony found on a hunting trip a few years ago that I have always loved. I know this will make me less fun than Dawn, but this is a beautiful creation of nature so I claimed it on this trip and now get it when Tony croaks…if I can figure out how the hell to lift it.


Here we have Bucky, their German Shepherd who is an absolute super star. (He’s not as perfect as my “Shep,” of course, but I digress). Here, Bucky lies with his favorite toy, the indestructible rubber ring.

Anytime someone is ready, Bucky will play catch, in or out of the house. Look at the muscle on this boy in the third photo. What a stud.

Now that we’ve settled in, it’s time to drink. I brought my own cognac and bitters so that I could introduce Tony and Carolyn to my now infamous “cognac iced tea.”


This is the funniest thing. On occasion, when Bucky wants a nap he somehow wedges himself into the open cubby hole in the entertainment center. Shepherds are natural “den” animals so they love to wedge themselves into spots where they can still survey their surroundings at all times
Here, Tony (Mr. Howard Hughes himself) grabs the camera so that he won’t be photographed, but instead bothers the rest of us.


We spent a lot of time sitting around talking, going out to eat and enjoying each others’ company. Anytime the gang was getting ready to go, it was time for somebody to play with Bucky

On our last night in town, we went to one of our favorite restaurants overlooking gorgeous sunset views. Here, Tony tries to capture my wife and I in the sunset.

This is Carolyn (Mr. Hughes’ wife), and my wife.

All of the food we had was great, but this was a real show stopper. They are chocolate raviolis that Carolyn had for dessert.

Here we have the only known photo of Tony taken in 2008, posing with the chocolate raviolis. Having retired 10 years ago (in his early 40’s…asshole…)he now works out everyday and at 6’4” and more than 225 pounds of 100% Italian beef on him, that suit with mock turtleneck outfit just screams “mob hit waiting to happen.”

Before we left I had a nice chat with Bucky and told him what a great dog he is. I also let him know that my dog, Shep is better. (My other dog, Nellie, is still coming along…she’ll get there though).

 There are my vacation photos from Arizona, shoot me an e-mail to let me know what you thought!