Category Archives: Country Club Plaza

Canyon Ranch, Country Club Plaza, Plaza Lighting ceremony, Thanksgiving, Tucson

Thanksgiving in Tucson

Spoiler alert:  This is not quite the same post from last year’s family RV trip to Tucson…

You know what happens around Thanksgiving at some destination resorts?  The prices go down!  Yep, in an effort to lure people away from the loving long weekend full of food, football and family, some awesome spots will give you a price break for making the sacrifice.

It was such a deal that took me to Canyon Ranch in Tucson over the Thanksgiving holiday.  This was my third trip in about 4 years.  The first trip was a solo one over Valentine’s Day in 2008 – and resulted in some amazing life and physical changes that impacted the entire Peek family.  The second trip was with a friend, her mom, her mother-in-law over Mother’s Day in 2010.  Apparently, I have a holiday attendance theme going!

It was five days filled with sun (yay!), amazing spa cuisine, new workouts and plenty of R&R.  Oh…and BINGO!  In keeping with my Mother’s Day trip (where I won a set of 3 Canyon Ranch cookbooks and a giant fluffy spa towel), this time out I won a travel coffee mug and a spa robe.  Mara now has the robe…am I an awesome mom or what?!  (She has a CR trip on her schedule as soon as she turns 14…and raises the
money to go :-))

What about that other holiday tradition where the kids and I would drive down to the Country Club Plaza and get the sneak peek at the Plaza Lights before the real ceremony?  Well…Mike not only kept it up but improved on it.  Check out all the details on that little adventure here…

Jen
Country Club Plaza, IHOP, Plaza Lighting ceremony

Plaza Lighting 2010…Peek Family Style

Last year, we discovered that the (Country Club) Plaza Lights get a full lighting test at 2 a.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Let’s see…get up at 1 a.m., head to the Plaza with no traffic and get an awesome parking spot, geeat at IHOP and go home…or fight 100,000 other people on a cold November night…

Decisions, decisions…

Ummm, yeah. We opt for 2 a.m. – although enthusiasm on the part of the kids miraculously wanes when it’s time to actually get up and go. Wimps. They are in full force by the time we got to the eating, though. Shocking, I know.

So, yes, we see the over 80 miles of lights with 280,000 multi-colored bulbs outlining and illuminating the buildings come on all at once, in all their holiday splendor…before most other people (there are maybe 150 or others who make the middle of the night trek, too). 

Plaza Lights 2010

Jen