By Simran Jayasinghe
We are almost at the end of our trip! This was the last day of our stay at the resort and we were going to head back home the next day. We had been on the road for eleven days, but we were looking forward to seeing our cute dog Rocky again, who had been boarded all this time!
Mom and our grandma decided to treat themselves, and went to the spa to get a pedicure, and something called a facial. My sisters and I convinced our dad to go to the pool, even though it was not all that warm of a day. We went to the river ranch and played in the main pool. The pool has a water fall, and we sat under it, and also played marco-polo, a pool game. We also found a volleyball, and tried to play some pool volleyball. We were not very good at getting the ball over the net.
We played until our mom came back from the spa. Then we went back to the room and got dressed to play tennis. The hotel room includes a complimentary hour of tennis. The day before we had booked a court for an hour. We were excited to play because we had never played tennis before. At first, my sisters and I kept missing the ball, but our mother ,and father who had played tennis when they were children, showed us how. Slowly, we got the hang of it, and towards the end, we got the ball over the net. We really enjoyed it! We played tennis for an hour. It turned out to be quite a warm day, and all that running around made us thirsty, so our mom and dad ordered three piña colada drinks. We sat and drank them by the pool, and were they yummy!
We went back to the room to relax and played Rummikub, Blokus, Chess, and cards. After we had relaxed a bit we decided to go explore a mall in Phoenix. We drove to the Biltmore Fashion Park. The Biltmore (mall), is a outdoor upscale mall, and we saw several stores that we hadn’t seen in a mall before. We walked around the mall for a little while, window shopping. Then, my sisters and I got very hungry and we looked for a place to eat, but nothing caught our fancy. Finally, we decided to leave the Biltmore and go to Olive Garden.
Our whole family loves the Olive Garden restaurant. We love the breadsticks, and our parents love the Fagioli soup. Kiran, Svara, and I had the cheese ravioli from the kids menu. Our grandma, got the soup and salad combination. Our mom got the Chicken Scampi. Our father got the Braised Beef and Tortellini, and our grandpa got the Garlic Rosemary Chicken Breast that comes with mashed potatoes and spinach. For dessert, we had what is the best part of Olive Garden for us. This wonderful desert is called a dolcini. At Olive Garden, there are different flavors. Our mom and dad always get the tiramisu dolcini, but Kiran, Svara, and I just pick randomly. We really enjoyed the meal, and went back to our room with full stomachs!