Arizona


After college, all my friends from school pretty much scattered, and I sure have been missing them. I got the chance to take a little trip out to see my former roommate Melinda in her new home in Phoenix for the weekend. 


Friday, February 6th

I arrived on Friday night and Melinda picked me up from the airport with a surprise in the car for me. My friend and former roommate Jason decided to come out for the weekend and we all had a mini reunion. Melinda drove us by a cool, artsy area of Phoenix, but there were so many people there walking around that we could not find a place to park. After a little cruising around, we stopped at The Vig to have dinner before going back to her place and calling it a night. 

Saturday, February 7th

We decided to take a day trip out to Sedona for our Saturday. It was a two hour drive through the desert, but well worth it. We got breakfast before we left at a trendy cafe called Lux, and Melinda had her first Dutch puff covered in fruit and coffee flavored whipped cream. 




Our first stop on the way to Sedona was at Montezuma's Castle, which was a structure built up into the side of a cliff a long time ago. It was a short pit stop where we just got out and walked around for a bit to look at the "castle" and a nearby stream. We got back on the road and continued onto Sedona. We found a visitor center which gave us some good advice on where certain places were. I had read about these 'vortexes' in Sedona where there is supposed to be a field of energy coming up from inside the Earth. They're said to give you goosebumps on the back of your neck or tingling feelings in your hands and feet. We wanted to track one down, but Melinda had just gotten out of the hospital, so we knew we had to take it easy. Just up the road, there was a vortex we could walk to near a large rock called Bell Rock. We walked along the path for a bit towards the rock and Jason ran off for a while to actually climb the rock while Melinda and I hid in the shade. After Jason ran around for a while, we headed back to the car and thankfully did not get a ticket for accidentally not paying for parking. We continued up the road just two roundabouts (that's how they described the directions) to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross that had been built partly into some rocks on a hill. It was quite small but beautiful, and it had really pretty views of the whole area. 























After the chapel, we all started getting hungry, so we stopped at a shopping center called Tlaquepaque for some lunch and shopping. We ate at Oak Creek Brewery and Grill and Melinda and I shared the most delicious pizza. IT had roasted garlic and pesto as the sauce. We had worked up an appetite with the sightseeing we had done. After lunch, Jason went into a food coma so he napped in the car while we shopped a bit. The shopping center was so cute and very European, and it was filled with beautiful art and jewelry. Unfortunately, the dessert place had closed five minutes before we got there, so we took that as our cue to leave. We wanted to find a good spot for sunset, so we headed to Airport Mesa, where apparently everyone goes to see the sunset. It was quite crowded when we got there, but we found a place to stand and watched the sunset over some of the beautiful red rocks. Once the sun set, we were ready to head back home. 










Sunday, February 8th

We had woken up quite early Saturday, so we let Jason sleep in while Melinda and I went out to breakfast at Songbird Coffee & Tea House in the artsy area we had seen on Friday night. I had a yummy Chai latte and a banana pistachio waffle. We walked around a bit to look at the street art, and Melinda gave me a driving tour of town after we finished eating. One we got back to Melinda's place and Jason had woken up, we decided to see the Spongebob Movie to get out of the heat for a bit. It wasn't the best, but at least I saw it. My childhood self would be so proud. Afterwards, we drove a little ways out of town to eat at a place called The Farm. It was such a sweet place. You drive down a dirt and rock road straight through the open field at the farm to park, and they had three different places to eat. We ate at The Kitchen since it was lunchtime. We got sandwiches in picnic baskets and took them out to a picnic table in the field to have lunch. It was a beautiful setting and so nice to watch all the families and doggies running around and playing. After we ate, we strolled the grounds a little bit to see the green house and shops and gardens. We actually ended up watching quite a few episodes of Friends at Melinda's place before going out for dessert...dinner is overrated. I had the biggest S'More Sundae which I couldn't even finish half of, but it was delicious. We called it a night since my flight was really early the next morning. It was so nice getting to spend time with old friends and to explore parts of Arizona I had never seen before. Thanks for everything Melinda! 
























Comments

Popular Posts