May Catch Up

So I'm going to quickly catch up on the month of May in one post.  Early in the month, my friend Matt was home from the Air Force.  We visited him at a welcome home/first birthday party for his son/sprinkle for his soon to be daughter party.  It was great to see him, his wife, meet his son, and catch up with his siblings and mother.  The following weekend I took my mom out for breakfast (early Mother's Day gift, I guess).  When breakfast was over, I had the joy of spending way too much money for new tires.  Oh, the joys of cars sometimes.  Did the Mother's Day thing the next day.  With all that partying and eating out, it's amazing my clothes still fit at the end of the month.  The following weekend involved more eating and drinking for a friend's birthday.  We went to a place that serves flights of beers after dinner, but they also had flights of cider so this non-beer girl enjoyed some cider.  And then Memorial Day weekend involved a day with the in-laws extended family and a trip to the city for Italian food and a visit to an art museum to celebrate a friend's birthday.  With a little luck, I'll have my blog posts about Germany about soon.  Yay!

Adios Arizona

On our last day in Arizona, we went out for breakfast and then toured the Diamonbacks stadium.  Natalie and I had done the tour before, but we thought the hubs might like it so the 6 of us did the tour, grabbed a snack, and then it was off to the airport to go home. Vacations always go so quickly, but not the flights.  There were some major thunder storms arounds so the pilot went an alternate route, which got us in late and then the luggage took ages to come out so we nearly missed our shuttle home.  We got there as it was pulling away--thankfully, he let us on, which you know he should since we'd prepaid for it.  Finally got home at 1:29am.  Good thing I had one day to recover before going back to work!

An Olive Mill Tour and A Baseball Game

Friday of vacation, we got up, got ready, and headed to the Olive Mill for breakfast and a tour.  I had some delicious French toast and breakfast potatoes.  Then we did a tour and because it had been like an hour since we'd eaten anything, I had to get ice-cream (and a cupcake to go, but NOT a $9 cupcake).  I also bought olive oil and Arizona wine to take home.  I've just remembered I still have the wine and have not opened it.  Well, now, I have something to look forward to in the near future.  The afternoon involved swimming and reading for me, school for the children, work for Natalie's husband, catching up on some paperwork (I think) for Natalie, and a nap for M.  Then it was off to dinner--M finally got some BBQ food he'd been craving and a Diamonbacks baseball game.  Natalie, one of her sons, and I left in the 8th inning.  The game was fun, but we were getting a bit restless and it was a late night for the kids.  A fruity beverage did help.  :-)  The rest of the crew stayed for the whole game.  It was a fun day and we were sad to have to go home and back to reality the next day.  

Scenic Views and an Overpriced Cupcake

Look at me go with the blog catch up huh?  Come on, pretend to be impressed.  On our next day in Arizona, we went to Jerome and Sedona.  It was a fairly scenic ride out to Jerome in the morning.  It was quite the ride as we were on a mountain for part of it--glad I wasn't the one driving.  :-)  Anyway, we arrived in Jerome late morning and did a bit of shopping.  I bought a Christmas ornament (actually, I bought one for me and one for someone else), pineapple salsa (when I got home I realized I accidentally bought the medium instead of the mild, oops!), and a postcard.  We had lunch at a restaurant called The Asylum, which had some lovely views.  After lunch and some pictures, we continued on to Sedona.  Our first stop was Chapel of the Holy Cross followed by Tllaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village.  It had some nice shops, but mostly it was out of my price range.  I ate a $9 red velvet cheesecake cupcake.  Who the heck spends $9 on a cupcake?  What's wrong with me? I mean it looked good and all, but $9 for a cupcake?  It tasted good, but I've had better (and cheaper).   I'm pretty sure that's the most expensive cupcake I've ever had.  We did a tiny bit of shopping downtown, then went to Sliding Rock to wander around a bit.  Then it was time to head back toward Natalie's house.  We stopped at a sports bar/restaurant for dinner on the way.  All in all it was a nice day, a little tiring, but scenic and enjoyable.

Fruitless (Fruitful) Traffic

On our first full day in Arizona, we had plans to tour the Cardinals Football Stadium.  We left early in case of traffic. Failure!  Traffic was stopped and in theory at least the morning rush hour should have been over by then.  Natalie's husband works for the Dept of Safety so she called him and he said he could see orange stuff on the screen so he guessed there had been some sort of hazardous spill.  Wrong!  Nope, the orange spots were not chemicals, they were...wait for it...oranges.  Yes, oranges.  A truck carrying oranges tipped over and there were oranges all over the highway (freeway) causing a back up.  We were late for our tour and I swear people thought we were lying when we told them we were late because there were oranges all over the highway--until ten minutes later when two other guys came in late for the tour because they were caught in the orange back up. Take that all you non-believers!   We didn't end up missing too much of the tour and we enjoyed the tour though I am always blown away to hear how much food and drinks cost at sports stadiums.  Why?!  After the tour, we went to a sandwich place for lunch.  It was good.  Next up the Arizona Statehouse Museum.  I'd been there on a previous trip, but it was still interesting to see some of the exhibits.  Then we stopped by Natalie's husband's work to say hi (and give him some leftover lunch).  After that, we stopped for ice-cream.  They served it in Chinese food take out containers.  I thought for sure the ice-cream would melt through the carton, but nope, it held up quite well.  They had some interesting flavors.  I had strawberry banana, but M got Captain Crunch.  Back to Natalie's house and later we had a delicious dinner.  Then Natalie and I went to a store called Ross, where I bought a dress and a shirt.  I have since worn the dress and received multiple compliments on it.  I may even wear it to my brother's wedding rehearsal dinner later this month.

There is An Arizona

Years ago there was a country song called, "There is No Arizona."  It's been a while since I've heard the song since at the time I did not like country music, but the premise is something like there is a couple and the guy decides to move to Arizona.  He plans to get settled and then have his girlfriend come out.  Only he never does ask her to come out with hin so she says there is no Arizona and it appears that he's left her. A couple of years after this song came out, my boyfriend at the time decided to move to Arizona to "find himself" so he dumped me. My mother very much enjoyed singing that song to me.  Sorry for the 800 run on sentences.
Anyway, I don't know if he found himself or not, but he moved back a few months later and got back together with his ex for a while and well, I don't really feel it's appropriate for me to post his life story on my blog, but suffice it to say though I never would have believed it at the time, his leaving led me to eventually meeting my husband (they were and still are very good friends) so I guess you could say things worked out.  If you want the full story, I'd be happy to share it with you over drinks or chocolate some night or perhaps a fruit bowl since I'm supposed to be eating healthier.  Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is to help explain the title of this blog post in case you don't know the song I referenced in it.  Now let's move on, shall we?  
    We did not have an early flight on Tuesday so I had time to go to the hotel gym that morning.  There was one other guy in there with me and he was talking loudly on his cell phone.  Dude (did I really just say dude), you're at a hotel, how about you go talk on the cell phone in your room not in the middle of the gym.  The gym is for working out.  End rant.
   Post workout, I got ready, then we went to the airport for our short flight to Phoenix.  Thank goodness it was a short flight.  It was the bumpiest flight I've ever been on.  They couldn't even serve the complimentary beverages.  The pilot wanted to go above the storm or via a different route, but nothing was open so my stomach and I struggled through and made it without illness.
  I neglected to say what I was doing in Arizona so just briefly, I was visiting my friend Natalie.  I've blogged about her before.  We met in college. She did a semester exchange during her junior/my freshman year.  She lived two doors down the hall from me and even though it was only a semester, we've kept in touch and she remains a good friend.    We went for a few years without seeing each other and then by a bit of coincidence I guess we saw each other several years in a row due to my visiting her, her coming to my wedding, her coming out here for her husband's high school reunion, her coming out here for a wedding, and now me (and the hubs) visiting her.   We don't have anything planned for next year, but there is a workshop I kind of want to attend in Las Vegas next summer so maybe I can detour to her place on the way home so we can keep the tradition going.  This is turning into a super long blog so let's wrap it up with:  Natalie's husband and one her sons picked us up from the airport.  We hung out for a while, then when Natalie got home, the six of us (the four adults and Natalie's two kids) went out to dinner at a place called Rustler's Rooste (I might have the name wrong since it was over two months ago).  It has nice views so that's why she picked it.  I had shrimp, which was pretty good.  After dinner, we hung out for a while catcing up.  And that was a very long blog post for what could have just as easily said:  We boared the plane to Arizona, had a bumpy flight, then hung out, and went out to dinner.  

Tourist Time

We spent Monday being tourists.  The day began with an overpriced water and muffin followed by a ride on the Hop On Hop Off bus.  We got off at the Golden Nugget/Freemont Street to poke around for just a little while.  M wanted to see it since he'd heard about it a bunch and had never been (I'd been there before).  Then we went to the Stratosphere to enjoy the view (and be amazed at the people who bungee jump off of it).  After quite a bit of time waiting for the next Hop On Hop Off bus, we finally did a complete route and then went to Wahlburgers for a late lunch/early dinner.  I had to go back to the hotel because I needed to participate in a webinar for a program I was doing in Germany (which at the rate I'm going, you'll probably read about in a blog post in Octobter).  When that was done, we went to the Bellagio to see their beautiful gardens.  Then we went to Holstein's (where I'd had the enormous turkey burger) to enjoy some grown up milkshakes.  I had the Drunken Money.  I recommend it.  M had a Campfire S'mores. I believe he enjoyed his too.  We played the slots for a little while, then it was back to the hotel to pack up because the nex day we were heading to Arizona.