[Krispy Kreme sunset with college girlfriends]
[Stella & Dot outfit of the week:: Target shift dress // nude Nine West heels // gold J.Crew belt // Coral Cay Necklace // Bardot Spiral Bangle]
[chicken + waffles with sides of applesauce and wasabi honey]
[spring family session]
[deck project almost complete!]
[celebrating the bride-to-be]
[homemade fried rice and teriyaki chicken]
This was our first weekend in town in what felt like forever, and it was much-appreciated. We did Mexican with some good friends who live less than a mile away, but whom we haven’t seen in a month. It’s crazy how quickly time goes by when you’re busy with life. After a most delicious outdoor brunch on Saturday, we almost finished our live edge table for our newly stained deck. The chairs and outdoor rug are in place, so hopefully the rain will hurry up and get out of here so we can put our new table out! I can’t wait to put it to good use. Although while at my friend Shannon’s wedding shower yesterday, I did sort of fall in love with a big screened-in porch that the hostess had built on her deck…. so I think I have my next project in mind. 😉
Monthly Archives: April 2014
restaurant reviews:: Arizona travel
While on our road trip through Arizona last week, we ate at several places that I wanted to share with y’all. If you live in AZ or ever find yourself traveling there, check out some of these restaurants throughout the state.
Indian Gardens Oak Creek Market — Sedona area
On our way out of Sedona, we stopped at this cafe and market, and I’m so happy we did. It would have been easy to miss it, but I think it’s such a little gem. According to their website, it is an Arizona landmark, celebrating 70 years on this historic property. They had several sandwich/soup/salad options (with several vegetarian meals), and they even have craft beer on tap. My favorite part was the garden patio area tucked away behind the building, shaded by big trees.
I got the Gobbler (smoked turkey breast, avocado, provolone, local organic sprouts, tomato, and pesto mayo on sourdough bread).
Craig chose the Spring Pulled Pork (slow-roasted, pulled pork with house made barbecue sauce and seasonal slaw of bok chou, daikon, carrots, & cabbage. Served warm on ciabatta bread). While mine was delicious and sort of refreshing after our hiking adventure, I had major “order envy” over Craig’s dish. That BBQ was so yummy, and the slaw was the perfect combo of crunchy and sweet.
The market was also stocked full of craft beer, wine, coffee, snacks, desserts, and gifts — perfect for filling up the car with goodies before we began our trek to the Grand Canyon. I just wish we could have stopped back by again!
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El Tovar Dining Room — Grand Canyon
photo credit
Since we were staying at the historic El Tovar Hotel for a night, we decided we should have a nice dinner at their onsite restaurant. The Dining Room has the same rustic charm as the rest of the hotel property, and if you’re seated near the windows (we were not), I’d bet you would have the most gorgeous view of the Canyon.
We started with the House Salad and the French Onion Soup… the salad was good, but the soup was lick-the-bowl-clean good. Craig and I joked that maybe they’d have Elk on the menu since they’re all over the park area, but of course, they did not. Instead, he opted for the Buffalo Filet (Fig Compote, Pepperjack Au Gratin Potatoes, and Seasonal Vegetables). I wanted to steal his potatoes, and I think he really liked that fig compote. I am not big on quail/duck/lamb chops, so I went with a rather safe choice — the Chicken Piccata (Angel Hair Pasta with Lemon Caper Sauce and Seasonal Vegetables). It was good, but nothing too exciting to write home about.
Their dessert options are displayed right as you enter the room, which of course worked on me. I was stuffed by the time dessert rolled around, but I couldn’t say no to the Flourless Chocolate Cake. It was a good decision. I would have been perfectly happy just ordering the appetizer and dessert for my meal…. which seems to be the case a lot.
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The Mission — Scottsdale
Our first night in Scottsdale, we at at The Mission, which is located in Old Town and serves Latin cuisine. It was just a random find on tripadvisor.com (ranked #8 out of 992 restaurants in Scottsdale). I’m glad we made a reservation, though, because it’s clearly popular among tourists and locals (including bachelorette parties). It’s a rather loud, dark restaurant, but the vibe is swanky and cool. They have patio seating, but I loved the inside decor — lots of mirrors and dark chandeliers. We grabbed a couple yummy cocktails from the very busy bar while we waited for our table (Red Sangria and a Blood Orange Rita).
We started with the Tableside Guacamole. Calling it “tableside” was sort of amusing, as the tables are quite close to one another, not leaving much room for them to pull a cart up to the table to make this dish. It was a HUGE bowl of guac, but we managed to almost finish it. Probably not the brightest idea, considering that we are always stuffed after eating too much chips and dip before dinner at Mexican restaurants. For dinner, we ordered a plate of the Pork Shoulder Tacos (smoked & slow braised for 12 hours, pineapple habanero glaze, cotija cheese, handmade tortillas), which serve two. They were so rich, but so very good. We also ordered sides of the Black Bean Puree and Chipotle Honey Cream Grits — both were good additions to the meal.
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Chelsea’s Kitchen — Scottsdale
Chelsea’s was recommended to us by a couple different people, and I got the impression that it is more of a local scene, which was welcomed after being in such touristy areas on our trip. There was a long wait, so I think it’s a pretty popular place. We’d already had appetizers at the hotel for happy hour, so we skipped that section of the menu.
I was having a hard time deciding between the Green Chile Burger (roasted green chiles and Tillamook cheddar with french fries) and the Wood-fired Rotisserie Jidori Chicken (cannellini beans, veggies). The waiter actually recommended trying the chicken, because he said it was that good. I really wanted the Baked Mac n Cheese as a side, but I was told it’s almost the size of an entree. The chicken was moist and flavorful and I really liked the cannellini beans, but I ended up eyeing the burger that a neighboring table had gotten…
Craig wanted something a little lighter than he’d had the night before, so he chose the Grilled Swordfish Tacos, which were guaranteed to be the best in town. Quiet a claim! 😉 He ate most everything on his place, but I think we both decided that dessert was our favorite thing we ordered…..
Because it was this! Mile-high meringue on the Key Lime Pie (with Strawberry Gelato). Delicious to the last bite, and we wish we’d gotten a bigger piece.
Another thing of note — they have a platter of cookies to take on the way out! They know the way to my heart.
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El Chorro — Paradise Valley (Scottsdale area)
photo credit
We celebrated our (early) anniversary on our last night in Arizona with a most delicious dinner under the desert stars. This restaurant was recommended to us by a friend, and I’m so glad we tried it out. All entrees include a basket of their famous Sticky Buns, and honestly, that’s what sold me on the place. They were… well…. let’s just say that we devoured them in about 30 seconds and would have eaten 100 more if we were physically able to.
For our meals, I chose the Braised Beef Short Ribs (whole grain mustard mashed potatoes, garden carrots, and haricot vert) and Craig tried to order the 1/2 Rack of Lamb (brussels sprouts, white bean puree, blackberry jalepeno demi), but the waiter told him it would just be a snack, so he begrudgingly ordered the whole thing. I think he probably regretted that decision after the Sticky Buns…
As you may have noticed, we thoroughly enjoyed eating our way through Arizona. We can’t wait to go back one day!
A Few of My Favorite Things (66)
[Stella & Dot outfit of the week:: hot pink JCrew sweater // GAP skinny jeans // brown Tory Burch flats // Coral Cay Necklace // Spiral Bardot Bracelet]
[fun car trips with Coco]
[new Stella & Dot bags, just in time for summer travel]
[Jawbone Up Band – making progress 1 million steps at a time]
[spring trees in Franklin, TN]
[Easter with Craig’s family]
We’ve been out of town the first 3 weekends of April… so needless to say, it’s been a busy month. We made a quick trip up to Nashville to celebrate Easter and spend some time with Craig’s family, which was really nice. I love that the Easter bunny still brings us goodies – and even better, they’re all my favorite candies! I think we’re both pretty happy to be in town this weekend without any plans to spend hours and hours in the car! I also have my first maternity photo session with a lovely past coworker, which I’m really excited about!
travel:: Scottsdale, AZ
For the last leg of our anniversary trip, we headed down to Scottsdale for 3 nights of resort living. We stopped by Old Town on the way in, and it was just the cutest place — even more so at night once the streets and trees are lit up with what seemed like millions of tiny white lights. Old Town is filled with tons of great restaurants and bars, and even more jewelry and souvenir shops.
It was so hard to choose a resort — there were too many that all looked fabulous. We ended up at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Gainey Ranch… largely because of that water slide below! The resort had something like 10 pools (some tiny, but who’s measuring), including an adults-only pool, and that giant slide, which was so fun! I may or may have not been the only adult in line with a dozen 5-year-olds. We sat by the pool for 2 solid days, which I think we earned after our rigorous hiking excursions. 😉
What I loved most about the resort property was the huge open courtyard and open-air lobby area. The view was so inviting for breakfast, lunch, sushi/cheese/wine happy hour, and for nighttime entertainment. Southwest Bistro was my favorite restaurant onsite — I got the southwest chicken caesar salad both days for lunch, and I kinda wish I had one right now.
In between laying hanging out at the pool and hugging cacti, we tried a few really great restaurants, with our favorites being The Mission and El Chorro. You know I’ll have a blog post coming soon.
The last full day of the trip, we were up at literally before the crack of dawn to do something I’ve been wanting to do for years — ride in a hot air balloon!! This was the 2nd item I was able to check off my bucket list during this trip, and I’ve been so excited about it since booking it a few months ago. We had to call the night before to ensure that the weather would be good enough to fly, and thankfully it was. After reading tons and tons of reviews, I chose 2 Fly Us Hot Air Balloons (if we were going to float thousands of feet into the air in a tiny basket, I wanted to at least make sure we were choosing a SAFE tiny basket and a great pilot).
Kevin is the owner of 2 Fly Us, and he was our pilot and tour guide of the open air. He and his “chase crew” — an ex-Seattle Seahawks player named Gene — were so professional, friendly, and really made us feel comfortable. The cool thing about these companies is that they coordinate take-off sites so that their customers get to see all of the other balloons being blown up and photograph them while they’re flying near them in the air. Our basket held just 5 people, which we really liked, but one of the groups had a basket holding 20!
It was so neat to watch each team quickly but very carefully unroll the balloons, connect them to the baskets (which were lying on their sides on the ground), and then turn on the fuel to essentially air up the balloon and lift it upright. To me, the only really unnerving part of the process was hopping into the half-upright basket and having it wobble around until it righted itself with the flow of the wind and took off into the air.
Once up in the air, the balloon just sort of goes where the wind takes it. The ride was surprisingly incredibly smooth and stable. We reached a height of about 5,300 feet and then (very) slowly swooped down in between mountains so low that I thought we might end up on top of a cactus… and then before we knew it, we’d be heading right back up into the sky again.
Our pilot and chase crew communicated via radios to determine a landing spot. I was a little worried about crash landing, but it was so smooth. Kevin really knows what he’s doing. Once we disembarked, Gene quickly rolled the giant balloon back up into its container. I would most certainly have had that thing in a colossal knot if that were my job.
And another fun part…. a champagne toast to celebrate a successful flight! We held our glasses toward the rising sun and Kevin recited what is called “The Balloonist’s Prayer,” which goes like this:
May the winds welcome you with softness.
May the sun bless you with its warm hands.
May you fly so high and so well that God
joins you in laughter and sets you gently
back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.
I can’t say enough how much I loved our hot air balloon experience. Flying peacefully through the sky, between mountains, above cacti in the desert, and next to several other giant, glowing balloons was one of the single most amazing things I’ve ever gotten to do. It was the perfect cap to an incredible trip celebrating 5 wonderful, joyous years of marriage. I’m excited to see where we end up for our 10th!
travel:: the Grand Canyon
From Sedona, we drove up to the Grand Canyon National Park, which has been a longtime item on my bucket list. The 2.5 hour drive up to the park was really pretty, with a good bit of the first half being through the mountains. I don’t know what I expected, but I certainly didn’t think we’d be taking a drive through the forest in Arizona.
We aren’t incredibly outdoorsy people, so instead of staying several days to hike down to the bottom of the canyon and camp (and then hike back out!), we opted for a night at the historic El Tovar Hotel, positioned at the South Rim. You couldn’t get much closer to the rim unless you slept on the sidewalk. There are several lodges and cabins located in that area of the South Rim, but I really liked staying at El Tovar for our first time there. From the moment you step onto the large, rocking chair-filled front porch and enter through the wooden double doors into the lobby, you can feel the rustic, turn-of-the-century charm. The hotel was built in 1905, and I would bet that a lot of aspects haven’t changed since then. The rooms are somewhat small, but they’re well-equipped with modern amenities (even a Kuerig coffee maker) — and I loved the tile work in the bathroom.
We arrived late in the afternoon and took a scenic drive out to Grandview Point (thanks to a suggestion from our Canadian friends in Sedona) to get our first glimpse of the canyon. It was so incredibly impressive — photos we’d seen just did no justice to how magnificent the sheer size is.
Bright and early the next morning, we started our hike down the Bright Angel Trail, which was only about a quarter mile down from the hotel. Like I said… we’re not hikers. So going about 1.5 miles down into the canyon and 1.5 miles back out was PLENTY for us. Add in the high altitude, and we thought me might not make it out. I will say that it’s supposed to take twice as long coming back up, but we did it in equal time… so maybe we were going a bit faster on the way out than we should have. We must have looked tired, because there were several people who passed us and asked if we’d gone all the way to the bottom — HA!
The trail itself, though, was quite peaceful. It was neat to just stop every so often and take in the grand view and how far we’d made it down. We decided afterward that we liked the hiking in Sedona better, but I’m so glad we did the GC.
After cleaning up (we were COVERED in orange dust!) and checking out of the El Tovar, we hopped back in the car to make the 4 hour trek down to Scottsdale. Once out of the park, we came back by this bizarre little place called The Flintstones Bedrock City. It has been around for over 45 years and consists of a campground, diner, and theme park. Craig was just dying to check it out, so we took a chance on it and stopped for lunch. While the place was pretty deserted, the lunch was a nice little surprise. It was nothing fancy — burgers, hot dogs, and the like (all with Flintstones-themed names) — but it was well-made and much better than stopping at McDonald’s. We didn’t end up paying to go through the theme park, but I’m sure it would have brought back many fond memories of one of the best cartoon families there ever was.
travel:: Sedona, AZ
Craig and I took a trip out to Arizona last week in celebration of our 5-year wedding anniversary. We got married in June, but while researching our trip, I found that it would be well into the 100s by then, so we chose to go a couple months early. We flew into Phoenix and rented a car so we could road trip it to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and Scottsdale for 6 days. I took way too many photos (surprise!), so I’ve broken the trip up into 3 posts.
We absolutely loved Arizona. The landscape must have changed a dozen times along our various drives, and I just couldn’t get over all those giant cacti! We met so many friendly people, hiked the most gorgeous trails, ate too many yummy things, sang along to approximately 1,000 songs on our drives through the desert and mountains, and I got to check not one, but two, items off my bucket list! It was the perfect way to ring in 5 years with my one and only. I hope you enjoy our road trip through Arizona!
First up, lunch at MacAlpine’s Restaurant & Soda Fountain in Phoenix. It’s a little time warp back to the 50s with a soda fountain featuring too many flavors to count. We sat at the counter and enjoyed lunch and shakes before hitting the road to Sedona.
Our view from the Best Western Plus in Sedona — I could not get over that view! I’d highly recommend this hotel, especially for a short stay.
Pink Jeep Tours:: One of our favorite things we did! This was recommended by almost everyone we talked to who has been to Sedona, and they were right. It was the perfect way to get an up-close view of the Red Rocks without having to huff it through the mountains on foot. Our tour guide was awesome — just enough interesting info and funny jokes — and he was a very experienced driver, which is important when driving up and down 45-degree inclines and HUGE rocks. I would have had that jeep upside down in no time.
The photo below is in memory of my cousin Stuart. He took a similar photo on a GA mountain not too long before his passing, and it perfectly captured the pure joy of his personality. While having a little photo shoot out on the Red Rocks, Craig had the sweet idea to pay homage to him with a reenactment of his “jumping” photo. Not so sure about mine, but I think Craig totally nailed it. 🙂
We were up bright and early the next morning to hike Devil’s Bridge. Our neighbors recommended that trail, and it was another of our favorite activities. The views were unmatched, and the trail was really fun to hike. The drive into the trailhead, however, was not for the faint of heart. I was wishing we had that pink jeep from the day before…. and I’m surprised we didn’t completely break our rental suv in the process. Those “roads” are no joke! We even ended up picking up a nice older Canadian couple on the drive out from the trailhead because they’d accidentally walked the wrong way to their car. They in turn gave us their Grand Canyon Park pass, which saved us $25! Karma, people.
The town of Sedona is so cute. It was a sort of random addition to the trip itinerary, but I’m so, so glad we visited. Nice people, lots of restaurants, great hiking, too many palm readers and “crystal” shops to count, and unparalleled views of the Red Rocks. It ended up being the surprise favorite for both of us!
restaurant review:: bar meatball
Bar Meatball. The name alone made me want to check it out. It’s located in Virginia Highlands in the space previously known as Pozole. I really enjoyed that restaurant and was sad to see it go, but Bar Meatball is a pretty fun replacement. Don’t get me wrong — they mostly just serve meatballs… so if you don’t like ’em, you probably don’t need to visit. HOWEVER — if you like ice cream sandwiches… GO.
Red Sangria — pretty good, but very heavy on the brandy.
Classic beef meatballs with bolo sauce, served over rigatoni. Each dish comes with a piece of focaccia. I enjoyed the wooden markers showing which type meatballs we each ordered.
Sausage and peppers meatballs with bolo sauce, served over the special risotto (something with sausage included in it, and it was delicious).
For dessert, three of us got our own ice cream sandwiches, and one got the Italian donuts with chocolate dipping sauce.
Indulgence to the max.
Double chocolate cookie with peanut butter cup ice cream.
Peanut butter cookies with chocolate ice cream.
Meatball lovers, you’re in for a treat!
hayes everyday 
