Arizona

Spring 2008

We took the girls to Scottsdale for a few days for spring break this year.

We stayed at the Phoenician, which is a great resort to stay with children. The huge slide at the pool was a big hit and the rooms and service are really fabulous. We were there for Easter weekend and the Easter bunny hand delivered Easter baskets to the room for the girls and they had a wonderful Easter carnival on the grounds that day, too.


We decided to hang out at the resort all morning and head into Tempe for the afternoon.
I graduated from ASU and we thought the girls would like to visit (it's never too early to start the "college talk"). We took them to the campus on a Sunday when school was not in session and the girls kept saying, "This place is so big" and "How much more walking do we have to do?" (This is why I road a bike everyday -- the campus is not small ;-) So, the tour lasted a couple hours with a quick drive through Mill Avenue (definitely stop here is you have time) and we headed back to Scottsdale...
We ate at one of the best pizza places in Old Town Scottsdale called Grimaldi's. They have coal burning ovens... and the only other place I have had pizza this good was in New York... Scottsdale is a great place with great restaurants (and people have discovered this). So, expect to wait for a table when eating out at one of the popular restaurants... We met a lady at the resort who waited an hour and a half (with a reservation) to be seated with her family at Don & Charlie's... Is it worth the wait? I guess that depends on how hungry you are ;-)
The next day we decided to take a trip up to Sedona. We booked the Pink Jeep tour and took the Ancient Ruins tours. Tip: book Pink jeep tour at least a week in advance...
You do really step back in time as you explore a 700 year old Sinaguan cliff dwelling. Some of the cave drawings date back over 5,000 years. It is the only place like it in the United States.
It was absolutely unbelievable and our guide, Dan was a wealth of information.

Our girls loved it, too. Sedona is really a magical place... next time, we will spend more than a day here... there is so much to see.
On our way back to Scottsdale, we stopped at another pizza place (yes, we love pizza) called Picazzo's... it is outside the touristy Sedona center of town ("Uptown") and frequented by locals... (our guide told us to stop here). Great place.
Arizona still remains as one of my favorite places in the whole world... and my family agrees... We will be back again soon to explore some more...


Copyright 2008