Adventures and First Impressions

Happy Almost-Friday everyone! (or Friday depending on when you are reading this). Obviously, I am not TOO pumped that it is Friday since that means my vacation is almost over, but I'm happy for all of you that I've been torturing with my blog posts and tweets all week.

Last night for Eric's birthday dinner we took advantage of our extra night in Sedona to try what is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Sedona: Cucina Rustica.

It was a really nice place and the food was delicious. I got Capellini Pomodoro with homemade pasta. I think we can all agree there is just something about homemade pasta?

Yum.

This morning we got up and decided to do one last hike in Sedona before we officially said goodbye, though the hotel did joke that we will probably be back tomorrow.

We decided to hike up Bell Rock.

Technically you need actual mountain climbing gear to get to the VERY top but we just decided to do the best we could and it was fun. I think hiking may be my new favorite activity. Think the hikes in good ol' Massachusetts will be this gorgeous?

Too bad my arms are the same color as my shirt!
We managed to make it pretty far past the trail with only a few questionable climbing decisions (just kidding Mom).

On the way down to Phoenix from Sedona we checked out Montezuma Castle. Check it out:

It's literally built into a canyon wall. Awesome. Apparently the whole "Montezuma" thing is actually not accurate, but originally they thought he had been there and the name stuck. No wonder history confuses kids!

A few hours later we arrived at our Scottsdale hotel and found that our bathroom was bigger than our room had been in the Grand Canyon. Yay!

We also have a nice living area with a fridge and microwave!

And a separate room for our bed. It's my favorite when there is a separate bedroom. I get it whenever possible (meaning only if it's not a million dollars extra) because then Eric and I can have our own space when the other person is sleeping.

Even though we were completely sick of driving, we did head out again to get a late dinner (well, late for us which is really normal for everyone else). We went to a Mexican place in Downtown Scottsdale called Frank and Lupes. We sat on an outdoor patio behind the restaurant. I think they pretty much won us over with the outdoor seating, but the chips and salsa were amazing as well.

I got chicken fajitas, my new favorite dish.

They were really good, but not as good as my first encounter with chicken fajitas, mainly because those had black beans, my bean favorite.

Eric got a Chalupa and it was in one of those insane bowls they use to put our salads in during college.

He enjoyed his too. AND, the whole meal came to $21 before tip. Can't beat that!

On the way home I tried my hardest to find one of the famous frozen yogurt places that I have been dying to try in Arizona, but I gave up. I should probably mention that I did not happily give up, but I'm so sick of hearing "recalculating" on my GPS that I just couldn't take it anymore.

It's funny- everyone told me Scottsdale was really upscale and a little bit...snotty? The lady on the airplane said it was so yuppity that she couldn't think of anywhere near Boston to compare it to... Maybe I just haven't seen it so far, but 6 lane roads and endless strip malls just don't scream snotty to me...I guess I'll have to do some more exploring tomorrow. Bring on the snotty people!

Right now I'm completely exhausted and my head hurts. I'm going to get to bed and hopefully sleep a little better than I have been. You'd think I'd be used to new beds by now! Tomorrow I best be finding some frozen yogurt, that's all I can say.