Conor had to work again the following day, so just us girls headed to Old Town Scottsdale to be touristy and go window shopping. Lots of interesting trinket shops & tons of jewelry stores. I have no idea how all these places survive, but I guess they'll be a hotspot once all the little old ladies with money to burn make their way down here for the winter. Suzie and I had some pretty good laughs about all the random stuff you can purchase and how hideous it all looks. However, there were some beautiful art gallery's we peaked our heads into. Lots of blown glass which I love. I especially liked the blown glass pumpkins and various light fixtures....so pretty to look at. We also came across a nursery full of what we thought were pretty standard garden plants....but oh no....once we looked at the price tags we realized these supposedly were some sort of rare/exquisite desert plants that we had never heard of. But they really looked just like the ones in our backyard... We finished our walking tour with lunch at a local mexican place, Los Olivos....Suzie had been craving some good southwest cuisine and I was not going to complain since I LOVE mexican food. In fact Suzie loves it too, so for dinner we had mexican again! This time, we went to a place close to our house called La Casa Blanca....soooo good!
Her last day with us we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens. Now this is not my cup of tea, but I did manage to enjoy it. To sum it up, there were lots of different types of cactus... and I mean LOTS! Next stop was lunch at Queen Creek Olive Mill, our 2nd time there and again delicious. I just started eating/enjoying olives about a week ago, so this is kind of a new and exciting food for me. Now I want to put olives on everything! For some reason sipping on a dirty martini (and liking it...) has been strangely intriguing to me. So perhaps this is my first step in that direction.
We also made a stop at Superstition Farm where we just became dairy club members. This was our first pickup. Every two weeks we get to pick up a gallon of milk, fresh cheese, pint of ice-cream, butter (plain or flavored), & a locally made mystery item. Boy do I love my dairy! This week we got garlic & pepper cheese, mint chocolate chip ice-cream, molasses & pecan butter, and the mystery item was bananas foster bread with a sugary glaze. Our fridge is stocked! I'm already looking forward to our next pick up.
That night we took Suzie to downtown Chandler fora night on the town. We stopped in at Kokopelli Wine Bar for a drink and it ended up being a horrible experience... Bad service and even worse wine. Well we know that AZ is not exactly wine-country... but yikes! Luckily I opted for a kir royal and was very pleased with my choice. But once again the bartenders had no idea what they were doing and the guy tried to open a champagne bottle with a wine key...In the words of my father: "Get an idiot!" After breaking the first cork, he tried again....still with the wine key... least it came out this time. About ten minutes later, I had glass in hand. Needless to say, we downed our drinks and left. After trying to find a new place for a drink & dinner we came across interesting employees and more bad service...downtown Chandler you disappointed me. Hopefully we'll learn the area a little better for our next guests' visit. We did end up at a small local restaurant close to our house, Boatzhouse, which ended up being a nice little surprise. Not exactly what we were looking for, but it was a cute & casual place owned by a young local guy and his wife. We had good service, good food, and good prices. Finally, a breath of fresh air to end the evening. We were all pleasantly surprised, and Conor and I will definitely be back to this great tucked-away, neighborhood spot.
Conor had to take Suzie to the airport early the next morning....he let me sleep in :-) Her visit was much too short and we can't wait to have her back. Or any guests for that matter, just let us know when you're coming!
*pictures to come, but they are all on Suzie's camera right now*
**'cause i know you're all dying to seeing the desert botancial garden shots, hehehe**
No comments:
Post a Comment