To kick off our Spring trip, we spent one week in AZ and Vegas before heading to DC for a month. We had missed this leg of our West Coast trip in 2024 so decided to come back to spend a little time here.
Arizona
Phoenix
We spent four nights in Phoenix at Rak's place, spending time with him and Kelly. We arrived on Friday morning when Rak picked us up at the airport. He made us a yummy risotto lunch and then we chilled until we went out that evening at the Global Ambassador hotel across the street from his apartment. We had a drink at their rooftop bar and then had dinner at Le Ame, their French/steak restaurant in the lobby. We shared a steak and a short rib dish - delicious!
On Saturday, we went for a 1.5 hour hike in Piestewa Peak park - it was great being outside and seeing the desert landscape again. We had lunch at Nelson's, a fish market that also does sandwiches - although their sandwiches have quite a bit of mayo so was not our favorite. We hung out at Rak's place that afternoon as he cooked for a dinner party that evening. He made a bolognese with polenta and Shawna made semolina cake for dessert. Rak had two friends in town so they came over along with another friend who lives locally. Kelly also joined us. The dinner was great and was fun to hang out with his friends.
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| Hike in Piestewa Peak Park |
On Sunday, we had brunch at Otro Cafe, a great Mexican place - we had avocado toast and huevos rancheros with brisket - very tasty. That afternoon, we went to one of the spring training baseball games - Giants vs the A's. We got to and from the game with a Waymo, self-drive taxi - quite cool! And that evening, we had amazing ramen at Mensho.
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| Spring Training Baseball Game |
On Monday, we had lunch with Jen (Shawna's colleague from Cigna) and Todd at Cornish Pasty - our favorite lunch spot. We had our usual greek salad and spicy asiago chicken pasty. We chilled that afternoon and Rak made dinner - a tasty pasta dish.
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| Lunch at Cornish Pasty Co with Jen and Todd |
Sedona
On Tuesday, we drove to Sedona, staying two nights at Arabella. The room was nice sized with a view of the pool and the surrounding red rocks. However, the hotel could use some updating.
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| View from our room at the Arabella |
We had dinner the first night at Mole, a Mexican restaurant on the property of our hotel - we shared the cornbread, Mexican corn and guacamole with crab meat for appetizers and then had the flank steak for our entree. Everything was delicious.
The next day, we hiked the Cathedral Rock Loop: Hiline and Templeton Trails. It took us 3 hours and we hiked for 7.8 miles, gaining close to 1K in elevation. We had not done this specific trail before and decided it was definitely our favorite. Along the way, you have amazing views of Cathedral, Bell and Courthouse rocks. We rewarded ourselves with lunch at The Hudson, our favorite lunch spot. We sat out on the deck and shared the meatball appetizer (which is humungous and delicious) and the kale salad with salmon (tasty but they could have chopped the kale more).
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| Cathedral Rock Loop Hike |
That evening, we had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Mariposa. We started with drinks on the patio while watching the sunset and then had a wonderful dinner of empanadas, lamb, mushrooms and cheesy potatoes. This place never disappoints!
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| Dinner at Mariposa |
Louisiana
We left one day early from this segment to do a detour trip to Louisiana. While in Phoenix, we found out that Nicole, Shawna's sister-in-law had passed away. She had a car accident one week prior due to a heart related event and had not been responsive since. The doctors said she had significant brain damage and would not recover so they took her off the machines and she passed away on March 17th, Danny's birthday. We flew to Louisiana for just one night, attending the visitation, funeral, burial and reception afterwards before flying out to go to Vegas.
Las Vegas
We had found out that Nate Bergatze was going to do a show in Vegas so we coordinated to meet up with Eva and Stacie (Shawna's former colleagues) and their spouses, Brian and Lucas, for three nights. And since we decided to go, Eva and Brian decided to make their marriage legal by doing an Elvis wedding! Apparently, while they got married a year earlier in Sedona, it was a spiritual one and not 'official'. We stayed at the new Fountainbleau hotel which is a gorgeous hotel. Our room really nice!
We got there late on Friday night (due to the detour in Louisiana) so missed the dinner out that night. However, the next day we made up on the fun by spending a day at the pool. We rented a cabana at the 21+ Legacy Pool and chilled, drank and eat to make up for the $1.2K minimum to rent the cabana! We made it by ordering a few expensive bottles of champagne at the end to make up for the remaining balance!
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| Pool at our hotel |
That evening, we had dinner at Nobu where we shared several yummy dishes for the table. And then we went to the Nate show at the Wynn hotel. The show was hilarious - we were in stitches for the entire show. So much so that our stomachs hurt the next day!
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| Nate Show |
Sunday was wedding day - the girls did a bit of shopping so that Stacie and Shawna, the two self-proclaimed 'bridesmaids', could get a few items to wear to 'glam' up. We opted for glittery t-shirts that expressed our love for Vegas and rhinestone 'sexy' hats! The group hung out at the pool for a couple of hours before getting ready. A limo picked us up to take us to the Graceland Wedding Chapel where the ceremony was held - 15 minutes of Elvis singing three songs, conducting the standard vows and also the 'Elvis' vows! The chapel was quite cute and the service was fun!
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| Eva and Brian Wedding |
We returned to the hotel to have a few celebratory drinks at Collins. We then had dinner at Mother Wolf, the Italian restaurant at our hotel. We shared a salad, a couple of pizzas a few pastas - all delicious!
We all left on Monday with us flying to DC to spend a month. What a great trip!
