When I wrote my June bucket list, my main goal was survival. I'm taking a class on fabric design, we had Youth Sunday at church followed by a week of Vacation Bible School, while planning a trip to California with the youth group. I made some new products, I made my painted table cloth, and I applied for a few jobs. Brian had a mega stressful project to complete at work. So when our anniversary arrived last Wednesday, we were ready for a vacation!
On Wednesday morning, I got up early and went with Brian to Starbucks for breakfast.
Thursday, Brian got off work a little early, we stopped at Starbucks for iced coffee, and we headed to Scottsdale!
My favorite part of our anniversary getaways is the food. We decided to try a new restaurant this year, so I made reservations at Olive and Ivy. We had bruschetta with mozzarella and tomato jam. The tomato jam was sweet, salty, and spicy all at the same time. I ordered a dish with scallops, creamed corn, and a salty, tangy sauce, while Brian ordered bacon wrapped pork tenderloin. Everything was incredible!
And they brought us chocolate expresso cake!
After dinner, we still had time left on our parking spot, so we explored Old Town Scottsdale and the Paolo Soleri Bridge and Plaza. I pretended that we were wandering through an Italian city.
Friday morning, we had breakfast at Starbucks, and Brian read by the pool and I had a phone interview. Brian neglected to wear sunscreen, as usual, so when he came back two hours later, he was a a very dark shade of pink. On the bright side, he finished the seventh Harry Potter book over the weekend!
Friday afternoon, we accomplished a long-time goal of mine: visiting an art museum in Phoenix. On our honeymoon, we loved the Institute of Art museum, and I knew there were several art museums in the Phoenix area. We finally made it to one!
That isn't the art museum, it's just a really cool building close by.
The lobby and hallways when we first walked in were covered with paper butterflies!
We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I felt compelled to snap a picture of this painting. I kept coming back to it... something about the colors and pattern created by the brushstrokes.
I also enjoyed the small fashion design exhibit, which featured digital printing technology.
They had quite the chandelier in the lobby:
After spending the afternoon at the museum, we arrived a little early for the Diamond Backs game. Brian bought great seats, and it was all he could talk about for the last two weeks. It definitely met his expectations, and he enjoyed getting to see the players warm up.
We won!!! It was a fun game to watch. We even got fireworks after the game!
Saturday, we checked out of the hotel and drove downtown. We walked around the Fashion Square, and looked at the pretty stores like Anthropology, and cooking stores like Sur La Table. Brian bought me an anniversary present!
It's a doughnut pan! I've been saving baked donut recipes and looking for one of these, and I can't wait to try it out!
Before we left Scottsdale, we bought cupcakes from Sprinkles. Mine was chocolate peanut butter, and Brian got vanilla. They were divine!
We ended the weekend with bowling with the church. We hoped to raise funds for the youth group trip to California, and we didn't have enough people. But a good time was had by all. And I'm pretty proud of my score!
Food, art, baseball, more food, lots of coffee, Harry Potter (Brian finished the Harry Potter books and we watched the last three movies)...you couldn't ask for a better vacation!
So, now we're back to real life. Back to the not so glamorous activities of actually watching what we eat, and working. That's always the hard part of vacation...it's never quite long enough!
Labels: Adventures in Arizona, Life, Married Life
