Wednesday evening after work, I flew from Kansas City to Phoenix and met up with my best friend Julie at the airport. She flew in from St. Louis. We met in between the gates and headed to the car rental place. She works for Enterprise, so we got a good deal. We loaded up the Dodge Journey and headed downtown to check in to our hotel at the Westin Phoenix Downtown. Valet parking was the only hotel option, so we opted for a public parking garage across the street. Checking in, the receptionist did a quick, “Happy 30^th birthday!” because he knew it was Julie’s birthday. Our room on the 16^th floor was nice with a good view. They had a tray of fruit, chocolate, and drinks with a note that said, “Happy 30^th birthday!” Julie will turn 30 in May, and she wanted to get away for a bit to celebrate her 30^th birthday. Because the doctor wasn’t thrilled about me travelling that late in my pregnancy, she moved it up to the end of April.

It was late, but we were hungry. We walked around downtown Phoenix for a while, enjoying the zero humidity and nice weather. One of her friends recommended Blue Hound, so we had dinner there. The atmosphere and decorations were great. She had pasta, and I had a random mix of two dishes: deviled eggs and poblano peppers.  All was tasty.

The next morning we slept in until about 9:30 AM local time. With the two hour time difference, it felt like we really got to sleep in. We were out until around midnight the night before, so it felt good to get the vacation going right and get fully rested. We walked several blocks from the hotel and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at Matt’s Big Breakfast, a place recommended by several friends and by Lonely Planet. It was buzzing and packed, and after the meal, I see why. I had their special of the day, eggs benedict with hash browns, and Julie had an omelet. We strolled back to the hotel, and enjoyed the room awhile before having to check out. We were really impressed with the cleanliness of downtown Phoenix. There was also no traffic.

Julie’s parents had some points/time to use at a local resort called Cibola Vista in Peoria that is a sister resort to Big Cedar Lodge (for those of your familiar to it back home). It was about a 35 minute drive from downtown. We got to see more of the desert and tons huge of cacti that had to be hundreds of years old. Everything was really flat, except for the mini mountains/hills that reminded me of large dirt piles and ant hills. The resort was nice, very much decorated as you would expect, with the local flavors and furnishings. We started off with pedicures at the spa from a nice lady who had moved there from Long Island. We got fully checked in and settled. The St. Louis Cardinals were in town, and we wanted to see another baseball stadium, so we headed back downtown to Chase Field to see the Cardinals get defeated by the DBacks. The stadium was a great location and had a great feel to it, but it was only about half full. The bratwurst was the worst one I’ve ever had (and that’s saying something).

On Friday, we woke up and headed into Peoria to get some water and snacks for our room at the resort. The rooms were really nice, and you could tell they’d recently been renovated. The town of Peoria has buildings that all match, but it’s most chain restaurants and shops. We hung out at the pool for a couple of hours to soak in some of the Phoenix heat. The pool was sure nice on my third trimester pregnant belly, making me feel weightless and gave me some relief. For lunch, we headed into Scottsdale to meet up for lunch with some people that worked for Fitch, an ad agency that worked with Enterprise (and Julie) every day. The picked a modern Mexican placed called Sol Cocina. There were six of them and two of us, and it was great for Julie to catch up with them (and for me to meet them) while we had some good food. They recommended we drive on down through Scottsdale to see the shops and to explore Old Town Scottsdale. What a neat little area! We continued the drive on down through Tempe and drove along Arizona State University and Mill Road (an area that reminded us of Mass Street in Lawrence, KS). We looped back through town and headed back to Cibola Vista Resort in Peoria for an afternoon at the pool.

Saturday was a relaxing pool day as well. The weather cooled off, so it wasn’t as warm as we had hoped. Then it started storming (rain and strong wind), so we hung out inside the room for a bit. We started looking for restaurants for dinner, and we went through our recommendations list:

• Olive and Ivy: Looked great, but no reservations available until 10 PM
• The Mission: No reservations available
• Squid Ink: Can’t eat sushi right now.
• Culinary Dropout: Looked good, but we thought we’d try some others first
• Arrogant Butcher: They got us in for a 7:45 PM reservation!

We headed back to downtown Phoenix, and we loved the environment at Arrogant Butcher! The lighting and chairs were awesome. We started off with the Butchers Platter, the chef’s charcuterie and cheese plate. I had chicken stroganoff, and Julie had fish tacos. Yum, yum, yum! We stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home. The parking garage took about 30 minutes to exit because of traffic, and they over charged us.

Sunday we woke up and headed to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, dropping the rental car off and heading back to Kansas City. What a great trip and mini getaway to celebrate Julie’s remaining days in her twenties.