This year we went to Phoenix for Christmas. We were there for 9 nights and got to do a lot of things that are unique to Phoenix as well as spend a lot of time with JP's family.
Going to Phoenix means there will be no shortage of good food. JP's mom is always cooking up something good. Here we are on the traditional dip night where the dinner consists of different types of dips.
Not only is the food in the home great, but there are so many places to eat in Phoenix that Birmingham does not have. My favorite being In N Out Burger and JP's favorite being Filibertos- both of which we visited several times.
Earlier in the year my mom had sent me a blog that talked about True Food Kitchen which has a location in Phoenix. Why did I want to visit this place? At True Food Kitchen, we celebrate simplicity. We practice sustainability. We believe that simple, fresh, pure ingredients create the most memorable and satisfying meals. And while our healthy menu is packed with nutritious, good-for-you vegetables, whole grain and proteins, we never sacrifice flavor. You may not notice the difference. But it’s there.
So, I took JP on a very girly adventure in Scottsdale. JP tried to make the adventure a little more manly by dressing like a cowboy. This picture does not include his boots.
We then headed to True Food Kitchen.
I loved it! We ate outside on the sunny day. The restaurant gave off a bright, clean, and fresh vibe. I got the steak tacos and JP got the raw tuna salad. JP and I both agreed that it was quite tasty, but he felt it was more like a snack than a meal.
After True Food Kitchen, we headed to Anthropologie followed by Sprinkles.
The rest of our adventures in Phoenix were much more manlier than our Scottsdale adventure. Take for instance they day we spent on Superstition Mountain.
Michael and his girlfriend Heather asked us if we would like to join them on their hike up Superstition Mountain. I immediately asked the difficulty and was informed that it was no where near as difficult as the Grand Canyon hike we had done earlier in the year.
As we made our way up Superstition Mountain on the Flat Iron trail, I came to realize that this hike was no hike at all but a climb. I was using my arms and hands as much as I was using my legs and feet.
This person at hikingarizona.blogspot.com does a much better job of describing this climb than I could:
The difficulty of climbing makes this one of the most challenging trails in the Superstitions. The mile between the waterfall and the top of the mountain gains over 1,500 feet in elevation and is nothing more than a continuous climb up jagged rocks. Although this part is challenging and will get the heart pounding, the rocks do provided a nice climbing surface with plenty of places to clutch as you drag yourself up the mountain.
Finally, after climbing until you think you can go no further, you arrive at a 12-foot rock wall that proves to be the most difficult obstacle yet! Although not impossible this rock wall is by far the most vertical challenge encountered on this trail. Fortunately, immediately on the other side of this wall is the top of the Superstition Mountain and a large flat plateau (and trust me, after climbing for what seems like forever, the flat land will be something to rejoice over!)
I must say that I frequently wanted to give up especially when I would look up at the rocks and saw no possible way for me to get up them. But, JP was quite kind and stayed behind with me as Michael and Heather were much quicker than I was at the whole climbing thing. If he had not stayed behind with me there would have been no way I could have done it. At the end though, I was SO glad that I completed the whole thing.
At the top.
Heather and Michael, our climbing buddies.
Another manly adventure we had was our run/walk around Ussery Mountain. JP and his brother Matt ran the 7 1/2 miles around and over the mountain while JP's dad and I walked. I did run the last mile though. No pictures of that one.
Our final manly adventure was Boyce Thompson Arboretum.
Now an Arboretum may not sound exciting or daring but the Kaal boys managed to make it those things. We stumbled across some Australian rock formations that created a path. The Kaal boys decided these would be the perfect race course. So we raced both of these paths. Each person being timed as they took their turn. This ended up being quite an exciting and fun thing to do!
Matt races
Michael races
This man...
managed to make the trip to the arboretum a little daring (or maybe a little scary) when he decided to eat these guys...
As we were walking through JP saw these beans and decided it would be a grand idea to try a Mescal bean. He chewed it once or twice and proceeded to spit it out, something we would later be thankful for. Once we got back to the house we discovered that these Mescal beans are highly poisonous and can be very deadly. There is documentation of someone eating just one and ending up very very sick.
JP had started feeling bad once we got home so I immediately called poison control who looked at some case studies and told us if JP started vomiting to go to the emergency room but otherwise he would be ok since he didn't actually swallow the bean but just got some of the juices. It all ended up being ok but hopefully JP learned the lesson not to eat random things.
In addition to our adventures we enjoyed some fun Christmas celebrations that I got no pictures of.
One final note, we did NOT go to the Green Cross near JP's parent's house for an adventure. Apparently these things are all over the place in Phoenix.
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