Weekend- Phoenix and Scottsdale

We discovered two great vegan restaurants side by side in Central Phoenix- Green and Nami.  We ate at Green for dinner when we got back from Sedona and then went to Nami for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This is definitely not health food but after running around for the past few days, we burned a lot of calories and felt we deserved it.

After breakfast each day we walked up and down the streets surrounding the restaurant, which are all historic neighborhoods full of gorgeous homes on tree lined streets. One side of the street is awesome southwestern influenced Bungalows and the other side is more stately Tudors. We also saw wild lovebirds! At first we didn't believe it, but I looked it up and sure enough certain neighborhoods in Phoenix have flocks of wild lovebirds. This area of Phoenix seems to be the up and coming "hip"(ster) part of town. It reminded me a lot of certain parts of Tampa (i.e. I felt very at home).

We also went to a nifty old diner called MacAlpine’s, which is also home to a huge vintage market. There is an old fashioned soda fountain and a large selection of milkshakes and other retro treats (not vegan, so we didn't try anything). I did buy a vintage turquoise ring from the antique store and the manager there was incredibly knowledgeable and spent a lot of time explaining vintage jewelry to me.

We spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoons in Old Town Scottsdale. I always thought Scottsdale was just a boring suburb of Phoenix, but it is a truly cool town. The old town area is huge, full of art galleries and very upscale. Hardly like the Atlanta suburbs (at least, not the one we live in). The weather was beautiful and perfect for strolling around enjoying the sculptures and landscape. I could seriously see myself living in Scottsdale.

More about our night out in Scottsdale in my next post!

Day 2- Tucson

Thurs 2/9/17

We met up again with our friend Chris around 9 am on Thursday morning and he chauffeured us to Tucson, where his parents live. Chris and James grew up together in Georgia and Chris’ family moved to Tucson when he was a teenager. 

Along the way we stopped at Rooster Cogburn’s Ostrich Ranch and fed the critters. We then had lunch with Chris’ parents at their house before heading into Tucson to see the University of Arizona. We walked around the campus, which had shocking numbers of grassy quads just like any other university. U of A is a more modern school compared to UGA, but it was a pretty campus and the downtown area bordering the college was cool. 

We stopped for coffee and then drove to the other side of Tucson to visit Gates Pass, which is a park and scenic overlook area. We hiked a short ways up a small mountain (hill?) and took some pictures. It was really pretty with tons of saguaro cacti dotting the landscape as far as the eye could see. I guess I never really realized cacti grow in “forests”; I just always had an image in my head of one giant, lone cactus standing by itself out in the desert. The Pass is probably a great place to watch the sun set, but we left before that happened. There is a little hut at the top of the hill w/a grill, so also a good place for a picnic.

We then drove back to Phoenix and ate at a fabulous restaurant in Scottsdale called Diego Pops. Really cool décor and the food was amazing. Highly recommend.

Day 2 observations- college kids look younger than ever, I have been pronouncing "Saguaro" incorrectly my entire life, there are a lot of strip clubs in/around Phoenix.