Arizona Babymoon

First of all, sending big hugs and lots of prayers to those in Oklahoma... Mother Nature can certainly be a B sometimes... 

I thought I'd share a little about our Arizona "Babymoon" trip with you today. We stayed at my parent's house in Goodyear, AZ (Thanks Mom and Dad!), which is pretty awesome. There's actually not too much to say about our trip other than we achieved total relaxation. It. Was. Glorious. Ten days of sun, pool, and reading (I read four books!) as well as some pretty tasty food. Here's a few pictures of our trip!

Where we were parked for most of the trip... by the pool!

Our first stop - In n' Out! Tasted SO good. I think by now you all know how I feel about burgers and fries at this time in my life. :)

My view for the ten days we were there. We could move the umbrella into the pool too to keep it shady.

 

Prego shot!

Beautiful sunsets!

I did a little shopping for Little Miss BK - so much fun. Of course I had to get her her first pair of converse! Also, did you know H&M not only has a baby/kids section (that's where I got the chevron romper on the top right) but also has some maternity clothes! 

I also went to this place called the Brass Armadillo, which is a huge (and I mean huge) antique mall in Goodyear. I probably spent about three hours or more walking through every aisle and looking at every booth. I'll do a post later this week about some of my cool finds. I didn't purchase much since we didn't have much room in our suitcase, but I did purchase this vintage map of the Atlantic Ocean for $20. I love it! I'm not sure where it will go yet... possibly the master bedroom or maybe even the nursery? We'll see...

We played a lot of cribbage too. Zach won overall (and I was not happy about it. Competitive much? YES). We only had one poolside tragedy the last day of our trip... the five, ten and two jacks were mine dang it! :)

Our one big outing was to the Wildlife World Zoo where we saw a ton of animals. The cool thing about the zoo was that it felt a lot more relaxed than a regular zoo - you could get a lot closer to the animals. They even had a couple different spots where you could walk underneath the cage to the leopards. I think you could even reach out and touch them if you wanted (there were a couple layers of chain link between you and them, so still safe). Unfortunately, we went during the middle of the day, so the leopard was in the shade instead of on the overhead hang out. 

Baby giraffe!

Albino alligator!

Ostriches! (Remember our other ostrich adventures?)

Camels!

The zebras were my favorite! It was so cool being so close to them!

Antelope!

Rhino!

Chameleon! I so bad wanted him to change colors, but no such luck. He did use his super fast tongue to get a bug though - that thing is fast!

Me and the huge tiger! Such huge paws.

The peacocks were just roaming around on the paths... I was a little freaked out because Zach wanted to get closer to them, but for some reason I remembered that they could get violent (I don't know, is that even true?!) so I steered clear.

They had a Kangaroo path where the Kangaroos just roamed free. You had to stay on the path, but could still get really close to them!

Albino Peacock!

We got to catch up with some friends from our Arizona days and meet their 130 pound Great Dane named Ole! Only a year old and he was so huge, but such a sweetie! Seriously, biggest dog I'd ever seen!

We had such a great time in Arizona. We can't wait to go back - which will be next summer for Zach's graduation (with the little one too!).

Friday Harbor Trip

I want to share with you a little about our Friday Harbor trip. Last weekend we took a much needed weekend trip up North to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands for our birthdays and after busy season vacation. I had only been there once before when I was really young, and Zach had never been up that way. I found a Living Social Deal online for the Friday Harbor House, which worked wonderfully! I dropped off Buster Boo at my parents' house for the weekend (my Mom was so excited to babysit her "grand-dog":) and we were off!

We totally lucked out with the weather. I was fully anticipating it to rain all weekend long, but it was beautiful! Such a nice surprise that made waiting for the long ferry ride not so bad at all.

We arrived around six in the evening and got settled in our hotel - the Friday Harbor House. It was located right downtown up on a little hill with a great view of the harbor. I would highly recommend it! The rooms were really nice, complete with a fireplace and two person jet tub. It was so nice to have a really nice hotel room for a change. Usually when we travel, we skimp on the hotel since we would rather spend our money and time doing fun activities. This time, we decided we wanted a nice place to relax, read, and take naps. It was great. And had such a beautiful view from our room!

We had dinner the first night at The Bluff restaurant, which was in our hotel. We got a free appetizer with our Living Social Deal, so took advantage. The appetizer was "Chef's Choice" and happened to be a delicious flat bread with nettle pesto, smoked ham, and cheese. Apparently the chef went out and harvested some nettles that morning to make the nettle pesto. Like I said, delicious. After dinner, we took a nice little walk along the docks at sunset.

Our hotel had a great continental breakfast, then we ventured out to walk about town the next day. It's such a nice place to walk around and just enjoy the sunshine. We stopped in a few shops, including the Pelindaba Lavender Farm shop, a couple antique/thrift shops, and the Whale Wars museum/shop. There was even a little Farmer's Market we stopped by. We were interested to learn most of the local restaurants served organic and local food and ingredients. Did I mention all the food we had was amazing? Well, it was. 

We had lunch at the Rocky Bay Cafe - the sweet potato fries were so good, as was the club sandwich (which we both ordered). Next up a little nap, then we went out to explore the island.

First stop - Roche Harbor. On our way, we drove past the Duck Soup Inn, which came highly recommended by multiple people. Since it was husband's choice (his birthday was that Sunday), we decided to save this place for our next visit. Roche Harbor was a lot smaller than I had thought. I'd seen beautiful pictures of the harbor before we went (it was actually one of the places I would have a liked to have our wedding if it wasn't so far away) and it turned out to be such a charming little town. Although, not a lot was going on. We did stumble upon a wedding though. Such a beautiful venue! We also learned that Roche Harbor used to be one of the largest producers of Lime West of the Mississippi. We didn't stay very long since the only thing open was a furniture store (we didn't even see any restaurants open at 5 on a Saturday!). I did love the Hotel de Haro (where the wedding was taking place). Such a beautiful scene along with some other historic buildings and a quaint little chapel.

After Roche Harbor, we kept driving around the island to Lime Kiln State Park to do a little whale watching. Well, there weren't any whales, but we were hopeful! We did see a sea lion! We were so close to the Canadian border, we had to turn our phones off so we wouldn't get charged. It was so beautiful looking out over the water and seeing the lighthouse.

Next up, birthday dinner at Cask & Schooner back in downtown Friday Harbor. Zach had a yummy chicken sandwich and I had a clam chowder and caesar salad. It was pretty good. The restaurant itself was very charming, decorated as if you were on a big ship. The best part of the meal was dessert - a warm bread pudding with ice cream. It was delicious! And a Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband.

Sunday, we ventured out to the Pelindaba Lavender Farm. Although the lavender wasn't in full bloom (I believe the lavender blooms in the summer), it was still pretty and a great day to be outside. We even picked up a lavender chicken dog bone for the Buster Boy. :)

Back in town, we had to stop by the World's Skinniest Latte Shop and it was worth it.

While we waited for our ferry, we checked out the Griffin Bay Bookstore where Zach bought the book Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer. I have to say, I'm excited to read it too. Overall, it was such a fantastic trip. So relaxing, and just what we needed after an overworked and hectic busy season. I would highly recommend Friday Harbor for a little weekend getaway to relax and get rejuvenated! We can't wait to go back. We love you Friday Harbor!