I was sent to a work conference in Scottsdale, AZ since I can drive that. So Pat & I figured he and Poe come along and we'll tack a vacay on the front of it. So we booked an air bnb in Cornville, AZ which is about 20 min south of Sedona. We love Sedona! I did a bunch of research on Cornville and Scottsdale so we could have lots of fun options. I've never been to Scottsdale so I was looking forward to exploring a new city when I wasn't conferencing. We almost didn't make it though. Pat was having some health issues, and our poor Poe has been having seizures and had had one two nights before we were supposed to leave. So a lot of angst and stress later - Pat got the all clear and the Vet Neurologist gave us the all clear, so off we went.
Saturday was basically just a drive day. We headed out and stopped at an adorable little place called
Barbi's in Quartzside. It's just a little walk up and order place, but the couple that was working there were seriously some of the most delightful people I've ever met! Food was alright, but was the perfect little stop about halfway. I also of course found a rest stop cache which are always fun!
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| Super cute little spot |
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| Reststop Geocache! |
We stopped in Surprise, AZ to get some groceries for dinner that night then into the boonies to our bnb. It was quite remote and perfect for us. Pat made a yummy dinner and we were stoked to be there!
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Our spot for a couple days (The bottom part of the home)
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| Poe thought the stick pile for the fire pit was for him |
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| Nice sunset to greet us |
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| Happy to have made it! |
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| My attempt at just taking a pic of the stars. LOL |
Sunday we headed into Sedona and did the Chimney Rock hike. It was super cool. Not too hard, and steady slow elevation, but nothing too bad. We're not in the best hiking shape, so we're taking it easy for a while. We had lunch at Creekside something or other...nothing of note, so probably why I forgot the name. Then a bit more grocery shopping before we headed back to the place.
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| Lil chill time |
Afterwards, we headed back, cleaned up and checked out some wineries! We found out Cornville is considered "wine country" so of course we wanted to check it out! We hit 2 wineries -
Page Springs and
Oak Creek Vineyard. Our plan was to just chill and do a wine tasting. Both of these places touted dog friendly, but Page Springs isn't as dog friendly. We walked up to this little check in stand and the gal came out saying - oh you can't do a tasting because he can't come inside, and I guess they don't do outside tastings...weird. But we could buy a glass or bottle and wander the property. Um... ok. So we both got a glass and wandered around. It was a cute property and there was a loud creek nearby which was pretty, so we just sat and enjoyed a glass. Then we hit up Oak Creek and that was what we were looking for. They sat us in the patio and we had a really cool gal come out and do a tasting that we shared. Wasn't too impressed with the Page Springs wine, but Oak Creek was pretty good! She said if we bought 2 bottles they'd waive the tasting fee so we figured why not! The white I had (
A Viognier) and the Malbec Pat had were worth a purchase. We then headed back and Pat made Steak Sammy's for dinner!
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| Chilling at Page Springs |
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| You can't see it here, but there's a very pretty creek running behind those trees |
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| Now we're talking |
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| Poe wasn't impressed with the wine |
Monday we decided to do the Faye Canyon Hike. It was pretty flat but very pretty! It was beautiful! So cold though, and funny thing...as we're hiking I'm noticing weird little white things falling onto Poe. I kept brushing them off thinking they were flowers or something - then Pat noticed - and OMG IT WAS SNOWFLAKES!!! Ya'll - I've only seen snow fall out of the sky once in my life. This was just a little so I was taking all kinds of pictures. Luckily we finished the hike and all was well - but - driving into town to get lunch - downpour - then SNOW FLURRY! WTF! So obvi, the place we wanted to go was like "We're not serving on the patio in a SNOW FLURRY, so we got take out and I had to drive in that shit. I was so freaked out! It was so crazy but also so cool! It turned to rain by the time we got back to our bnb, and sadly it did end up thwarting our plans to visit a few more wineries. But we made the best of it and just made do at the bnb. The rain did let up before dark so we took advantage of our hot tub. That was a highlight for sure. So peaceful and pretty!
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| Loved the quiet mornings. |
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| What is that? |
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| Holy shit it's snow! |
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| Me always trying to set up a shot as a family.... |
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| Stoked to see snow... |
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| But not a fan of driving in it... |
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| The after.. |
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| Glad I brought my coloring books |
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| Card games it is! |
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| Snuggle time |
Tuesday we had to say goodbye to our bnb and get ready for a few days of hotel living. I must say, I'm spoiled and will always prefer a bnb, but - this was a work conference after all LOL. We paid for one extra night, planning on coming home Saturday (the day after the final conference day) but that got thwarted as well you'll read about in a bit. So we packed up and headed to Scottsdale. We ate at an adorable little place called
Farm and Craft. So good! Then we wandered the DT a bit (Bought myself some new slippers) then walked along the Arizona Canal which was very pretty and did some geocaching. Checked into our hotel and had dinner at a fantastic place called
Culinary Dropout.
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| Cuddle sesh before we hit the road |
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| Geocaching in DT Scottsdale |
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| The Arizona Canal |
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| Salmon Poke Bowl - yummy! |
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| What's he writing? |
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| Awwww....I won't be offended that he wrote about Poe 1st |
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| Hotel time |
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| Where's my air bnb?! |
Wednesday was the 1st day of my work conference. Not many photos, but had a great time conferencing with my colleague Steve! Also listened to a truly inspirational speaker
Dr. Pardis Mahdavi. Seriously friends - check her out! We did our work thang, Pat hiked with Poe and went to visit his best friend who lives out there, then Steve, Pat and Poe and I has sushi!
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| Steve is the best! |
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| We all got a book by Pardis Mahdavi and she signed them! |
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| I of course checked out the hotel happy hour before Pat came back from his outing |
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| View from our hotel room |
So that's it for the trip. We did plan on staying through Saturday, but our time away took a shitty turn. Our poor Poe has been having seizures since Nov. Well - he decided to have 3 within a 24 hour period which requires an ER visit. So the Thursday conference day was Pat staying in the hotel keeping an eye on Poe and texting me with updates. We did make it the Brewery for dinner with Steve that evening, but at 1am came the dreaded third and Poe spent the night in the ER. So we cancelled our Friday night stay and headed home Friday morning. Not quite the ending I had hoped of course and I'm very worried about my poor pup, but we certainly had a great time up until then. We didn't get to visit Pat's bestie as much as we'd like and we did realize we need to get out there more to see him, so hopefully more trips are in our near future!
Super grateful for the good times and very grateful for Pet Insurance.
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