Kerstin Visit - October 2016

View from Camelback Mountain

After a weekend in Sedona and then a trip to the Grand Canyon and Page AZ, Kerstin arrived back at our house on the Thursday night at 7pm.  Shawna was on her way back from Hartford so Keith and Kerstin grabbed dinner at Mad Greens and then did a weekend of grocery shopping at Safeway. 

We had to work mostly a full day on Friday so Kerstin used the opportunity to visit the Desert Botanic Gardens.  She drove back to the house to pick up Shawna and then back to meet Keith at his office at 2:45pm.  We all connected there and drove together in the 4Runner to the Echo Canyon trail head of Camelback.  Rangers were out in force letting everyone know that every day of the year someone is rescued for overheating and 6 people have actually died this year from the same.  We were all loaded up with water so felt good to go.  The trail is steep but has railings in the toughest parts.  Shawna made it all but the last 15 minutes while Keith and Kerstin made it to the top to see the beautiful views.  Likely Keith's first ascent of many to come!  We then all headed back to the house to cook dinner, with Keith and Shawna splitting a bottle of rose.  Dinner was a grilled flank steak, stacked sweet potatoes baked in a muffin pan, and green beans.  Delicious. 

On Top of Camelback Mountain

Saturday was Kerstin's last day in town.  In the morning we walked Pinnacle Peak Trail, which is a 1.75 mile each way hike.  It is a great walk with heaps of people, along with some super signs  that identify all the plant life.  We went home for lunch, which was a creative use of leftovers: Shawna turned the fish from the night before into fish tacos which were much tastier than how it tasted the previous evening!  We also re-heated the sweet potato stacks which were even better the following day!  Keith had a quick nap before we headed out to the Sanctuary for a spa afternoon.  We intentionally arrived early to spend a bit of time in the pool, then all went for our 5pm appointments.  We all showered and changed at the spa and drove to dinner at Olive and Ivy.  Dinner was delicious: we had the bruschetta, lamb meatballs, artichoke hearts, wild mushroom pappardelle, and the scallops.  We wrapped up the evening with the lemon cake and sorbet.  It was immediately to bed, since Keith was taking Kerstin to the airport at 4:30am the next day.

Pinnacle Peak Hike

It was fantastic to see Kerstin for a couple of weekends and re-connect with an amazing friend.

Sanctuary Resort

Jean and Dick Visit - October 2016

Drinks at The Sanctuary

Now we are all settled in to the new place in Scottsdale, we have opened Chez Dodds for bookings, and the first visitors were Keith's parents.  They arrived the Thursday mid-morning.  After collecting their luggage they Ubered to the house.  Keith had a week-long work meeting and Shawna had to work, so they used the opportunity to head to Sedona for a day.  So they grabbed the 4Runner and drove up, returning on Friday afternoon. 

Desert Botanic Garden

Keith was able to get out of work a bit early on Friday so made it home by about 4pm so we all had a glass of wine as we got ready to head to dinner.  The first stop was The Sanctuary for a bottle of wine so we could see the views.  The bar was jammed because a wedding was using the outside deck so it was busier and noisier than usual.  Following that, we drove to The Mission for dinner.  We ordered another bottle of wine and started with chips and table-made guacamole.  Since none of us were super-hungry we all ended up just having appetizers, including  Duck Carnitas Empanada, and Pork Belly Pibil.  We went to bed right after dinner.

We all woke up to some wonderful breakfast that Shawna had arranged - not just berries and yogurt but also baked oatmeal with fruit.  We had hoped to do some hiking but it was just too hot.  So instead we went over to the Desert Botanic Gardens to walk around.  The gardens really exceeded our expectations - we also joined so we could return for free in the future.  We grabbed a quick lunch at home before going to Taliesin West, the winter home and architectural school of Frank Lloyd Wright.  We were surprised to find that the following two tours were booked so we wandered the book shop for 45 minutes before joining our tour.  The tour lasts 45 minutes and showed us around both the exterior and interior of the buildings - quite interesting.  We returned home (only 10 minutes drive) to shower and change for dinner at Mastros, one of the best steak houses in town.  The dinner was good, with the highlight being the most enormous basket of french fries we ever had.

Taliesin West

Sunday was quite relaxing.  The only activity was watching two movies: Deepwater Horizon at the theater and Desert Cathedral at home on iTunes.  Desert Cathedral is the film produced by family friend Barbara Norris so it was interesting to see from that perspective.  Lunch was the same as Saturday (bread, crackers, cheese, and meats) while dinner was at home with grilled flank steak, chili lime corn and sweet potato fries.

Both Keith and his parents had flights on the Monday morning so they all Ubered together to the airport.