Cara and Chad Visit - January 2017

ATV Tour of the Desert: Keith, Shawna, Cara, Chad

We were excited to host Cara and Chad for a weekend.  They arrived at 5:30 pm on Friday from Denver, so Shawna Ubered to Keith's work so we could go straight to the airport to pick them up.  Jodi and Tim wanted to meet early for dinner (we joked that we would get the senior citizen's special) so we drove straight to Citizen Public House for dinner where Tim and Jodi had arrived just a few minutes before us.  Dinner was delicious - we started with burrata for the table and we split the yellowfin crudo and short ribs for our dinner.  Rather than calling it a night totally early, we walked over to the Kazimierz wine bar which is hidden in an alley with no sign really showing the way.  We had a couple of glasses of wine there while Cara had her second dinner of the evening - cheese fondue!  Shawna regretted this stop the next day when we climbed Camelback.

On top of Camelback

It was early to rise on Saturday as we had a packed day in front of us.  The first stop was Camelback.  The parking lot was full when we arrived so we had to drive to Keith's office, drop off the car, and then get an Uber back to the trail head.  It was only in the 40s as we started the hike but we heated up as we hiked and as the sun came out.  We made the round trip in about 2.5 hours.  As is the new tradition, we then went to the Cornish Pasty Shop for lunch for a beer, salad, and pasty.  It was then a 45 minute drive to Desert Wolf Tours for the ATV ride through the desert.  It is a cool way to see the AZ desert driving along hilly, rocky back roads.  Cara, Chad and Keith all took turns at the wheel but Shawna was too chicken to give it a try.  We drove back to the house for a shower before getting an Uber to Barrio Café for dinner.  We had not eaten there before but it was on our list to try.  They don't take reservations so we had about an hour wait or so - we were able to kill the time easily in the bar over margaritas and beer.  For dinner, we started with the Esquites and Queso Fundido, and then shared the Chiles en Nogada.  The food was delicious - definitely worth the wait.

Who are those bandits?

Sunday morning was a tight schedule but it all worked perfectly.  We left the house at 8am so we could meet Jodi at the Toms Thumb trail head at 8:30.  The walk to the top and back was a perfect 2.5 hours with gorgeous views of huge granite boulders along the way.  On the way back to the house, we grabbed lunch to go at Mad Greens, then back to the house to shower and pack.  The Uber picked us all up at 12:45pm since our flights were at the same time as Cara and Chad's.  Even better - Keith was going to Denver and Shawna arranged it so she was on the same Denver flight as she went on to Hartford.

Tom's Thumb Hike: Keith, Shawna, Jodi, Cara, Chad