We went to Phoenix, Arizona for
Greenbuild 2009, an international greenbuilding conference (over 30,000 people attended). We stayed a few days after on our own dime and made a vacation out of it. Kevin's parents were so wonderful to come to Birmingham and keep the boys for us while we went. We are so blessed to have such wonderful parents/in-laws.
Tuesday, Nov 10th
Our flight landed in PHX about 11am. We checked into our hotel, the
Aloft. It is right by a light rail station and bus pick-up! This is very good as we are not renting a car for our duration. The light rail drops off right at the conference center where Kevin's conference is. We ate lunch and at 1p Kevin went to his class while I took a nap. It was an awesome nap. About 6p, Kevin brought the light rail back to the hotel to get me since I wasn't sure how to use the transit system yet. We headed to
Pizzeria Bianco/
Bar Bianco to scope it out. Kevin had organized a Birmingham/Atlanta meet-n-greet there for Thursday night. We got there about 7p and the hostess said the wait to eat dinner was about 2 hours!! We weren't very hungry and they served appetizers on the bar side so we went that route.
Bugs! These huge sculptures were outside the Phoenix Convention Center at a little park.
Wednesday, Nov 11th
I worked out and showered then met Kevin downtown for lunch. We ate at a little italian restaurant called
Foccacia Fiorentina. I got Caprese salad and Kevin got a half and half plate of pasta. After I took the rail back to the hotel and got ready to go shopping. I had mentioned to Kevin that I needed some new clothes b4 the trip and he suggested I wait until I was child-free during the trip. I took the bus to the
Biltmore Fashion Park and shopped at Ann Taylor and Victoria Secret. I found everything I had needed. I headed back to the hotel and ate some dinner. Kevin had a meetup at the
Rose and Crown.
The Biltmore Fashion Park has an underground crosswalk. It was inlaid with beautiful stones and surrounded by glass tiles.
Thursday, Nov 12th
Thursday we slept in. After I worked out we headed to the
Arizona Science Center to see what it was like. It is a lot like the McWane Science Center in Birmingham and thanks to reciprocity, we got in FREE! It was an awesome place. We had fun doing some of the activities. Then we went to the Arizona Center to eat at
Mi Amigo's. It was good but they don't have the white cheese dip here... so I couldn't get too excited. Kevin had some sessions to attend and I came back to the hotel and took a very good nap. At 5pm I took the rail back downtown to meet Kevin at
Pizzeria Bianco/
Bar Bianco again for the meet-n-greet he arranged. About 7 people showed up and we all had a drink. Kevin had put our name in early so about 7:30p they called us for a table. By then, the wait was 3-4 HOURS! It was so worth the wait though. I got a caprese salad and it was the best I had ever had. The Mozzarella was fresh and the tomatoes were gorgeous. Even the olive oil tasted heavenly. We also got the Rosa, which was a white pizza with red onion, Parmigiano Reggiano, Rosemary and AZ Pistachios. It was the BEST pizza in the entire world!
Friday, November 13th
We slept in and then took the 10:45a bus back to the Biltmore Fashion Park to see Paranormal Activity. Our show didn't start until 1:40p so we had some lunch first at
Sam's Cafe. We split an order of nachos and each had a Margarita. Then we headed towards our movie but were still early so we stopped in a sports bar just below the theatre and Kevin got a local IPA. I was freezing so I went to Starbucks and got a Mocha. The movie was pretty scary, something about it's low budget really makes it feel real. Luckily we saw it during the day. We headed to the bus stop and lo and behold our bus pulled up so we hopped on and after a few bumps in the road (one guy getting thrown off the bus) we made it back to the hotel. I worked out while Kevin figured out what we were doing on Saturday. Then Enterprise came and picked up up to get our rental car and by the time we got back with it it was about 6p. About 7p we went over towards the Convention Center to pick up Astyn, a friend we met here, for dinner. Kevin had found this awesome venue called
Tuck Shop which reminds us a lot of
Urban Standard in Birmingham. The three of us went over there and had an amazing meal. They welcome sharing plates so we all three split Crostini with fennel cream cheese and cucumber and roasted grapes and brie as well as mixed green salad with fried goat cheese, pickled shallots and grapes; red beans and rice, sausage and grilled creole shrimp, citrus-brined fried chicken, white cheddar waffles, and braised collard greens. Astyn was actually staying at Aloft as well so we all came back to have a drink before her red-eye flight. We ended up playing a couple rounds of Clue which was fun, then called it a night.
They had several different board games available for playing in the lobby area of Aloft.
Saturday, November 14
We woke up early and headed to Sedona. It is about a 2 hr drive so we rented a car for the day to get out there. Our Nissan Sentra was nothing fancy but it did the trick. We saw the Red Rocks of Sedona from the Airport and The Chapel.
Driving towards Sedona. Kevin looks asleep but he is actually driving :) This is the only pic we took of both of us!
The elevation is 4000 ft above sea level. In contrast, Mt Cheaha (Alabama's highest point) is only 2200 ft!
Your driving through desert and all of a sudden you come out on the other side of a mountain and see these huge red rock formations all around. It is amazing!
The Chapel - designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
The guy at the Visitors Center told us that if we went to both places we could see ALL of Sedona. The views were both gorgeous but the Chapel, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright was by far the most impressive. Not a bad place to worship God!
We went to Oaxaca Mexican Restaurant for lunch. It was ok but we were NOT impressed by Phoenix's choice of Mexican Cuisine. The other they have to offer made up for it though. It we had our way we'd be eating at Tuck Shop again!!
After lunch we headed back to Phoenix to take a nap and watch some football. Heaven help us if Kevin misses Alabama Kickoff!!
