Arizona Trip - Day 9 - 12/31/11

On New Year's Eve I was still not feeling too well.  We spent the morning packing and relaxing at my parent's house.  Erica and Jason joined us later for dinner and then we went to the Phoenix Symphony for a concert.

The music was wonderful and we all had a good time.  They had champagne during the intermission.

After the last song, the balloons dropped ... but the net never released so it didn't go as planned ...

But it was a fun and relaxing night out that we all enjoyed.

We went back to my parents house and had some cheese and crackers and rang in the new year before going to sleep.

Arizona Trip - Day 8 - 12/30/11

Since we spent the night at my sister's house, we went with Erica and Brian out to breakfast and for a drive around Cave Creek and Carefree; two cute towns that they live near.  In Carefree we got out and did some looking around the local shops.

We then took a drive to Lake Pleasant and looked around for a while.  I was still feeling pretty sick so mostly we drove in the car and looked at the desert.

My parents joined us later and for dinner that night, we went to The Horny Toad.  I highly recommend this place, I just loved it and the fried chicken was great.  I wish I hadn't been so sick.

Arizona Trip - Day 6 - 12/28/11

Finally back in Phoenix, we had a day without plans.  My dad suggested that we go to the Phoenix City Hall because they have a Pheonix Museum with artifacts from the USS Arizona (the ship that was sunk at Pearl Harbour).  It's even free!

City Hall is in a very pretty area surrounded by memorials and gardens.  Again, it was a beautiful day.  The exhibits inside were very interesting if you like history ... which I do!

 

Above are items from the USS Arizona and the replica of the Peace train that France sent to every state after WWII ended as a Thank You gift.

The upstairs has lots of information on the state of Arizona and a replica of the House of Representatives Chamber from 1912, the year Arizona became a state.

Well worth a visit ... did I mention the admission is FREE?

The outside is lovely, as I mentioned.

We are standing in front of the USS Arizona anchor.

So, that night we had some dinner at home and went to the Phoenix Zoo for the Zoolights.  This was not free and the line to get in is long so make sure you give yourself plenty of time!

But, it is absolutely beautiful and a really fun thing to do for the holidays!  Below are a few of the many, many pictures I took.

Arizona Trip - Day 5 - 12/27/11

With only a short time left in Yuma, we went to the Yuma Fun Factory for some mini golf.

It was a beautiful day outside but Brian and his brother Chad kept arguing over the scorecard.  Brian ended up winning, regardless of what was recorded on Hole #3.  So, we had a great visit down in Yuma and we packed up our stuff to head back to Phoenix.

Once we got closer to Phoenix, we got a little hungry and decided to check out Alice Cooper'stown.  It's a cool reatsurant that has lots of sports and rock and roll memorabilia.  We had seen it on one of the travel shows about restaurants and we had to order the special ... the Big Unit!  This is one giant hot dog!

It was awesome, but we only were able to finish about a third of it.

Arizona Trip - Day 1 - 12/23/11

Our holiday trip to Arizona began on a Friday night after work.  Brian couldn't get the time off work so we had to take an 8:10 pm flight out of O'Hare.  We got there early and had time for dinner at Stanley's, a Chicago Blackhawks themed restaurant in Terminal 2.

The vacation started out great until Brian suddenly realized that he had left my laptop at the security check point.  He raced back and luckily, they hold everything until the end of the day.  When he returned, we promptly ordered drinks ...

No harm no foul!  We had a packed flight to Phoenix and arrived pretty early.  Flying into Phoenix at night is beautiful.  Once we arrived, my parents picked us up and we went back to their house and all went to sleep so we could get up early for Christmas Eve!