Celebrating 8 Years! (Dinner and Sedona)
Happy Wedding Anniversary to Nathan and Shanda!
Nathan and I have been married for 8 years, and each year has been better than the last! 🙂 It seems like each year we comment that it sounds like we have been together so long and not long enough, all at the same time. We are best friends, partners, and we couldn’t imagine living this crazy thing called life without each other (feel free to swoon or roll your eyes, because it’s true!).
All that being said, we didn’t actually plan to have a big celebration this year. Granted, we don’t normally do anything too crazy, but since our honeymoon (our first cruise together) we always enjoy the idea of heading out to sea at some point in January. This year, we kept it low-key with a fancy dinner. Then at the last minute, we decided to head up to Sedona, and it turned into a whole week of celebration!
If you want to jump to a section, here are quick links!
Arrowhead Grill
We knew that a nice steak dinner was a must-have on our actual anniversary. There were a couple of options in Phoenix, but we settled on the closer option, which was Arrowhead Grill (website). Since we made a reservation, they went the extra mile and decorated our table with rose petals and at the end of dinner we got free desert!
They had a wonderful drink selection. Nathan was able to get a bottle of 2019 Dr Loosen “Graacher Himmelreich” Spätlese Riesling from Germany, which is his favorite style of white wine. We realized it’s actually a version we haven’t been able to get in stores, and was even better than usual.
My drink for the evening was a Peartini (Absolut Pears Vodka, St Germain Liquere, and a sugared rim), which a sweet and probably too easy to drink all night!
The food was incredible as well. While this might be bad to say, their steaks were good, but their sides were to die for! Hands down, we would go back for just sides or at least order them to go!
To start, we had Heritage Meatballs, which were made with prime beef covered in a Kottbullar veal bone broth and mashed potatoes. Nathan would have loved to get one of the many other seafood appetizers, but we kept it a red meat night.
Then for our main meal, Nathan got a 22 oz Bone-in Ribeye and I got a 8oz Filet. Then to share, we got Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes and Artisan Mac & Cheese.
My mouth is watering just thinking about eating those sides again! The Au Gratin potatoes had a wonderful sauce and were so cheesy. The Mac & Cheese had a perfect flavor without being too soupy.
Once we had our fill, they offered us a complimentary desert because it was our anniversary. However, we have very different desert taste and couldn’t decide on just one, so we opt to buy an extra. The staff was so wonderful though that they gave us both for free! Nathan chose a Classic Cheesecake and I got the Cookie Skillet. Both were good, though not our favorite.
The cheery on top was the leftover sides reheated surprising well, so we got to enjoy our dinner twice!
Mescal and Birthing Cave Hike
Since we didn’t have anything planned, we decided to head up to Sedona for a hike over the weekend. We left Saturday morning to hike all afternoon, then stayed the night in Sedona, so we could relax after our hike. Plus, it gave us more time to explore the city, and while we have been up for day trips we realized we have never stayed the night.
We choose Mescal Mountain Loop and the Birthing Cave for our hike, which was going to be about 6 miles long (one of our longest hikes so far!). For those interested in links: Hiking Project, All Trails – Mescal, All Trails – Birthing Cave.
Unfortunately, we are at that awkward time of year that temperatures are not easy to plan for. I started the hike with a jacket and was still freezing, wishing I had my coat. Thankfully, we quickly warmed up and about 1/4 through we had both removed our jackets and were good with pants and short sleeve shirts.
The hike itself was BEAUTIFUL. See the slideshow below for all our pictures.
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We started with the Mescal loop first and would definitely repeat this hike again. Not only was it on the easier side, which was a must with the length and altitude, but it had great views and really good variety, which made for a more interesting hike than some of the ones we often go to in Phoenix.
While it was a gorgeous day, it was a little muddy and wet in some areas, especially in the shade. We were even surprised to come across small snow patches every once in a while too!
This area (picture) was incredible but also interesting to not have a true trail but rather walking over pure rock. You can sort of see the lighter path on the right where the ‘trail’ is.
As we made our way around the mountain, it was time to start watching for the Birthing Cave. We were surprised that it came highly rated on All Trails, but there were zero markers and no information on Hiking Project or the .gov sites.
So the instructions given were to follow the unmarked fork in the road when it appeared. So at the first fork we turned off and started to head on a pretty small trail. We figured since it wasn’t on all the sites it was a ‘hidden gem’ kind of place, so the trail wasn’t as heavily used, though still clearly defined.
Then we started to climb up… I was starting to question things a bit, but Nathan reassured me that the instructions indicated there would you would have to scramble up the mountain a bit on the last stretch.
Well, after our first “scramble” we then had to start walking on the edge of a cliff made of shale like rock with almost no traction.
I was properly terrified at this point because I DO NOT do heights.
Nathan was surprising calm through this 20-30 minutes of mountain goat style hiking.
It was about this point that he reached a dead-end.
Funny enough, from this view we could see the cave and knew where we needed to go, but there was no way to get to it from where we were.
We also realized where there was a VERY clear path below us that led directly to the cave, without any mountain goat skills required.
So if going up wasn’t bad, now we had to back down and cut across to the path we were supposed to be on the whole time.
After all of that, we made it to the Birthing Cave! I won’t lie, I was not thrilled being in there either as it was barely a cut out of the rock, and you were on a hell of an incline with another straight shot down if you slipped.
After that, we were able to head back down and join up with the main Mescal trail. As we did this we found a ton of smaller trails, it’s no wonder we got lost initially.
However, as we continued to head back we came up to a GIANT fork which was clearly where we were supposed to wait to turn over, but with no signage it was anyone’s guess where you should be going vs not.
With that, it was only another 1/2 mile or so before we finished our hike and made it back to the car.
In total, we hiked for about 5.75 miles, 3 hours, with 750 elevation gain and averaged a 29’41″/mi pace.
Stay in Sedona
After our hike, we headed back to town to our hotel. As usual, we chose a Hilton to stay at, though this was a first ‘Vacation Club’, which was an odd experience.
Hilton Vacation Club Ridge on Sedona is a golf resort, which we were a little bummed to find out as we were hoping to access a spa after our long day. We are also still not 100% sure how the affiliations are working, but it was clearly not a true Hilton like we have used in the past. There were references to other ‘clubs’ when we checked in. Nothing bad, just odd.
They did have free EV charging, with an honors’ system 4 hour max, which we were happy to use. Sadly, the charging rate was pretty bad. Later that night we found a new EA station that we used instead.
The room was basically an apartment, which was another surprise. It was way too much space for a one night stay, but good for reference if you ever needed a long term stay! Nathan kept referring to it as military housing as it was a clearly ‘used’ but overall not bad.
After we got settled and cleaned up from our hike, it was time to head out for dinner. We tried to keep it close to the hotel, which meant our options were limited, being outside downtown Sedona. However, we did find some good options and settled on Butterfly Burger (website), a local bougie burger place.
They had a really good Street Tot appetizer and their burgers were decent. Nathan did not care for the potato salad or coleslaw, so we were happy that we got the extra side of fries (oddly not a side option with your burgers).
Nathan chose the Oui Oui Monsieur, which was a patty melt on rye. I went with the Butterfly burger with guac and chipotle aioli.
While I don’t think we would choose to go back. All in all, the meal was good, and helped us recover after a hard day!
After charging at the new EA station in Sedona, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the hotel. Sadly, their cable was pretty bad, but Star Wars was on, so Nathan was entertained while I read.
It’s no surprise we went to bed early after our long day, and we enjoyed a pitch black room which let us sleep in until checkout!
For breakfast, we decided to check out the Red Rock Cafe (website) which we found on accident after stopping by the grocery store. While not better than the hike, this was a close second to the best part of the weekend.
They are a classic small town diner, which if you know anything about us, you know we love. However, what sold us on going was the fact that they had a 3 POUND Cinnamon Roll. Yes, you read that right. We thought for sure it was some weird gimmick because not only is that crazy huge, it was only $9!
Let me tell you, it DID NOT disappoint. Massive, warm, delicious, and we will definitely be back to get it again. Though, we will probably bring a few people with us because I barely made a dent in it.
After a wonderful weekend and breakfast to finish it off, we made our way back home. The VW ID4 continues to do a great job on road trips and while the EA stations aren’t perfect, we have yet to be stranded, so I call that a win!
Travel Expenses and $ Tips
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