Grand Canyon & Flagstaff

I had to head back to Arizona (lucky me!) for work, so Dan and I headed out early to spend a long weekend with Sissy and her fiancé, JA.  Since it was Dan's first trip to Arizona, we had to make it special... so we drove out to the Grand Canyon to show him why it's considered one of the wonders of the world!

Once we got out of Phoenix, the scenery changed dramatically into a winder wonderland!  All along the road, people were pulled over to go sledding and romp in the snow.  It almost didn't look real!

The snow made it all the more beautiful and stunning!  Sure, it was cold... but it was a bright and sunny day to be out experiencing the park.  This post is photo-heavy and light on my narration, but that's because I think the photos just speak for themselves.

I think that Dan found the Grand Canyon to be surprisingly impressive...  That is, people build it up in talk to be this big thing, but most things in life end up a little disappointing when you have those expectations.  The Grand Canyon, however, doesn't disappoint.  Even after more than one visit, I'm still in awe that it exists.  And, as Dan pointed out, how long it took to form such a stunningly deep impression into the earth.

After our visit to the Grand Canyon, we drove to Flagstaff for the night.  We stayed at the historic (and reputedly haunted) Hotel Monte Vista.  While the hotel itself is a bit past its prime (it used to host very famous guests), we found our suite to be clean and suitable for the night!  The hotel also has a couple of pretty decent bars, and it was walking distance to the main downtown drag.

After checking in, we walked to local ramen joint SoSoBa for some food.  It was a cold and snowy day, so a bowl of hot noodles and broth sounded perfect.  There were a good number of other folks in the tiny restaurant, a good sign.  Service was solid, beer and drink options plentiful, and hipsters galore.

We started with Balls of Fire, their housemade fried mac 'n' cheese balls with spicy sauce.  Dan liked these so much, he wished he'd ordered a few more for his meal!

For my main dish, I had The Mic Drop: udon noodles, pork belly, carnitas, chicharron, sliced ham, bacon, kim chi, veggies, and a tonkatsu pork broth.  Basically, a creative bowl of carnivorous "ramen" that really hit the spot.  It was definitely tasty, despite being a departure from traditional ramen.  

After eating, we browsed some boutiques (mostly outdoorsy places) and had a couple of drinks at the hotel bar before turning in.  In the morning, we had a delicious breakfast at the popular (judging from its line) Macy's European Coffeehouse and Bakery, a vegetarian spot that served me a cider and breakfast sandwich so delicious, I didn't remember to take any photos before devouring!

All in all, it was a great road trip from Phoenix.  I think Dan liked Flagstaff even more than Phoenix, though both boast a lot of craft beer!  We'd definitely come back, and now we know why Sissy loves it for a quick getaway from the desert.

Sunday Lately: Completing, Visiting, Repeating, Writing, Scheduling

I haven't blogged in over a week, because I've been traveling for work and play!  You'll see a few posts int he near future about my trip to Arizona (yes, again!) but I'm here linking up with the other ladies for Sunday Lately to get back into the swing of things.

COMPLETING...

I need to be completing some homework (notice this recurring theme?) including an exam today.  But overall, I'm really thrilled that in six weeks, I'll be completing grad school, for good.  I'm so ready. Senioritis levels at 110%.

VISITING...

I had some great visits last week with my sister, her fiancé, my friend from college, and my coworkers.  I planned a meeting for my work team in Phoenix, AZ, so it was a full week of visiting, socializing, and getting to know people on top of work stuff. 

A photo posted by aubreyland325 (@aubreyland325) on Jan 12, 2016 at 8:06pm PST

REPEATING...

Laundry cycles...  I left home with two full loads of laundry in the hampers, came back with even more, and we have linens to wash too!  It feels like every time I take a break from doing something productive (in which I'd like to nap or rest or something) I end up moving something from the washer to the dryer, new stuff to the washer.  Rinse and repeat, right?

WRITING...

I'm hoping to write some draft blog posts from Arizona.  I've taken a bunch of photos, I just need to divide them into posts and organize.

SCHEDULING...

I'm scheduling air travel, upcoming trips, and even what I'm going to do once grad school ends!  So far, between now and the end of June, I've got at least three trips for work and three personal, all with planes to get there.  I have one more plane ticket to buy, and a lot more logistics to plan.  Here's to frequent flyer miles!

Check out the rest of the bloggers linking up today...

...and I promise to come back with more posts soon!

Christmas (in food photos)

Dan and I spent a week over Christmas in his hometown near Pittsburgh, and I think I gained a few pounds!  My husband isn't a shutterbug, so after the holiday I realized that my photos from our trip were kind of typical Aubrey snaps: food and cats.  But since the food was pretty special, I figured I'd share what my Christmas looked like, in food pics.  Like, a TON of food pics.  I warned you.

(I'm sorry, New Year's Resolutioners.  I'm with you, I'm counting points again and working on getting my waistline to reduce...  but I couldn't not share, because this is NOT the normal Midwest Christmas fare I'm used to!  Definitely a unique thing for me.  I don't think I saw ham or a pumpkin pie I don't think.)

Where Dan grew up, there's a place called Mac's Donut Shop, and it's delicious.  It's located a block from a Dunkin Donuts, and yet it's packed every morning because the donuts are so good!  The family that runs it now has had it for three generations.  I loved their frosted cake donuts especially.

Pretty much every place I saw with donuts had black & yellow ones... classic Pittsburgh.

There's a large Italian population where Dan grew up, and he has Italian heritage in his family.  So my plate, at every meal, looked like a smorgasbord of homemade Italian goodies!  This plate is all kinds of wonderful: braciole, meatballs, roasted chicken and potatoes, pasta in sauce.

I even got to learn a bit about how to cook things from my mother-in-law, including making ricotta gnocchi...

...meatballs...

...and of course sauce.

My MIL also made seafood to celebrate Christmas; I do like crabcakes!

And I can now add Italian Wedding soup to the short list of soups that I like!

We didn't dine out much, but when we did I could never finish my plate!  Here's a meatball calzone I had at Vesuvio's... I ate almost half of it and saved the rest for Dan.

Dan also took me to one of his favorites, Burgatory.  I had a burger that had bacon in the patty and added rubs, sauces, etc. for a really rich, custom burger.  Not bad!  We also had Salted Nutella Crunch milkshake to share, and it was over the top.

At homes we visited, they also had these Italian nougat candies; I liked the vanilla flavor.

Now, here's something I didn't anticipate...  cookie platters.  When we were at my niece's high school graduation, there was a huge table "buffet" of homemade cookies out.  I thought it was just because she loved cookies!  Dan thought I was weird because I mentioned this was a strange tradition... as it turns out, it's regional to the Pittsburgh area.  He had not idea that everyone else didn't do this.

Everywhere we went, everyone had cookies!  The cookies with Hershey kisses were especially popular given Hershey is in PA.  Here are three I snapped.  I also saw lots of pizzelles, an Italian waffle cookie.

As you can tell, it was a Christmas filled with plenty.  It's hard not to look at these photos and think about how rich my holiday was, and how fortunate I am to have more than I could ever want to eat.  But I also think about the love that went into making so many of these from-scratch foods.

And since I love a good cat photo, I leave you with a snap of my sister-in-law, Agnes. :)  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!