A Gourmet Adventure! mmmm.....

Jeff and I headed down to the city to visit Chrissie, Amiri and Tee. They had some work for Jeff to do so we figured while we were there we would go to some of their favorite places to eat. My sister has good taste, she is a chef and I've never eaten anything that she suggested without loving it! So their gift for our anniversary was to take us to a hot spot in downtown Phoenix called "Cibo" (pronounced "chee-bow") and it was nothing short of FANTASTIC!!! Downtown has converted some of their charming little houses into restaurants or bars, this makes them a little hard to find but its an eating experience like no other. We sat out on the patio where there were lights strewn around trees, water fountains and candle lit tables. We shared an appetizer consisting of kalamata olives, mozzarella, large basil leaves, prosciutto, roasted peppers, tomatoes, marinated cucumber and focaccia bread to load your topping onto. Then for dinner we enjoyed an amazing prosciutto, mozzarella and basil pizza with a bottle of Syrah........Oh I'm not done yet!!!! Then it was time for dessert! We had chocolate filled crapes with vanilla ice cream and a sauce drizzled over the top...I don't know what the sauce was but it was so good!

Then we headed off to yet another cafe!! Like we didn't eat enough already we stopped at a little cafe that sold some awesome Gelato. The owner was a odd little fellow but nice, it was a very friendly place and the gelato was amazing, I had the tiramisu gelato, Chrissie had the Blood orange sorbet which was also REALLY good!!

OK...Next stop....Different night!!! I'm not that bad!! : ) Chrissie and Amiri took us to this Vietnamese restaurant they love "Da Vang". It has been awarded one of the Best restaurants in Phoenix and the place was packed with Vietnamese people so you know it had to be to their standards. It was both interesting and delicious! From build it yourself wraps with rice paper wrapping, pork, sprouts, peppers and mint with a dipping sauce to a seafood soup that had shrimp, squid, pork, fish meatballs and a special Vietnamese clear noodle it was an adventure to my pallet, I have to admit though that the fish meatball scared me a little...but I now can say I tried it!

Our Last stop...."Pane Bianco" A little Bistro we went to after service. I wish I could go there every day! Pronounce (pan-a bee-on-co) It is a sister restaurant to the World renowned "Pizzeria Bianco" where if your looking to make a reservation don't expect to get anything for at least a month. Even Jerry Seinfeld has commented on how great this pizzeria is. So...since we didn't have a month we settled to have a small taste of what we could expect by eating at Pane Bianco and It was fantastic! Wood-fired focaccia crust topped with mozzarella, basil and tomatoes, it was mouth watering and we washed it down with a vintage labeled Ginger Ale........I wish I had a bigger stomach! But if I'm not careful I just might get my wish! :) I can definitely say that we explored a wide variety of flavor and with great company and atmosphere its something I wish we could do EVERY weekend! So till next time I'll be exercising,dieting and saving money for our next binge!

SURPRISE!!!!!!!

So Saturday after service Jeff and I got home, I'm still all dressed up...I had to use the ladies room so I figured I didn't need to pull my nylons all the way up since I was just going to go to my room and take them off again.....Why am I telling you all this you ask?? Well Much to my surprise when we opened our bedroom door Jeff's family was hiding in there!!!! They made a surprise visit and my first thought was.."WOW, I have my pantyhose hanging half way down my legs!" But then that feeling was overwhelmed with feelings of joy as little Maddy ran to give me a hug. It had been way to long since one of those! It was soooo nice of the family to surprise us like that!

We had 2 days with them so we did as much as we could. This was my brother-in-law Patrick's first trip to Arizona so I wanted it to be a good first impression. We went to see the "little painted desert", explored a little of the reservation to show him our service territory and went out to Clear Creek where I spent my summers as a kid. We all had a fun time. It was great to have such an unexpected fun weekend!

Before the family had to leave we headed to Flagstaff and went to Cracker Barrel for brunch and OH MY!!!! I LOVE the breakfast there! Usually I would just order lunch seeing as it was around 11:00 but their breakfast is way to good to pass up. After breakfast we looked around the gift shop and Maddy found the perfect lolly pop. She was in search of one piece of candy that Judie said she could have so when I showed her the White flower lolly pop with a yellow center, that was it!!! Who would pass it up?! Its the size of 3 candies!!!

(Maddy playing "Peek-a-boo")

It finally came time to part ways..That's always a hard thing to do but it made it a little easier being the fact we weren't expecting them so even though they had to leave it was an unanticipated treat so we were just grateful that we got to see them, even just for a little bit. What a great weekend!!!