{"id":4174,"date":"2015-01-24T12:06:36","date_gmt":"2015-01-24T18:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/?p=4174"},"modified":"2015-03-15T09:21:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T15:21:53","slug":"arriving-in-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/arizona\/arriving-in-arizona\/","title":{"rendered":"Arriving in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt and I had our first adventure on Spirit Airlines heading to Phoenix on a Friday morning. While they don’t have Precheck, they charge for carry-on bags (we checked a shared bag for cheaper), and there is indeed no leg room, we decided it was worth it for a really cheap flight. I just wouldn’t use them for anything over three hours or so.<\/p>\n

We landed in Phoenix around noon, picked up our bags, and Matt’s parents arrived to pick us up shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

The in-laws had been there for a while, having rented their friend’s condo in Scottsdale for the entire month of January. Neither Matt nor I had spent any time in Arizona – we’d both only crossed the border at\u00a0the Hoover Dam – so we were looking forward to seeing more of the state. Also, Minnesota was horrendous and cold, and this was the weather in Scottsdale:<\/p>\n

\"16145875948_6b62b84afd_z\"<\/p>\n

We went to the condo, unpacked, and hung out. My mother-in-law mentioned that the condo had fruit trees, where we could pick our own grapefruit, lemons, and oranges. I love that.<\/p>\n

\"16330075422_e3fcd3bce6_z\"<\/p>\n

There were a ton of shops and restaurants near the condo, so we walked over to a place called Blanco’s<\/a> to get some food and beers. (The in-laws kept calling it Blank-ohs<\/em>, so we didn’t get it til we arrived.) We sat outside in the glorious weather, and were joined by a couple of Matt’s parents friends from South Dakota. (All the snowbirds tend to congregate in one place, after all.) We had guacamole and tacos, and were pretty impressed with the food there.<\/p>\n

We hung out at the condo for a while, discussing our plans for the next day. We were headed to the Grand Canyon, and Matt’s dad wanted us to book the hotel we’d picked out in Tusayan, so we didn’t have to make the drive there and back in one day. We looked it up on Hotels.com and saw that it was totally booked, which seemed strange in January. I expanded the search, and found that that was the case with almost everything there – Tusayan was almost full. We finally decided on a hotel that looked pretty motel-ish but had good reviews and was cheap, so I booked two rooms and we were set.<\/p>\n

Around dinner time, we headed down to Old Town Scottsdale. It was about three miles down the road from where they were staying. It was 6pm, and they wanted us to see a legitimate cowboy bar, the Rusty Spur<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Legitimate’ was no joke… there was a guy on stage playing country music, and people wearing unironic cowboy hats hanging out. The in-laws did some dancing, and we had a beer.<\/p>\n

\"16330073212_d286cdfaa7_z\"<\/p>\n

Then it was dinner time, so Matt and I did some quick online research about which places might have vegetarian food. A few blocks away, we found Tommy V’s Urban Kitchen and Bar<\/a>. Matt’s dad had been paired with one of their servers when he was out golfing earlier in the week, so we were seated in his section.<\/p>\n

The food was really good, though the place was busy and super-slow. After dinner, we decided to walk over to The Mission for a cocktail before heading back. On the way, Matt’s mom stopped into a shop for souvenirs, and I took crappy pictures of Old Town at night. It’s really cute!<\/p>\n

\"16329160861_176b565f43_z\"<\/p>\n

The Mission<\/a> was insanely crowded, but they managed to find us a table out on the heated patio. We had a margarita there before heading back to the condo.<\/p>\n

Back home, the in-laws headed to bed and Matt and I went to sit in the hot tub for a hour or so before heading to bed. I’ve mentioned before that a hot tub in the desert is the greatest thing ever, and I stand by that assertion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt and I had our first adventure on Spirit Airlines heading to Phoenix on a Friday morning. While they don’t have Precheck, they charge for carry-on bags (we checked a shared bag for cheaper), and there is indeed no leg room, we decided it was worth it for a really cheap flight. I just wouldn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[450],"tags":[177,97,455,449,448],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":{"latitude":33.4941711000000026388079277239739894866943359375,"longitude":-111.9260483000000050424205255694687366485595703125,"description":"Scottsdale, AZ, USA"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2015\/01\/16331693291_6dcb01acc2_o-1.jpg?fit=4608%2C3456","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Z5R-15k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4180,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/arizona\/scottsdale\/","url_meta":{"origin":4174,"position":0},"title":"Scottsdale","author":"Jenni","date":"01.21.2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The next morning, I got up and Matt's mom and I took a walk around the condos to pick fruit. I took pictures of cacti, because I seriously love cacti. They had orange, grapefruit and lemon trees. Seriously, how nice is it to be able to pick your own citru?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2015\/01\/16331834611_48a13cf908_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4182,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/arizona\/heading-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":4174,"position":1},"title":"Heading Home","author":"Jenni","date":"01.20.2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I got up Tuesday morning and went out to the patio to knit. It was a little bit chilly in the 50s, but I was determined to soak up as much sun as possible. When Matt got up, we went to say bye to our good pal, the hot tub.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2015\/01\/16330888655_d5a641c33c_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4184,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/arizona\/arizona-january-16-20-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":4174,"position":2},"title":"Arizona: January 16-20, 2015","author":"Jenni","date":"01.25.2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My in-laws rented their friend's condo in Scottsdale for the entire month of January, and invited us to visit. We took a long weekend, and went down to spend our first trip with any significant time in Arizona. Plus we both got to visit the Grand Canyon for the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4692,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/sedona\/sedona\/","url_meta":{"origin":4174,"position":3},"title":"Sedona: January 23-24, 2016","author":"Jenni","date":"02.1.2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Matt and I went to stay with his parents in Scottsdale for almost a week, since for the second year in a row they'd been renting their friends' condo for the month of January. It's a good excuse to go from the ocean to the desert, and we were able\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sedona"","block_context":{"text":"Sedona","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/sedona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2016\/01\/24509541481_47692d22e6_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4178,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/arizona\/the-grand-canyon\/","url_meta":{"origin":4174,"position":4},"title":"The Grand Canyon","author":"Jenni","date":"01.22.2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We got up bright and early the next morning, to get to the Grand Canyon before \"the rush\". (We didn't really expect a rush that time of year, but you never know.) We checked out of the hotel, grabbed a drive-through breakfast, and headed into the park. The sun was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2015\/01\/15711002213_5dd3e1df4b_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4176,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/arizona\/the-desert-and-the-old-west\/","url_meta":{"origin":4174,"position":5},"title":"The Desert and the Old West","author":"Jenni","date":"01.23.2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I got up Saturday morning and went downstairs, where Matt's parents informed me they weren't going to the Grand Canyon after all. His dad had come down with a cold, and really didn't feel like making a long roadtrip. I figured we had no chance of getting a refund from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2015\/01\/15708506394_39e08f8c04_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}