Weekend in Williams, AZ - February 23-25, 2019

A few weekends ago Dave and I went up to a bed and breakfast in Williams, AZ for the weekend. We were supposed to leave on Friday morning but that was the day after the big snowstorm, so we delayed by a day and drove up on Saturday.

We stopped in Flagstaff for lunch - we had planned to go to Carmel's but it had closed :(

I got this as a Christmas gift for Dave - The Sheridan House Inn was rated as one of the best B&B's in Arizona.

We had the place to ourselves on Saturday night - everyone else had cancelled due to the snow but since we never see snow we were glad that there was some snow.

We stayed in the Cedar Room - it was advertised as being in a treehouse and that is what it felt like - this was the view from our window.

The main drag on Route 66.

Dave had a local drink for dinner.

The meals at the Sheridan definitely did not disappoint. The night before we received a menu with 4 different options on it. This was an egg frittata and gf blueberry muffin.

On Sunday we spent the day at the Grand Canyon. For both of us being natives (well almost a native for Dave) of Arizona, neither of us had spent too much time at the Grand Canyon. 

Supposedly only 10% of people see the Grand Canyon in snow...now we are part of that 10%!

Making snow angels.

The Grand Canyon is gorgeous, and the snow adds a different element.

Eating icicles.

Sunset over the Grand Canyon. My DSLR battery died about 30 minutes before sunset so this is an iPhone photo.

We had dinner at El Tovar - I knew about this restaurant from when I did the rim-to-rim hike.

Monday morning breakfast - gf French toast. It was good but I am just not used to such a sugary breakfast.

We drove home Monday morning. We had debated going to Bearizona but Sam was not eating well so I wanted to get home to her. But would definitely stay here again - the owners were wonderful and we enjoyed talking with them.

One Year Engagement Anniversary Weekend

Dave planned a trip back to the Hotel Del for our one-year engagement anniversary weekend. He booked a room in the old Victorian part of the hotel, however, when we went to check in the gal told us there was a bunch of construction going on and that the views weren't that great. So we moved to the Ocean Tower with a 5th floor ocean view.

We checked in and went for a short walk.

There is a guy who builds these sandcastles year-round in front of the Del.

Friday night dinner was at the Prep Kitchen in Little Italy.

Saturday morning we were up early and walked through the hotel and then along the beach for about 3 miles.

I had never seen so many sand dollars in my life - they were everywhere!

I could wake up at the beach every morning.

My favorite coffee shop from the trip.

Ice skating Saturday morning - this time we actually ice-skated for a little longer than we did a year ago :)

My kind of snowman. I do enjoy the snow and think it is beautiful, however, I would take a beach and sun any day.

Dave was craving fish tacos for lunch so I googled best fish tacos in San Diego. Puesto was rated #1.

They were excellent, however, the fish taco (one on the right) was SO spicy. My favorite was the beef-pomegranate taco special (one on the left).

We went to La Jolla for lunch so walked to the sea lions after lunch.

We got back to the hotel just in time to watch the sunset from our balcony.

We stayed at the hotel for dinner Saturday night. We had a little time to walk around so we went into the lobby and listened to the carolers.

Dinner was at Eno at the Del.

To end Saturday we had a fire pit on the beach.

We roasted marshmallows together and made S'mores (I omitted the chocolate since I really don't like it).

I posted on Instagram that we spent the weekend reminiscing on the past year and everything that had happened. We talked about our hopes and dreams for the next year and while we had a list of them we both agreed that our top two are that we want to fall more in love with each other and more in love with our Savior. #thebestisyettocome

Snowbowl - December 27th

We took advantage of days off from work and hit the slopes at Snowbowl a couple of days after Christmas. We just went for the day - left early Thursday morning and were home by about 10pm that night (if it weren't for the weather we would have been home much earlier - read more about that below).

Kellyn came with us too - it was fun to have her there.

Cloudy/snowy day - it was actually a perfect day for skiing because it started flurrying in the morning and by lunch it was full blown snowing. We had one icy run mid-morning, but with the snow it made for perfect powder conditions.

Let's go!

It was a chilly day but we had planned for it and were grateful for all the layers.

Riding the lift (and no, dad, we didn't drop our phone). :)

San Francisco Peaks

The one group shot from the day - Dave, Jackson, Me, Kellyn, Gibson and Mason.

Always love adventuring with him.

After this picture Kellyn and I went on our own for a while to do some blue runs. If Kyle had come we probably would have gone to the top for one black run.

We skied right until the end of the day at 4pm. By this time, it was really snowing so getting the 7 miles to the main road took us an hour. The delays were caused by one guy deciding to put chains on his car in the middle of the road (literally) and then another car was flipped on the side of the road. We stopped for dinner at Diablo Burger - in my opinion this is a must-stop if you are in Flagstaff.

When we came out of the restaurant the snow had started coming down in Flagstaff. 

It was so pretty and would have been nice to stay the night but we hadn't planned for that.

We were on the road home by about 6pm or so. The drive from Flagstaff to Camp Verde was a stressful one because it was snowing pretty good and the roads were bad. It was very low visibility and cars in front of us were sliding. I was thankful that Dave was driving and that we were in the Land Rover. Thanks babe for getting us all home safe - such a fun day and hopeful for more days skiing this winter!

2018 by City

I have been doing this same post for 12 years now, so going to continue. 

Each of the below cities include a one-night stay in 2018. Cities denoted by an asterisk include multiple visits.

• New York, NY
• Reykjavík, Iceland
• Jamaica, NY
• Newport Beach, CA*
• Indianapolis, IN
• Lexington, KY
• Red Bank, NJ*
• Tucson, AZ
• Venice, CA
• Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman
• San Diego, CA
• Coronado, CA