Vacation, All I Ever Wanted!

WELL. We are back from Scottsdale and let me tell you, I did NOT want to come home!

The trip was so fun. This was the first time Rami and I had gone away together and I am happy to report that not only did we NOT get sick of each other, but we each agreed that we could have easily stayed there a few more days enjoying each other’s company and soaking up the sun! :)

We headed out last Thursday afternoon and made pretty good time. R made an EPIC roadtrip playlist on his iPod (sixteen hours worth of music!) and that coupled with a few hours of “Do, Dump, or Marry” with celebrities kept us entertained until we arrived.

After a stop at Pei Wei (where I nearly wept because my bowl of pad thai reminded me of college, a trend that would continue the rest of the weekend – I never realized that things like cactuses and street signs saying “Pima” could actually bring me to tears), we checked into our room at the Four Seasons.

Ahem. Did I say room? Because I meant HUGE AND MASSIVE SUITE. For years my family has had a timeshare at the hotel and for years NO ONE has used it. That is stopping IMMEDIATELY – the place was gorgeous and could have easily fit 10 people, and we had it all – two bedrooms, living room, dining room, balconies, full kitchen, three bathrooms – to ourselves. Insane!

We spent Friday and Saturday at the pool, reading books (I finished the new Jodi Picoult novel), drinking smoothies, swimming, and enjoying lunch at the pool café. Every morning, a lovely waiter would walk around to all the guests offering frozen grapes in a tiny shot glass, and every afternoon, he would proffer a tiny shot glass full of chocolate/ice cream Nibs. I think this was around the time when I decided I was never leaving.

And now I will share a fun story with all of you: when we sat down to eat, I asked the waitress if the guacamole had cilantro in it. It did, she informed me, and I passed – did yall know I’m super allergic? Well, after we ordered, she came back out to tell me, “I asked the chef if he could make the guacamole without cilantro for you tomorrow and he said he’d be happy to. His guacamole is amazing and I really want for you to try it!” I was basically speechless and SO happy.

Sure enough, when we returned the next day for lunch, Rami said to our (different) waiter, “Yesterday the waitress was kind enough to ask the chef to make a cilantro-free guacamole for my girlfriend-“

“For Miss Silverman! Of course. Coming right out!”

The Four Seasons, man. They’re like the nicest people ever.

Friday night, we ventured out for a fancy dinner at Bloom, where Rami beat my streak of always ordering the best thing on the menu and totally one-upped my ahi tuna entrée with duck tacos. I was very jealous and even now, am mad at myself for NOT ordering the tacos. ROOKIE MISTAKE!

But it was delicious and I was happy we went – Bloom is the sister restaurant of my beloved Wildflower in Tucson, and I knew we couldn’t go to Scottsdale without visiting it for a meal (and a delicious smoked salmon appetizer!)

Saturday afternoon, we headed in from the pool early, showered and changed, and drove out to see HARRY POTTER! Yall. I wept. Like a small child. I can’t believe it’s over. I don’t want to talk about it. After the movie I managed to pull myself together for a brief round of shopping at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale (where I scored this gorgey Free People shirt), and then we enjoyed dinner at a delicious place called Cowboy Ciao. People! If you are fans of the humble mushroom, you need to immediately go to there and enjoy their mushroom/polenta dish. It was fucking out of this world. Thank you to my lovely boss JRL for the recommendation!

We had planned on laying out for a little while on Sunday morning, but when we woke up, it was cloudy, so instead we decided to enjoy a long brunch before leaving. Lots of people had recommended Chompies, so before heading out back home, we stopped for brunch. R demolished a corned beef sandwich (always a good idea before a six-hour car ride) and I had a latke/knish situation (double carbs = definitely on vacation) before heading home. We made record time – 5.5 hours, including a stop to gas up AND one at Hadley’s for date shakes!

I’m already counting the days til we can go back. It was seriously a fantastic weekend with my favorite boy and the fact that I came back with an insane tan doesn’t hurt either!