For this weekend, we decided to make a little trip to Arizona and catch the Vikings playing Cardinals! We flew into Tucson because Phoenix airport was out of rental cars. Tucson airport was rather small but it was organized and Hertz was right on site! As a Hertz Gold member, they had our key ready to go at the counter – not as good as straight to Gold Lot but still nice.
Day 1
We arrived around noon so there wasn’t a lot of time to do much, but since we had to drive from Tucson to Scottsdale, it was easy to stop by Picacho Peak along the way. I think the most scenic trail here is the Hunter Trail, but it’s very tough with lots of cable wires! We went 0.5 mile up and turned around, as we weren’t equipped with what it takes to finish this trail. It was still very rewarding and we thoroughly enjoyed it. If you plan on taking this trail, make sure you have plenty of water and some gloves.
Had we had more time, we would have also visited the Tucson Botanical Gardens but they close at 2pm during this time of year so there just wasn’t enough time.
For dinner, we ate at the Golden Pineapple, an eclectic local restaurant with happy hour specials. We tried their restaurant week menu ($33 a person) as there are so many items we loved from their menu. The Sonoran dog is the single best hot dog I’ve ever had, so if you’ve never had one, please try it! The oysters (on the half shell) were fresh and tasty, but at $2.50 each on happy hour, it was pretty steep. We also had the Fry bread, a recipe passed down from a Navajo native! And red Chile braised pork shank, and rum roasted pineapple churro. Everything was amazing here. If you are here on Friday or Saturday during peak hours, make sure you get reservation ahead of time.
We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Old Town Scottsdale for the night. It’s an older hotel but it was clean and staff were helpful. The location is great in Old Town Fashion Square with lots of restaurants in walking distance.
Day 2
Today we visited Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix and Papago Park. Papago Park is located right behind Desert Botanical Gardens so it’s easy to see both attractions together. The Botanical Gardens was very interesting and the trails were easy and informative. We learned a lot about plants in the desert. Papago Park has a lot of wind eroded hole-in-the-rock formations. We hiked the Hole-In-The-Rock Trail. It’s only 0.3 miles so it’s easy, and it takes you to the biggest attraction of the park. I wish we had come here when the sun first rose to avoid the crowd because this is one of those insta-worthy locations!
For dinner, we ate at Ling and Louie’s, once again taking advantage of the restaurant week special! Everything we had was so good here and my mouth still waters when I think about it!
Near Ling & Louie’s was this cutest little ice cream shop, Scoop and Joy! It had lots of flavors, but the best part is, it lets you have a “surprise” where the server will create a cute little animal with your ice cream. You never know what you’ll get but it’s always super cute!
Next we went to Social Tap for a beer. This place took up a whole corner of the Old Town and it was CROWDED! We loved the open roof and huge patio, and there were lots of large screen TVs everywhere!
We spent another night at the Hyatt Scottsdale Old Town and looking forward to going to the game tomorrow!
Day 3
Today we came to State Farm Stadium in Glendale to attend the Vikings vs Cardinals game! Make sure you download the Cardinals App to help you with parking. The parking lot opens 4 hours before the game, and you’ll need to get here as soon as it opens to snatch a good spot if you plan on tailgating! We met up with some fellow Viking fans (strangers) from Reddit and had a fabulous time chatting about football and enjoying some food and drinks.
The stadium opens 2 hours before kickoff. Inside the stadium, everything felt really nice. The temperature was comfortable and the seats were nicely cushioned. There are many food and drink stands all over but the best place to get a beer is this bar called the “Red Zone”, which is – near the red zone. This is where you need to go during half time to grab your beverage for the second half!
We did not win but the game was a very exciting one, down to the last second. We lost the game as we missed the field goal kick at the final seconds of the game.
For dinner, we ate at Mariscos Chihuahua. We’ve had Mexican food before, but we’ve never had anything like this. Wow. Everything was made from scratch – even margaritas are made from fresh key limes. There were lots of seafood options and their seafood is shipped in fresh several times a week. We had Shrimp Culici and Shrimp Ceviche Tostada. Not even sure what exactly we were eating but it was all so good. All of the walls were beautifully painted with hand drawn artwork too.
If we had more time here, I would have wanted to do the Ladder Trail at the Colossal Cave.
Tonight, we stayed at the Doubletree Suites by Hilton at Tucson Airport. This is the closest hotel to the airport -literally across the street from economy parking lot for the airport! The hotel offers free shuttle but you could walk to the airport (about a 10 minute walk). We chose this hotel due to its proximity, especially since the reviews were quite scary, but our stay was surprisingly pleasant. All of the standard rooms are 2 room suites, so you are getting a spacious room for starters. We chose the presidential suite which is a 3 room suite (living room, bedroom, and dining room) even though we really didn’t need that much room, but we decided on the upgrade since the price difference was only $20 and we knew the reviews were so bad for most rooms that we were hoping the presidential suite would be better. Well we certainly couldn’t complain about anything. The hotel is older, but it was very clean and service was top notch. For our room, there’s a large screen TV in both the bedroom and the living room. The bedroom TV didn’t work at first, and when I called downstairs, a gentleman (Roy) came to fix it in 5 minutes. There were 1.5 bathrooms in our suite. The master bathroom has shower and tub separated, which is nice. The ceiling is low but that’s to be expected with older hotels. There was dual vanity which was a surprise as well. We received free bottled water and warm cookies for our stay! All of the rooms opened towards a courtyard inside the hotel – where the fountain, pool and hot tub was located. The pool and hot tub were heated. I can see this hotel as a great option for large families. Oh, our bed was super comfortable as well!!
Day 4
We took the early morning flight to go back home, before the breakfast was even served at our hotel. The close proximity to the airport definitely worked to our favor. We enjoyed our brief stay in Arizona and I would totally come back and do it all over again!