Back to Reality....

Well, two days back from vacation and my body is tired of working already. Five days off is great, but sucks when you go back. But.... vacation was a blast! Even with the various crappy coffee throughout the lower half of Arizona. 

So I left off after the hockey game....

The next day we slept in before we decided to go get some road munchies for the hour and a half drive to Tucson. Then we had to drop Teito off at doggie day care (aka my parents house). After all that, we finally started our journey to the center of the earth... oh wait, wrong story. Hehe. Anywho, we went to 4th avenue first and found a hole in the wall bar called Plush. It's happy was 11-7 everyday! 2.50 pints?! Hell yeah!!

So after spending a few hours relaxing and just enjoying each other's company and just plain reveling in the fact that we didn't have to go back to work for 5 days, we made our way to the Hilton to check in and get ready for the best steak in the world at Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse in Trail Dust Town. And if you get a chance, you need to go and get the Cowboy or Cowgirl steak. They definitely know how to cook a steak there. They do it on an open bbq pit and you can watch them do it. You get a side of beans and a salad, and they have Root Beer on tap. It's just delicious. Plus their servers are dressed like cowboys and ours was named "Wyatt Earp."

After the dinner we made our way to the Greyhound Track to do some betting. We lost $20. But it was still fun, even though I was so tired and stuffed up and just wanted to put on warm pajamas and watch a movie.

The next day we got up and checked out of the Hilton and went to the Reid Park Zoo. It was a small zoo, but had some good animals. Giraffes, elephants, a zebra, a sad looking polar bear named Snow (it had allergies, so that's why it looked so sad) and a lot of birds. Oh, and a jaguar. It would have been a better experience but it was kid day or something. And not one of them had manners, or good parents. But that another topic for another time.

 We worked up quite an appetite after the zoo that we found a little place called Jalopys. It was a race themed burger joint and the burgers were sooooooo good! I had a Sante fe melt thing on sour dough with jalapenos and chipotle something or another. It was just damn good. So good in fact, that the Friday we got back we made delicious burgers on sour dough bread with grilled green chilis. YUM!

And then for the best find in Tucson..... Barrio Brewery Co. This place is phenomenal. This place is worth the hour and a half drive to get a growler. The first beer I had was the Mocha Java Porter. It was crisp, bold, sweet, and bitter with a smooth finish. It was what every porter should be. Then we got a sample of the Razzberry Ale. Yum! It was a sweet tart. It had a clean fruity taste at first and then it finished with a nice sourness. So the bartender (who was super cool) suggested the half and half. Charlie got the porter and Razzberry Ale together and let me tell you..... Fantastic. Who knew that a coffee porter would go so well with a sweet and sour raspberry. It was like a chocolate covered sweet tart. I had the hefe next and mmmmm. I love me some hefes. I love that banana-y, clove-y taste. Just delicious. Then we needed some food to soak up the beer and we got the beer battered fries and boneless wings. And guess what, their food is just as good as their beer. It was a great place. Great atmosphere. Great service. GREAT beer.

After that great find we went to our next hotel, which was kinda sucky, so sucky I don't even want to go into the details of it's suckyness. But, we did listen to the Coyotes game, and it was just as great as the game on Tuesday. Went to a shoot out and won. It was a great moment. Sorry to anyone in the rooms next to us because we were a little loud in our joy for the Coyotes winning. (And get your mind outta the gutter. This is a PG13 blog!)

Our last stop on a Tuscon vacation was Gate's pass. It's just a great place to look out and contemplate where you're going in life, what you want to do, and just breathe in fresh air. We walked/ hiked up the trail and he let me take as long as I wanted to take some awesome cactus photos that will be shared later.

 Then it was off to fill up the gas tank and get a road coffee that didn't completely taste like butt, and back to Teito. It was a great mini vacation. But that's not the end of it... But it is the end of this post. This rest of our vacation will be told later because I'm pretty sure I bored you to tears already.


p.s. don't you just love my phone pics! hehe.