Hoofin' it around Phoenix or Scottsdale

Front of Valley Ho

On our way into Arizona, Jimmy decided that he wanted to alter my agenda and add a day in New Mexico. I gave in and added it, but that meant that we had to make some adjustments. As we drove toward Phoenix, dodging slow-moving tractor trailers. I desperately tried to figure out where to stay in this sprawling yet very uncool metropolis. I decided on a really cute looking hotel in Scottsdale called Valley Ho. It turned out to be a very well put together boutique hotel with nice sized pool area, great foliage, well decorated rooms and sweet-smelling cleaning products from Red Flower. Since I did no research on the area, we wandered around looking for something to do that night after a commendable feast at the hotel restaurant. We ended up at a 7-11, which actually sold booze! I guess this is common outside of Florida because bottles of rum and vodka popped up in a ton of western convenience stores. There were signs that night that Scottsdale is probably a gay part of town. By morning, our drive through the "downtown" or "arts district" proved my suspicions. There were many galleries, furniture stores and design shops. It was cute but boring.

The next morning, we tried to go to this breakfast place featured on the Food Network, but it had a line out the door. Instead we wandered around angrily and found a cute Jamaican place called Breadfruit. It was there that I drank my first cup of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, one of the most expensive coffees in the WORLD, in the UNIVERSE. I know I shouldn't have splurged, but I had to. Just that once. It was divine and they gave me coconut milk to add. Oh yes. Yes, yes. We were all pleased with our Caribbean meal, a thousand miles from the ocean blue.