As we continued our journey across the US, we decided to go to Scottsdale, Arizona.  First of all we have been to Scottsdale before and loved staying there. There were a couple of compelling reasons for us to go back:

• There is a great bike trail called the Indian Bend Wash Trail
• Mike loves Posh, an improvisational restaurant we discovered the last time we were in Scottsdale

The trip took about 8 hours but we really wanted to go to Santa Barbara so we went up there. Now we had to drive the 4+ hours back plus the hours to get to Scottsdale. This time we drove through the desert. During our 14 years in California, we spent time visiting  Palm Springs where we rode in the Tour de Palm Springs five years in a row,

We spent memorable times in The Lodge at Rancho Mirage (now the Ritz Carlton Rancho Mirage) and the Westin in Mission Hills (also Rancho Mirage), The JW Marriott in Palm Desert, La Quinta Resort (a Waldorf Astoria Hotel) in La Quinta, and Desert Hot Springs. It was very sad to realize we wouldn’t be going there again any time soon.

It was a long driving day but we finally arrived at the Saguaro Hotel around 8:00 at night. The Saguaro is in the heart of old Scottsdale, so it is a great place to stay for fun shops and restaurants. The Segaro is an old hotel that was renovated fairly recently. It is very colorful and striking. The front desk and restaurants are separated from the hotel rooms by parking areas and gardens. The restaurants are all good and so are the drinks.   More about this hotel and restaurants in the food and hotel section of the blog.   Our room was very nice and we all settled in quickly.

The next morning we had breakfast, then we rode our bikes from the hotel to the Indian Bend Wash Trail. The trail stretches 22 miles from Scottsdale’s WestWorld event center south to Tempe Town Lake. The ride takes you along beautiful golf courses and parks so it is a great family destination in the middle of the city.

At one end you ride past the Tempe Center for the Arts, a beautiful, very modern building.

There are parks and places to just sit and enjoy the scenery near it as well. There was a very cool bridge to take you across to the Center for the Arts.

 

It was just a wonderful ride. Mac loved riding with us. He had everyone waving as we went by.

That evening, we went to Mike’s favorite restaurant, Posh. It may not be a restaurant for everyone as you really have to give up any control of what you eat. They call it an “improvisational” restaurant because they make the food up as they go. There is no real menu. The menu is simply a list of items that you choose. If you have allergies or won’t eat something, you just write that down on the paper. You also choose the how many courses you want. Then they go ahead to make you different courses and you just don’t know what they are until they place it in front of you. Everything is just amazing and they also have wines to match the courses. I will go more in-depth in the restaurant section of the blog.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and checked out for our next destination – Tucson.