Road Tips

Union Oyster House - Boston, MA

Years ago, I used to go to Boston for work on a somewhat regular basis.  I worked for a guy who expanded my culinary horizons - while also expanding my waist - and he was a big fan of all things to do with Boston.  We had a number of memorable meals when we would do factory visits over 30 years ago.  He loved Boston so much that he closed his firm, temporarily putting me out of work, and ran off to live in New England.  One of our usual haunts was a place where I had my first Samuel Adams beer, my first oysters on the half-shell, my first real clam chowder, and my first lobster roll.  Recently, I had to go out to Boston for some meetings, presentations, and to do a couple video shoots and I flew in around noon on a Sunday.  After getting my rental vehicle, I decided that I was going to seek out the place that exposed me to the great flavors of New England.  I had to go have lunch at the Union Oyster House.

Now, years ago, I was told that Union Oyster House was the oldest restaurant in the U.S.  Since then, I've seen some things that tell me that may not be correct.  However, there seems to be a consensus that the Union Oyster House is the oldest CONTINUOUS restaurant in the United States.  The building is so old that there is no documentation as to when it was originally built.  Union Street - which fronts the restaurant - was laid out in 1636.  Over 100 years later the first documented business in the building was a dry goods establishment that sold cloth and silk sourced from Europe.  The Boston waterfront at the time came up to the back door of the building which allowed for an easy transfer of goods.  

Known as the Capen House, the building later became a focal point of the American Revolution as it was where the office of the first paymaster of the Continental Army was located.  While soldiers who signed up to fight the British got their pay, women would mend the uniforms and clothing of the colonists in another part of the building.  

The second floor also had some historical significance as the headquarters of a famous newspaper "The Massachusetts Spy" which rallied colonists in the revolt against the British.  And after the war was over, a future king of France - Louis Philippe I (1830-1848) - lived in exile for a time in a room on the second floor during the mid-to-late 1790's.  

Oysters had first been served in the United States in New York City in the early 1760's.  By the early part of the 19th century, nearly every city up and down the Eastern seaboard had some sort an establishment that served oysters - oysters on the half shell, baked oysters, oyster stew, etc.  In 1818, Hawes Atwood established his first oyster bar in Boston and followed that up with a number of other locations around the city.

It was in 1826 that the Capen family's dry goods business ceased to exist and Hawes Atwood opened Atwood's Oyster House in the building on August 3, 1826.  

Atwood put in a semi-circular bar when he opened his oyster bar location there nearly 199 years ago (!) and many a famous person has sat at the bar over the years.  Each time I went to the Union Oyster House, I sat at the bar up front.  It's said that lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster had a seat at the bar every day eating at least six half-dozen plates of oysters and washing them back with a large tumbler of brandy.  

In 1842, Hawes Atwood took on a minority partner - a man by the name of Bacon - and the restaurant became Atwood & Bacon Oyster House.  The partnership continued on for over 70 years.  

It was during the Atwood and Bacon ownership that another historical milestone was established at the restaurant.  Maine native Charles Forster had traveled to Brazil in the 1880's and was amazed to see Brazillians shaving small wooden sticks and using them to pick food particles out of their teeth.  This intrigued the entrepreneurial spirit in Forster and he established a toothpick manufacturing facility in rural Maine.

When Forster tried to introduce the toothpick to restaurants in Boston, the restaurant owners felt that their clientele was too well-heeled to want to pick their teeth after a meal.  Thinking that he may have made a mistake, Forster desperately looked for an angle.  He got it with a number male students at nearby Harvard University who he would pay to go into restaurants as ask for a toothpick after eating.  The first restaurant in Boston - and quite probably the U.S. - to offer toothpicks was the Atwood & Bacon Oyster House in 1887.    

The Atwood & Bacon Oyster House continued until 1913 when it was purchased by the Fitzgerald family.  The Fitzgerald clan changed the name of the restaurant to its present day Union Oyster House.  The Fitzgerald family owned the restaurant until 1940 when it was sold to two brothers with the last name of Greaves.  The brothers were originally from Nova Scotia in Canada and expanded the restaurant with three rooms on the second floor.  

The Greaves owned the restaurant until 1970 when they sold it to Joseph Milano.  The Milano family expanded the restaurant even more by taking over the space next door to establish the Union Oyster Bar.   The restaurant was forced to close for a short while in 2017 due to a fire, and again in early 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, but the closings were so short that the restaurant continued to keep its "oldest continuous restaurant in America" title.  Milano's children - Joseph, Jr. and Mary Ann Milado Piccardi - continue to run the restaurant today.

It had been over 35 years since I was last in the Union Oyster House and an equal amount of time since I had been in downtown Boston.  I forgot how much of a pain it is to get around downtown Boston in a vehicle after getting through the Ted Williams Tunnel from Logan Airport.  My GPS was almost smoking from getting overworked trying to pinpoint my position with the tangled clusters of streets that are literally on top of one another.  Union Street in front of the Union Oyster House (see map) was closed for pedestrian traffic that day, so I had to maneuver around to find parking.  I found parking at the Haymarket Center parking ramp just north of the Union Oyster House.  I was in there for about 90 minutes and it cost me a pretty respectable $15 - pretty cheap for a large city on the east coast (or anywhere, for that matter).  

When I was walking from the parking garage, I passed the Bell in Hand Tavern whose sign out front boasted that it was established in 1795.  I thought, "Hmmm... I wonder how Union Oyster House can say they're the oldest continuous restaurant in America."  Well, it turns out they're safe because the Bell in Hand is one of the oldest "taverns" in America - and taverns usually didn't serve food.  Plus Bell in Hand had moved to that location next to the Union Oyster House in the 1950's.  

It was a cool, yet sunny day when I got into Boston and there were a few people who were sitting at tables along the sidewalk in front of the Union Oyster House.  There was a hostess out front and I asked if I could sit at the bar inside.  "If there's a spot, go ahead," she said.  

Just inside the front door is a large tank full of lobsters ready for the picking.  There was a gift shop area off to the side that I didn't remember being there - but it had been over 35 years since I was last in the place.  The upstairs area at Union Oyster House was closed that day, but another piece of historical significance on the second floor is a booth that has a plaque honoring President John F. Kennedy who - along with other members of his family - would frequently eat at the restaurant.  JFK was particularly partial to Union Oyster House's lobster stew.  The booth on the second level was evidently Kennedy's favorite place to dine when he would visit the restaurant.

I did find a spot at the original bar and settled in between two people - an older gentleman (along with his wife) who now lived in Arizona whose grandfather had taken him to Union Oyster House was a young boy; and a lady who was part of a group of four tourists from Ohio who were trying to figure out what the big deal was about Union Oyster House.  The 199-year-old bar had settled over the years and actually sloped toward the front so much that at least three coasters were needed to level plates that were placed in front of patrons.  

There were three bartender/oyster shuckers behind the bar that day.  The guy in the picture above left was the primary guy who waited on me.  As he shucked oysters, he conversed with people seated in front of him, some were asking about his shucking technique.  One guy asked him about shucking an oyster with a rock - something that he said he had done before, but didn't like to do.  (I had never heard of that technique.)  When he got the time, he handed me a menu and asked me what I wanted to drink.  Well, I had to have a Samuel Adams lager since this was the first place I had ever tried the beer over 35 years before.  

As I don't remember much other than having Sam Adams beer, lobster rolls, clam chowder and oysters the half-shell on previous visits to the Union Oyster House, it turned out that they had a pretty diverse menu.  It was definitely seafood-centric with seafood appetizers such as mussels, shrimp cocktail, and crab cakes; seafood Caesar or mixed-greens salads; and - of course - local oysters on the half-shell.  

I had to have some oysters along with a cup of the clam chowder to start out.  The gentleman next to me saw the chowder and said, "Now, that's the real stuff!  Real CHOW-DAH!"  I'm sorry, it's chowder, not chow-DAH!  But, then again they have a menu sign behind the bar with the price of a bowl or a cup of chowder and it was spelled "chow-dah".  In any event, the clam chowder was fine - I mean, it has to be if it's served in Boston.  And the oysters were meaty.  The bartender provided me with some Tabasco and I piled a liberal amount of fresh ground horseradish on the oysters to give them a wonderfully spicy "bang".   I made short work of the oysters and the clam chowder and went back to the menu to see what else I could get.  

While I was leaning toward getting a lobster roll, Union Oyster House also had a crab cake sandwich, seared fish tacos, a fried clam roll, and a fried oyster roll.  For people who didn't want seafood, they also had a burger on the menu, as well as a grilled chicken sandwich.  Entrees available for lunch included broiled scrod, sautéed shrimp and scallops, fish and chips, and a seafood platter consisting of fried fish, clams, oysters, shrimp and calamari.  

But I went back to the chilled lobster roll.  It was served on a small toasted hoagie bun with lettuce.  A side of cole slaw came with the sandwich, as did a number of fries.  The lobster roll was - in a word - delicious.  I hadn't had a lobster roll since I was out in California a couple years ago and while that one was good, the one at Union Oyster House was outstanding.  The chilled lobster meat was tender and so full of flavor.  But - oh my god - was it RICH!! I'm glad it was on a small roll because it filled me up pretty quickly.  

But I have to mention the fries.  They were sort of like steak fries - fat and flaky on the inside - but were cut more like large French fries.  And they were delicious, as well.  They were simply some of the best fries I've ever had.  While the lobster roll was terrific on its own, the fries were possibly the most memorable part of the meal.  

After I finished up, I wandered around the rest of the Union Oyster House to see if I remembered something
about the place.  Going up a short flight of steps, there was a larger bar area around a corner.  I sort of remember going up the steps - mainly because the restrooms were up there - but the rest of the place was unfamiliar to me.  The bar in the upper level was more spacious and modern than the original bar on the main level.  But I would have rather sat at the original bar.  

Off to the side of upper bar was a room with a number of painting and 3-D panels depicting famous landmarks around Boston.  Dubbed "The Freedom Trail Room", it featured artwork representations of The Old North Church, The Paul Revere House, The Old State House, and Faneuil Hall that are along the famed Freedom Trail, a 2.5 mile walkway through Boston that I toured back in the late 1980's.  This room I also didn't remember from previous visits.

Past the bar, there's another room toward the very back that features portraits of famous Bostonians and area historic artifacts.  This cozy little room featured a few booths and a small bar area that could be used for private receptions.  

Sometimes visiting places you haven't been back to for years on end can be somewhat disappointing.  In my case, it was over 35 years since the last time I was in the Union Oyster House.  But this visit didn't disappoint in the least.  For as much as I don't remember about my previous visits, I do remember the lobster rolls, the oysters on the half-shell, the clam chowder, and the Sam Adams lager - all of which I first tried at the Union Oyster House.  And having them all once again brought back a lot of memories of expanding my culinary horizons in a place that meant a lot to me during my visits to Boston years and years ago.  It was nice to get back to the Union Oyster House to relive some of my more memorable times in my life.  

XOLO - North Liberty, IA

In early May, a friend of mine had posted on Facebook that he was at a soft opening for a new Mexican restaurant in North Liberty, IA.  He had been part of the crew who installed the sound and video system in the restaurant and the owners were celebrating with many of the people who worked on getting the restaurant up and going.  The actual opening date was still a couple weeks away and I sort of filed it away in the back of my head to go there at some point.  My wife and I were up in North Liberty watching her grandson play soccer one recent evening and after the game we took her daughter, granddaughter and grandson out to dinner at XOLO.  

The people behind XOLO (pronounced SHOW-lo, and named after a hairless Mexican dog breed called Xoloitzcuintli) are the same people who run Cafe Tacuba and Mextizo in Cedar Rapids - Ozzy Aguirre, Ariel Barrios and Raul Gomez.  With the success of their restaurants in Cedar Rapids, the trio set their sights on the Iowa City area to offer their home-style Mexican fare that Aguirre's grandmother made when he was a young boy.  Many of the recipes that Aguirre uses for food in their restaurants are old recipes that have been handed down through generations of his family.  

While their Mexican comfort food-style of food was established in Cedar Rapids, the trio was surprised to learn there really wasn't a restaurant in the immediate area that focused on true Mexican cuisine.  Most featured American-ized Mexican food and with the success they were having with their restaurants in Cedar Rapids - a city that has over 35 Mexican restaurants - they felt they could penetrate the market in the greater Iowa City area that also features a number of Mexican eating establishments.  

Pictured right - Ozzy Aguirre, Raul Gomez and Ariel Barrios.  Photo courtesy City of North Liberty.

After considering the nearby town of Tiffin for their restaurant, a Mexican restaurant by the name of El Patron went out of business along the busy Iowa State Highway 965 corridor, the main drag through North Liberty. El Patron was basically a Mexican restaurant that had been plopped down inside a defunct sports bar.  Undeterred that the space had already had a sports bar and two Mexican restaurants that had gone out of business, the trio took a look at the space and knew they could make something special out of it along the lines of how they decorated both Cafe Tacuba and Mextizo.  With North Liberty growing at an astonishing clip (the town has more than doubled their population over the past 20 years), they felt their new restaurant would be perfect for the area.  After a complete renovation of the space over a period of time, XOLO opened on May 13 of this year.  According to my step-daughter, the place has been packed almost since Day 1 with people from the Iowa City area who suddenly didn't have to drive the extra miles to Cedar Rapids to enjoy home-style Mexican food.  

To get to XOLO in North Liberty, it's a little confusing.  They have an address on Jordan Street, but you actually take Ashley Ct. off Highway 965 and pull into their parking lot from the south side.  (see map)  Right in front of the brick facade building was a small patio are with bright yellow umbrellas and Edison lights strung above the tables.  It was a warm evening and my wife was more interested in getting into the air conditioning after watching a soccer game in the sweltering late afternoon heat.   

Just inside XOLO and to the left is the bar area.  Stone arches were along the back bar with a couple flat screen televisions inside the arches to the side.  They had a number of beers on tap and offered over 30 different tequilas.  The front of the bar featured black tile rectangular squares with seating for 16 people.    

It was just before 8 p.m. when we got there and we found that there would be a short wait to get a table cleaned off for us.  The dining room had a high ceiling and suspended over the tables was a wrap of flowers similar to what they had at Cafe Tacuba.  The semi-circular booths along the wall were similar to the ones found at Mextiza with similar stone arches to what they had behind the bar.  There was a second level in the back of the restaurant space for overflow or private event dining.  

The colorful murals on the wall reminded me of the ones at Cafe Tacuba.  The murals were airbrushed by Ozzy Aguirre's cousin Milton Chacon and each has a significance to the owners and their Mexican heritage.  The murals, alone, are worth going in to XOLO.  

They had cleaned off the table of one of the booths and we were led over by one of the staff members.  Our server that evening was an energetic young man by the name of Brandon.  He was really good - up to the end when we couldn't find him to pay the bill and personally hand him cash for the tip.  Quite actually, they were still working out many kinks in the system that evening as I ordered up an Ozzy's Margarita - Cazadores tequila with fresh lime juice, a splash of fresh orange juice, and finished with an orange liqueur - and it took nearly 10 minutes to get the drink to the table, long after we had already ordered our meals.  After a few moments, I looked over to the bar and saw that Brandon was making the margarita himself.  And the margarita was just all right - nothing special.  I thought about getting a second one, but I knew that it would probably take just as long to get it.  So I ordered a Dos Equis Ambar that they had on tap.  And THAT one took some time to get to the table.  

The food menu at XOLO mirrors the menu at Mextiza in Cedar Rapids - various taco platters, enchiladas, burritos, and fajitas, as well as grilled chicken and beef dishes.  They had a number of seafood selections, and they had down-home Mexican entrees such as pork carnitas marinated in a chile verde or a chile roja sauce; chicken in a chipotle sauce, and gorditas with a choice of protein.  

The little turds went with the basic tacos and burritos while my wife and my step-daughter split the chicken verde enchiladas.  I did something similar getting the pork verde enchiladas - Brandon said that they could put some of the marinated pork meat in the enchiladas even though it was just chicken enchiladas with the green sauce on the menu.  A side of refried beans and Mexican rice came with the dish.  It was topped with some shredded lettuce, chopped onions, sour cream and fresh chihuahua cheese and finished with a wonderful green chile sauce.  And the chile verde packed a bit of a spicy punch.  The pork was tender  with full and wonderful flavor, and along with the green sauce had an outstanding taste.  The enchiladas weren't all that big, but they were filling.  The rice and refried beans were your basic Mexican-style sides, but the green chile enchiladas were very good.  

As I said, we wanted to pay Brandon in cash for his tip and my wife always likes to hand it to our server to make sure they get the tip and it doesn't go into the pocket of someone else.  But Brandon sort of disappeared after he had dropped off the bill.  We don't know if he was done of the evening or just ghosted us.  It was just another little blip that we encountered during our visit to XOLO.

But that doesn't mean we won't go back at some point.  The pork verde enchiladas were excellent.  Everyone at the table liked what they got - the burrito was so big my step-grandson could only eat half and he took the other half home with him.  And that's highly unusual because he has the appetite of a horse.  We just want the XOLO staff to work out the kinks of getting the restaurant up and running before we head back there again at some point later this summer.  

The Hudson - Sedona, AZ

During our time in Sedona, we did a lot of sightseeing walks in the rocks and hills around the area.  We did a late afternoon/early evening walk just south of Sedona and finished up just before sunset.  My wife said she was sort of hungry, but not for a big meal.  I was sort of in the same mood, I wasn't all that hungry, but needed a little something.  We decided to find a place where we could do something along the line of small plate appetizers.  Doing a quick search on my phone, I found a place that seemed like it would fit the bill - The Hudson.  It was on our way back to the hotel, so we decided to stop in and get a light bite and a couple drinks.  

Mark Shugrue grew up in Prescott, AZ and had a lot of hospitality blood in his body.  His grandparents on his mother's side immigrated from Greece and owned a restaurant in Connecticut.  His mother Helen eventually married John Shugrue and moved to Phoenix in the early 1950's.  Helen Shugrue worked in the Phoenix public schools food service department for over 30 years.  Their son Mark worked in restaurants in the Phoenix area before moving to Prescott, AZ to work in restaurants there in his mid-20's.  

At the age of 28, Mark Shugrue had the opportunity to open his own restaurant in Sedona.  Shugrue's opened in 1981 in West Sedona at the corner of Rodeo Road and Arizona State Highway 89a.  During his time in Sedona, Mark Shugrue met his future wife Lisa.  After marrying, she joined him in his restaurant business and the couple raised three children.  

While in Sedona, Shugrue became somewhat of a serial restaurateur.  In addition to Shugrue's, he opened and ran other restaurants such as Javelina Cantina in both Sedona and Lake Havasu City, AZ, as well as Barley Brothers and Macai Cafe in Lake Havasu City.  In the early 2000's, Shugrue opened a second Shugrue's spot - Shugrue's Hillside - in Sedona.  It was during this period that Jeff Storcz came on board at the executive chef at both Shugrue locations in Sedona. 

After closing the original Shugrue's, Mark and Lisa Shugrue concentrated on their second Sedona location.  In 2015, the couple decided that the restaurant needed a makeover.  They hired an architect and interior designer to redevelop the restaurant space, and in 2016 they reopened the restaurant as The Hudson.  While the Shugrue's have retired from the day-to-day aspects of running both the Javelina Cantina and The Hudson, they brought in restaurant industry veteran Sheena Curl to be an investor/managing partner for the Javelina Cafe while elevating Jeff Storcz to be chef/managing partner of The Hudson.  

The Hudson is sort of tough to find because it's set back from Arizona Route 179 on a hillside just south of the Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village in Sedona  (see map)  We actually passed it a couple times before we figured that we had to pull into a parking lot of the Hillside Shopping Plaza and make our way to the back of the property.  The Hudson is a popular place - especially at sunset - and the parking lot was nearly full when we pulled in.  

The dining room had a contemporary chic theme to the decor with a vaulted white ceiling contrasting with the walls which were sort of a shiny charcoal grey.  Half-circle booths were along the walls and there was a walk-out area for deck seating.    

The centerpiece of the restaurant is the large rectangular bar toward the front door.  That's where we parked ourselves after the hostess told us that it would be at least a half-hour wait to get a table either inside or out on the deck.  We sat at two corner seats and caught the last glimpses of the brilliant and colorful post-sunset off to the west.  

It was very busy and there were three bartenders working that evening.  It took some time before we were greeted by one of the bartenders, a tall, slender short-haired blonde by the name of Shelby.  She was having some problems with two ladies where were seated near us where it appeared that one of the ladies had been over-served and had worn out her welcome.  It was kind of embarrassing to see that all unfold because The Hudson was sort of a classy place.

And because of that, my wife and I sort of felt like we were imposing on a local "pretty-people" hangout.  Yes, we had gone out and done a little hiking and we were probably a bit dusty, but there was a noticeable indifference in the service we received that evening - not only with the hostess, but with the bar staff, as well.  Once again, as I told my wife, "Our money spends just as well as all these other people in here.  It's their problem, not ours."   

Once we were able to get noticed by Shelby, she gave us a couple menus to look through.  She also took our drink order and my wife ordered up her standard Tito's vodka and cranberry juice, while I found a hazy IPA from the Pedal Haus brewery with three locations in the greater Phoenix area.  

While my wife and I were looking more along the lines of appetizers or small plates to satiate our shallow appetite that evening, I have to say that many of the entrees on the menu sounded pretty good to me.  They had USDA Prime aged-steaks on the menu, along with blackened swordfish; crab-stuffed shrimp; and grilled Australian lamb chops.  They had a huge chicken pot pie on the menu - it was $30 bucks - and a lady just down the bar from us got that.  She had - maybe six or seven bites with her fork before she said that she needed a box.  It was huge!  They also had burgers - including a bison burger, sandwiches, braised pork tacos, and Thai-style scallops mixed with rice noodles.  

But we were looking to go light that evening and concentrated on the appetizers/salads portions of the menu.  The beer-battered calamari was somewhat appealing, as was the ahi tuna poke served with jasmine rice and chunks of avocado.  The sesame-seared ahi tuna salad was also something that caught my eye, while my wife was contemplating whether or not to get the Southwest Caesar salad or the quinoa salad.  

However, when it came time to order, she went with the prime rib slider sandwich and also got a small Caesar salad.  The prime rib was shaved onto a small bun and topped with pepper jack cheese.  A side of creamy horseradish and some au jus came on the the side.  Along with the Caesar salad, my wife was more than happy with what she ordered.   

I was torn between a couple three things - the meatballs and garlic bread appetizer was interesting to me, and I really thought hard about the steamed clams in a fennel leak broth.  But they also had some bruschetta on the menu with various toppings.   Those toppings included a caprese mixture of fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil and a sticky balsamic vinegar; a mushroom and roasted garlic mix; and an olive tapenade with arugula, chopped tomatoes and a mascarpone cheese.  

I almost got the olive tapenade, but I ended up getting the smoked salmon bruschetta that was mixed with a pesto cream cheese, capers and sliced red onion; and I also got the blackened shrimp bruschetta that was placed on a bed of smashed avocado and topped with cilantro and a light sprinkling of cotija cheese.  And I have to say that both were fabulous.  They were light, flavorful and hit the spot in terms of giving me just enough to satiate any appetite cravings I may have the rest of the evening.  The smoked salmon was outstanding - once again, I can't eat cooked salmon, but raw sushi salmon or smoked salmon I could eat all night long.  While I was happy with the blackened shrimp bruschetta, I really wish I would have gotten two of the smoked salmon bruschettas.  

We had talked about going back to The Hudson to have a full meal during our stay in Sedona.  But the funky vibe we got from the staff - sort of a standoffish feeling that we were recognized as outsiders and not greeted or treated like others who were definitely locals that we saw come into the place - made our decision more easy.  Besides, there's a lot of great restaurants in Sedona and we missed a few others during our time there.  But my wife and I were happy with the small plates that we had - the smoked salmon bruschetta I had was exceptional, a very memorable selection on my part.  While The Hudson was a pretty nice place to visit, I really wish the staff would have been a bit more welcoming and friendly.    

Halftime Bar & Grill - Pleasantville, IA

The Iowa Beef Industry Council held their annual "Best Burger in Iowa" contest for 2025 recently, and a sports bar in the small town of Pleasantville was named as having the best burger by a panel of judges.  I was in Des Moines on a recent trip and before I went home, I drove the approximately 25 miles down to Pleasantville to try a burger at Halftime Bar & Grill.  

Nebraska native Kathy DeHeer ended up in Pleasantville along with her husband Kevin to raise a family.  Kathy loved working in restaurants and she was working at Frosty's, a longtime bar and grill on the square in Knoxville.  When the owners of Frosty's decided to retire, they offered Kathy the business.  She had always wanted to run her own restaurant and the DeHeer family bought Frosty's in early 2023.  For as long as I can remember, Pleasantville has been a sports-minded town with a large following of the local high school teams, so the DeHeers changed Frosty's into a family-friendly sports bar and renamed it Halftime Bar & Grill.  They brought their two children - Amanda and Tyler - into the business making it a true family affair.  

During their first full year of business Amanda and Kathy DeHeer contemplated getting their burgers into the 2024 Best Burger in Iowa contest, but they came up short in being named one of the finalists.  Having a year to work on the marketing efforts, the DeHeers ratcheted up their game and were able to get Halftime Bar & Grill into the ten finalists for Best Burger in Iowa for 2025.  In early May, they got the call that they had garnered the top burger award for this year.  

It was just before noon when I pulled up in front of Halftime Bar & Grill located on the northwest corner of the town square in Pleasantville, a town with a population of about 1600.  (see map)  I had to park across the street in front of the town hall and fire station because there was already a large crowd in the restaurant, as well as on the two patios - one on the side of the building, while the other one was on the front side under a pergola.

Halftime Bar & Grill is not a large place.  In fact, it may be the smallest of all the Best Burger in Iowa contest winners I've visited over the years.  The main dining area sat - maybe - 28 people.  It featured exposed ductwork and exposed crossbeams in the ceiling.  It was cozy, but people weren't on top of one another.  And there were all walks of life in there - farmers, first responders, older people, younger people.  It was busier than hell in the place.  

A secondary dining room was off to the side of the main dining area.  A larger community table was in there along with more seats and tables almost doubling the capacity of the little bar and grill.  The side dining area had pine wood paneling and crossbeams, along with the entrance to the patio attached to the front of the restaurant.  

I sat at the small L-shaped bar that had the kitchen directly behind it.  There were two bartenders that day and the lady who eventually waited on me was named Tonya.  After she gave me a menu to look over, she asked me what I would like to drink.  They had six beers on tap on the wall behind the bar - five craft beers and Busch Light, the state beer of Iowa.  I ordered an Easy Eddy from the Big Grove Brewery to get started.  

It was a two-sided menu at Halftime Bar & Grill with cheese balls, cheese curds, and onion rings the only appetizers available.  Salads and their roster of burgers rounded out the first page of the menu.  The second page featured sandwiches, wraps, tacos, chicken wings and a list of their premium side dishes.  It was a pretty condensed menu and based upon the size of the kitchen behind the bar it's a guess that they couldn't add much more to the menu.  

And those people working back in the kitchen that day were working their asses off.  In addition to a full house inside and out, Halftime Bar & Grill was also doing a brisk take-out business that day.  There seemed to be a lot of chaos in the kitchen with all the activities and raised voices when I was there.  

They had 9 burgers on the menu including a burger topped with jalapeño bacon, pepper jack cheese and a sriracha bourbon sauce, and one that had jalapeño bacon, pepper jack cheese and jalapeños.  The "Barnyard Argument Burger" was topped with a fried egg, bacon, American cheese, and grilled onions; and the "Over-the-Top Beer Cheese Burger" featured a burger topped with sautéed onions and a healthy slathering of a beer cheese sauce.  I found out while I was there that the judges for the Best Burger in Iowa contest favored the "Humpback Burger" - an 8-ounce grilled burger topped with ham, bacon, pepper jack cheese, sautéed onions and topped with a house-made smokey sauce.  

Actually, the Humpback Burger didn't appeal to me, but the "Magic Mushroom Burger" did.  It came with sautéed onions and mushrooms along with Swiss cheese.  I asked Tonya if I could get pepper jack cheese instead of Swiss cheese, and if she could throw some bacon on the top, as well.  She said that would be no problem.  

Because they were so backed up in the kitchen, it took a little over 20 minutes from the time I ordered to the time someone from the kitchen brought out the burger on a square platter.  The pepper jack cheese was oozing over the top of the burger patty with sautéed mushrooms and onions underneath.  A fresh lettuce leaf, sliced red onions, a tomato slice and dill pickles came on the side.  The bun was slightly toasted and from all angles it looked like a pretty good burger.  Crinkle cut fries came with the burger and that was just a waste for me.  

And the burger was...  OK.  Not the best of the Best Burger in Iowa contest winners I've tried, but certainly not the worst.  It had a nice beefy flavor and it was pretty lean.  The bun held together nicely with all the stuff on the burger, especially the thick melted pepper jack cheese.  But the burger, itself, was just... all right.  Once again, I have to question what criteria the judges use in determining the Best Burger in Iowa.  Maybe I should have tried the Humpback Burger, but the Magic Mushroom burger was nearly similar to that one minus the mushrooms and with ham added.  So, I don't know what they look for in a burger.  

The Best Burger in Iowa contest has been going on for 16 years.  I've now tried 13 of the winners - the only ones that I haven't tried are the 2021 winner, Bambino's in Ossian, IA; the 2019 winner, Wood Iron Grille in Oskaloosa; and the 2024 winner, JJ's Tavern & Grille in Ankeny.  (And I won't be able to try the burgers at JJ's Tavern or Wood Iron Grille burger as JJ's closed down months after winning the Best Burger in Iowa title, and Wood Iron Grille closed in April of last year.)  Some were just outright bad, a couple were pretty damned good, and my gold standard for the Best Burger in Iowa winners continues to be The Flying Elbow in Marshalltown.  The burger at Halftime Bar & Grill was better than some, but not what I would call the best of all the contest winners I've tried.  Still, it would be worth a visit to Pleasantville to give their burgers a try.  

Black Bear Diner - Scottsdale, AZ

We spent our first night of our recent vacation in Scottsdale near almost equidistant between the homes of my two sisters who live in the area.  We were going to go over to check out my sister's place in North Scottsdale before heading up to Sedona on a Sunday morning.  We figured she wouldn't have any breakfast made for us, so we decided to go to a nearby restaurant to have something to eat before we made the trip over to her house and then up to Sedona.  There was a family diner right by our hotel by the name of Black Bear Diner and we took the short trip there to have breakfast.

Now, I wasn't familiar with Black Bear Diner, but it turns out that it's somewhat of a regional chain that is branching out to other parts of the U.S.  There's over 160 Black Bear Diner locations in 14 states!  And that includes a location in Morris, IL outside of Chicago, one in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, and two in the Kansas City area.  But most are located in California with seven Black Bear Diner spots in the greater Phoenix area.  

The history of Black Bear Diner goes back over 30 years ago when Mount Shasta, CA native Bob Manley was running The Black Bear art gallery with his wife Laurie.  Manley's main job was as a teacher, but he also dabbled in real estate.  It was when he was working on a subdivision project where he met Bruce Dean.  Dean was managing the Hi-Lo Cafe, a venerable eatery owned by his wife Margaret - who inherited it from her parents - in nearby Weed.  Dean and Manley hit it off and the two decided that they may be able to be business partners at some point.  It was soon thereafter that Bruce and Margaret Dean went through a divorce leaving him a free agent to start up his own restaurant.

A restaurant in Mount Shasta had gone out of business giving Dean the opportunity to open his own place using pretty much the same menu that he had worked with at the Hi-Lo Cafe.  The only problem was that he wasn't that good of marketing.  He turned to Bob and Laurie Manley for advice and the couple was intrigued enough that they wanted to join Dean in the business.  The trio raised $40,000 - Dean sold his boat and Manley dipped into his retirement account - and the Manley's came up with the concept: The Black Bear Diner.  Growing up in the Mount Shasta area, Manley saw black bears all the time.  It was a close encounter with a 600-pound bear when Manley was a 12 year old on a hunting trip that cemented his eternal relationship with bears.  Even though they were forced to kill the bear for their own safety, Manley took one of the claws from the bear and eventually had it made into a gold pendant that he continues to wear around his neck to this day.

The Manleys and Dean decorated the restaurant with bear-centric art work from Manley's gallery and on September 22, 1995 the Black Bear Cafe opened their doors.  Manley and Dean worked 16 hour days, 7 days a week to get their restaurant going.  Their only income was from the quarters people would put into the jukebox they had on site.  But within months of opening, people were driving as far away as Redding - one hour to the south of Mount Shasta - to have a meal at the Black Bear Diner.  

Pictured right - Bob "Papa Bear" Manley and Bruce "Sugar Bear" Dean.  Photo courtesy SFGate.com

Because so many people were driving up from the Redding area, the partners decided in 1997 to put a second Black Bear Diner in that city.  The problems started right off the bat as their restaurant was right across the street from a Denny's.  Dean was running the location in Redding and when Manley would come to visit, he would sit out in front of the restaurant and count the number of cars driving into Denny's parking lot versus how many were pulling into the Black Bear Diner lot.  Early on, it was a 10 to 1 ratio of cars driving into Denny's.  But through hard work, some good marketing, and a gaining a reputation of having good food - and lots of it - within a few weeks there were people parking in the Denny's lot and walking across the street to have a meal at the Black Bear Diner.  

With the success of Mount Shasta and Redding Black Bear Diners, Manley and Dean expanded into the towns of Chico - a college and farming community about 70 miles south of Redding; and into Red Bluff - a smaller town halfway between Redding and Chico.  The Black Bear Diner locations in those two towns didn't work out - the restaurant they had in Chico was too small and people got tired of waiting in lines to get into the place; and the building they had in Red Bluff was too big for the population it served.  Within a year, those two locations closed and Manley and Dean came back to Redding and Mount Shasta to lick their wounds and figure out their future. 

Expansion was pretty low on their "to-do" list, that is until a chain of restaurants called Jerry's contacted Dean and Manley to see if the partners wanted to buy 20 of their locations, mainly in small towns in Northern California and Nevada.  Ironically, it was the closure of a Jerry's location in Mount Shasta that gave Dean and Manley their first Black Bear Diner.  Apprehensive about taking over all 20 restaurants at once, Dean and Manley decided to start small with the takeover of a Jerry's location in Sparks, NV.  After a slow conversion into a Black Bear Diner, it appeared that their little gambit may work.  From there, Manley and Dean took over Jerry's locations in small California towns such as Susanville, Willows, Salinas and Alturas.  Suddenly the Black Bear Diner concept was an overwhelming success.  Many of the Jerry's restaurants in Arizona eventually became Black Bear Diners.   

In 2002, Manley and Dean established a company to sell franchises primarily around California, Oregon, and Nevada.  The partners established parameters for the franchisees starting with Black Bear Diner locations in larger cities and using that as a hub where more restaurants could be spoked out from the city.   In later years, Oklahoma City, Houston, and Austin, TX were designated as hub cities and that's where the growth out away from those cities occurred.   

Each restaurant sources its decoration from the original Black Bear Gallery in Mount Shasta (Bob and Laurie Manley sold the gallery a number of years ago), and each restaurant has a wooden-carved black bear in front - each of which have been carved for the past 25 years by a Washington state woodcarver Ray Shulz.  Since they opened in 1995, Black Bear Diner has used a newsprint-style menu - The Black Bear Gazette - that included local historical stories at times.  80% of the food served at Black Bear Diner locations today are the same as what they served on Sept. 22, 1995.  

Bob Manley has since retired, but remains the executive chairman of the chain.  Anita Adams, a corporate restaurant veteran who had worked for a Nashville restaurant group that owned restaurants such as O'Charley's, Village Inn, Max & Erma's and Bakers Square, came on board in 2017 as the CFO of Black Bear Diner and was elevated to president and CFO in March of 2019 before becoming the company's CEO upon Manley's retirement in March of 2020.  Bruce Dean is also retired, but still maintains a seat on the company's board of directors.  All this from one little restaurant in the small town of Mount Shasta, CA!

The Black Bear Diner in Scottsdale is located on N. Scottsdale Road just north of the intersection of Bell Road.  (see map)  We had seen the restaurant the day before as my wife likes bears and remarked about the name of the restaurant when we were going to our hotel.  It was around 8 a.m. when we pulled into the parking lot and they seemed to be already doing a brisk business.  

The dining area had a distinctive mountain cabin motif with miscellaneous artwork and paraphernalia on the walls.  Booths were along the walls while sturdy wooden tables and chairs were in the middle of the room.     

There was another side dining room at the Black Bear Diner and in the middle was a small bar area with a handful of seats with pine log backs.  The kitchen area was behind the bar along a stainless steel wall.  The restaurant was very clean and tidy.

We were seated in a booth along one of the walls in the larger of the two dining areas.  Black Bear Gazette menus were provided and it was a few moments later when our server, a very nice lady by the name of Jenna, came over to great us.  My wife ordered some coffee and orange juice, while I got an orange juice to start out.  

Even though they do have lunch and dinner options on the menu including burgers, sandwiches, salads, and comfort food selections, Black Bear Diner is probably best known for their breakfast offerings.  And because of that, they serve breakfast all day long.  And depending upon your appetite, Black Bear Diner has pretty much about anything a person would want for breakfast choices.  They have Hungry Bear combos that feature chicken fried steak, a strip steak, and even a breakfast with six strips of bacon!  Conventional 2-egg combo breakfasts are a big part of the breakfast menu, as well as pancakes, waffles, French toast, omelettes, chorizo wraps, and a breakfast sandwich.  They even had lighter breakfasts for people who didn't have that large of an appetizer including avocado toast, a short stack of pancakes, a chicken sausage egg scramble, and brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal.  

My wife was sort of thinking of getting the classic Eggs Benedict breakfast, but right next to it on the menu was something that caught her attention.  It was called the California Bacon Benedict - poached eggs covered in a hollandaise sauce resting on a bed of sliced avocados, grilled tomatoes, chopped spinach and bacon on an English muffin.  A side of fresh fruit came on the side.  It was a sort of healthy alternative that she seemed to like very much.  

I thought about getting the cinnamon roll French toast - a cinnamon roll dipped in batter and flat-grilled.  But I thought that may weigh heavy on my stomach, so I went with the shredded corn beef hash along with two eggs over easy and a side of hash browns.  Sourdough toast came with the breakfast and I ordered a side of bacon to make the breakfast complete.  The shredded corn beef was all right - nothing great.  But it was a good breakfast.

Off to the side on the table were three hot sauces - a Papa Burn sauce that was made with habanero peppers, a Mama Burn sauce that was made with chipotle peppers, and a Baby Burn sauce that was the mildest of the three - sort of like a Tabasco sauce.  I tried all three on my hash browns and felt that the Mama Burn chipotle sauce was the best of the three.  It also seemed to be a bit more spicy than the Papa Burn sauce made with habaneros.  The sauces were good and they were available for sale at Black Bear Diner, but I didn't like them well enough to buy a bottle or two while we were there.  

I thought the Black Bear Diner was a good place for breakfast.  They had an extensive menu of breakfast items and they served breakfast all day long.  My wife enjoyed her California Bacon Benedict that was a healthy version of a regular Eggs Benedict.  And I thought my corned beef hash with eggs and hash browns were fine for what they were.  I can't say enough about our server Jenna who was helpful with suggestions, on top of every request we had, and she did it with a cheerful nature that helped make the experience at Black Bear Diner even more pleasant.  Given the number of Black Bear Diner locations in the western states - and now growing in the Midwest - I'm sort of surprised I didn't come across one of these in earlier travels.  They have a great little concept and it's definitely better than many of the more highly visible national chains.  

Easy Street Pizza and Beer Garden - Park Ridge, IL

I had to go into Chicago for a couple days recently and stayed out in Des Plaines at my usual hotel when I go into Chicago - the Hilton Garden Inn O'Hare.  I was in the mood for pizza, but wasn't certain I wanted to go to a couple of my regular haunts when I'm in the area.  I did a quick look for a pizza place in the area and found a spot in Park Ridge that I wasn't familiar with - Easy Street Pizza and Beer Garden.  Pizza and beer garden got my attention, so I took off to go over the Park Ridge that evening.  

Actually, Easy Street Pizza in Park Ridge is one of three locations around the Chicagoland area.  Dan Latino is a Park Ridge resident who started his first restaurant - Waterhouse - in 2005.  Located in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, Waterhouse was a popular neighborhood bar/restaurant up until Latino closed it in 2023 for a new concept called Avenue Tap & Kitchen.  Another one of Latino's restaurant - Pitchfork that was located in the Irving Park neighborhood - opened in 2009.  From there, Latino took over a country bar in the Wrigleyville neighborhood in 2014 and renamed it The Country Club.  Specializing in southern food, The Country Club is also a country music dance hall.  

By 2016, Latino was looking to get into the pizza business.  A longtime Portage Park neighborhood bar - K&H Lounge - had closed their doors in 2016 after 71 years in business.  Latino signed the lease on the building in late 2016 and completely gutted the structure to turn it into an inviting pizza pub with an emphasis on sports and craft beers.  Easy Street Pizza and Beer Garden opened in June of 2017.    

By 2020, Latino had felt that Pitchfork had run its course.  Coupled with the pandemic, Latino felt that it was a good time to make a change.  With the success of Easy Street Pizza, he made the decision to turn Pitchfork into the second Easy Street Pizza and Beer Garden location.  The changeover was complete in the fall of 2020.  

Since Latino was a resident of suburban Park Ridge, he was hoping to be able to put a restaurant in that community.  In 2017, he had approached Nick Straub, the longtime owner of the locally popular Perry's Pizza and Ribs on Devon Ave., about possibly purchasing the business.  However, Straub wasn't willing to sell the business at that time.  However, after weathering the pandemic in 2020 and deciding it was time to retire, Straub agreed to sell Latino the restaurant that he had started in 1979.  Latino took over the space in the late summer of 2021 and opened his third Easy Street Pizza in early 2022.  

(In addition to the aforementioned Chicago area restaurants, Latino also owns two restaurants in the Naples, FL area - The Oasis and Sonny's Pizzeria and Sports Bar.)  

The Easy Street Pizza location in Park Ridge is on the south side of Devon Ave. just east of S. Cumberland Rd. and just west of W. Talcott Rd.  (see map)  There was no parking on Devon Ave. in front of East Street, but I found a spot on a side street just to the east of the restaurant.  Walking up, they had an outside patio - definitely not a beer garden - on the sidewalk in front of the building.  It was an open air restaurant as the windows up front were open.  It was a warm and somewhat humid evening and it wasn't comfortable - temperature-wise - in the restaurant.   Plus someone was smoking in the near proximity to the patio area and the odor was wafting into the bar.  It was something that I didn't quite expect to smell in a restaurant.  

The place was packed when I walked inside.  The booths along the side wall were all full, as were the four-seat tables in the middle.  A number of flat screen televisions were showing a myriad of sports from basketball, baseball, soccer and hockey.  There seemed to be a mix of families, buddies who appeared they just came from the golf course, and couples on dates in the place.  The volume of the televisions were turned down, but they had 70's and 80's classic rock playing in the background.  But with the larger crowd trying converse over the music and everyone else with the low ceilings in the restaurant made for a somewhat loud environment.  

There were a couple spots open at the bar and I was able to snag a stool on the far end of the bar near the kitchen.  There were a couple bartenders behind the bar that night and they were working their butts off trying to stay abreast of the drink orders that were coming in.  It took me about five minutes before I was even acknowledged.  The one who finally did greet me and hand me a menu was Mary Jane, a slender young woman with a blonde braided pony tail.  She asked me what I wanted to drink and I saw that they had the Maplewood Brewery's Son of Juice hazy IPA on tap.  

Even though I was there for pizza, I took a look through the menu to see what else they had to offer.  Of course since it was beer-centric sports bar, Easy Street had a handful of appetizers such as wings, loaded taco-style tots, and the "Easy Street Board" featuring raw veggies and herbed pita bread with both hummus and a spinach dip.  They also had sandwiches including a cheeseburger on the menu, as well as garlic bread French dip, and an Italian sandwich with salami, pepperoni, provolone cheese, with lettuce, tomatoes, pepper rings and red onions.  Salads were also available on the menu at Easy Street.

Predictably, I went with my standard Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza.  They have four sizes of thin crust tavern-style pizza at Easy Street - 12", 14", 16" and 18" and I went with the small.  (They also have deep dish pizza available in 10" and 14" sizes, and gluten-free crust is also available upon request.)  The first thing I noticed was that there was a lot of mozzarella cheese on the pizza.  Not that that was a bad thing - my wife wouldn't have liked it - but I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't scrimp on the cheese.  

And with all the cheese, I thought the crust would be somewhat saggy.  But that wasn't the case.  The "sag factor" was a non-entity with the tavern-style pizza at Easy Street.  

The pizza was wonderful.  It had a nice tangy sauce, the cheese was smooth, and the toppings were all very fresh.  The Italian sausage had a nice fennel taste to it, the pepperoni had a salty bite, and the mushrooms still maintained an earthy flavor.  This was a top-notch pizza and I was not disappointed with it in the least.  

Other than the place being somewhat small and sort of loud, and the fact that it was an open-air restaurant that let in the outside heat and humidity (and the occasional cigarette smoke), the pizza I had at Easy Street Pizza and Beer Garden.  After things settled down for Mary Jane to acknowledge me, she was very attentive the rest of my visit.  There's a lot of great options in the Park Ridge area for good food restaurants of all sorts and I think Easy Street may have found itself in the rotation when I go back into Chicago in the future.   

 

Basecamp - Sedona Beer Co. - Sedona, AZ

We got to our hotel in Sedona around 2 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon and we were told that our room wasn't ready.  However, we found that the property was a Hilton Grand Vacations hotel and they started to put the hard squeeze on us for vacation timeshares almost from the time we walked into the door.  Already sort of pissed that we couldn't get into our room and for the full-court press they began to put on us to consider going to a 90-minute presentation on Hilton Grand Vacation's timeshare program, we walked back out to the car to go get something to eat before we could go back to the hotel. (Spoiler alert - we went back, didn't like our room and we checked out to go to another hotel.)  Knowing that a brewpub would probably help soothe my growing disgust with what we were experiencing, but wife looked up brewpubs in the immediate area.  She found one about a mile away - Sedona Beer Company.  We pulled into the parking lot at their Basecamp location around 2:30.  

Kali Gajewski grew up in Sedona and after graduating from high school she made her way to Boulder, CO to go to school at Colorado.  It was there she met a young man by the name of Mac Crawford who was brewing beers at home before he was of the legal age to drink.  Kali didn't like beer all that much, so Mac made flavored ciders for her.  That sealed the deal on the relationship and the two married after college.  Mac had a masters from Colorado in civil engineering and Kali had a masters in social work and the two made their home in Denver.  Mac Crawford's prowess of brewing beers and Kali actually helped out with the brewing process, enjoying working with her husband as he made different styles of beer and cider.  

Tragedy hit Kali Gajewski in 2016 when her mother passed away in Sedona.  There was just one brewpub in the town at that point and Gajewski and Crawford saw Sedona as a great destination to chase their dream of running their own microbrewery.  After 10 years in the Mile High City, the couple moved to Sedona in August of 2015 and incorporated Sedona Beer Company in early 2016.  Continuing to perfect some of his beer recipes and formulas at their new home, Crawford and Gajewski started to look for a space in Sedona to house their microbrewery.   

Pictured right - Kali Gajewski and Mac Crawford.  Photo courtesy Verde News.com.  

With commercial real estate at a premium in Sedona, it took some time for the couple to find a property to house their brewery/tap room.  In the summer of 2017, a sushi restaurant in Uptown Sedona went out of business.  Kali liked the location and signed the lease on the space in September of that year.  It took nearly a year for the conversion of a sushi restaurant into a microbrewery with a taproom to be complete, but when Sedona Beer Company's first taproom finally opened in August of 2018, Kali proclaimed that it was a place that she loved to hang out at and never leave.  

While Uptown Sedona caters to the millions of tourists who visit the area annually, Gajewski and Crawford decided they wanted a spot that was more laid back and attracted more of the locals.  Plus they wanted more control over their property, one where they could make a carbon-neutral footprint for the environment, plus have the space to be able to expand in the future.  In the spring of 2024, Sedona Beer Company's second location - Basecamp - opened in West Sedona.  It had more of an emphasis on outdoor seating with some stunning view of the surrounding red rock hills and buttes, as well as a food truck that served food to patrons.  

Basecamp is located just off Arizona 89A - the main drag through Sedona - and Dry Creek Road.  (see map)  There's a parking lot in front of the building and it was about half-full when we pulled in.  

The inside of Sedona Beer Company's Basecamp location wasn't very big with a bar that sat - maybe - 8 people and a few tables with chairs.  We were greeted by Michael, an affable middle-aged guy who looked like he may do something else for a living rather than working in a brewpub full time.  We sampled some of the beers on their tap list including two of their hazy IPA's - the Desert Trip and the Unsupervised Children.  I thought both to be a little weak in flavor for a hazy IPA.  I ended up getting the Beach Please West Coast IPA they had on tap.  My wife didn't seem to like any of the beers I had tried, so she ended up getting one of the guest beers they had on tap, the Kush IPA from the Pedal Haus Brewery with 4 locations in the greater Phoenix area.  Quite honestly, I ended up getting the Kush IPA for my second beer just before we got our food.  

I asked Michael if they had food available and he said they had a food truck.  The food truck is actually more of a trailer with a walk-up window to pick up orders.  The food menu at Basecamp is much more pared down than the menu at the Uptown location.  Whereas the Uptown location has burgers, steak frites, and shrimp tacos; most of the food at Basecamp featured wings, a couple different styles of flatbread, polenta cakes, a Cuban-style hot dog topped with smoked brisket and one sandwich.  My wife and I ordered the sandwich and paid for everything inside.  

The sun was just starting to pop out through the heavy cloud cover that had been in place since we drove into Sedona.  We found a table on the patio on the patio that didn't have an umbrella.  My wife likes sunscreen and she hadn't put any on.  I suggested we go back inside, but then two couples at a table on the upper level of the patio got up to leave and we ended up taking that table.  

The views from the patio were very good - not spectacular - but good.  The sandstone hills and rocks off in the distance surrounded with high desert bushes and vegetation were a great contrast to see.  The patio at Basecamp was truly a nice place to hang out.  

My wife and I got the same thing - the Pulled Porcetta sandwich.  It featured herb-roasted pulled pork topped with sun-dried tomato aioli, arugula, provolone cheese and pickled fennel, served on thick cut ciabatta bread.  A side of Old Bay seasoned popcorn came on the side.  I wasn't expecting much from the sandwich, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.  The pulled pork was very good - it had a wonderful flavor and was moist and easy to chew.  Along with the arugula, provolone, sun-dried tomatoes and the pickled fennel, it all worked together to make it an outstanding sandwich.  But the sandwiches were also pretty big - we remarked we could have easily gotten one sandwich to split between the two of us.  I pretty much finished my sandwich off and my wife discarded the top piece of the second half of her sandwich and just pulled the pork off the bottom piece with a fork and ate it that way.  We knew we were probably going out to east somewhere later that evening and we didn't want to get filled up.

Almost as soon as we were finishing up at Basecamp, I got the text from the front desk agent at the hotel that our room was ready.  I wasn't quite ready to leave the patio at Sedona Beer Company just yet, but we thought we'd better go over and get the lay of the land at the hotel that we ended up not even staying at.  

While I didn't care for the beers all that much at Sedona Beer Company, my wife and I both thought the Pulled Porchetta sandwiches we had were marvelous.  Michael the bartender was a very nice and friendly guy, and it was tough to beat the views on the patio at Basecamp.  We thought about heading to the original location in Uptown Sedona, but we never did make it.  I learned after a couple days that Uptown Sedona was just too touristy for my tastes.  Still, it you want to try a local microbrewery without having to wade through the sea of tourists, give Sedona Beer Company's Basecamp location if you get to Sedona.  

Red's Ale House - North Liberty, IA

My wife's grandson plays varsity soccer for Liberty High School in North Liberty, IA.  He's only 15 and a scrawny little turd, but we're proud that he was only one of four players on the squad who are freshmen.  We've gone up to North Liberty to watch him play a few times this year (they recently placed second in the state in the Iowa Class 3A boys state soccer tournament), and with their games starting at 5 p.m. because their field has no lights, we are usually out of there by 7:15, barring the game going into overtime and - possibly - penalty kicks.  We had just watched them play and along with my step-daughter, her daughter and her soccer-playing son we decided to go out to eat after the game.  I had wanted to go to a place in North Liberty that I had been by many times, but had never been in to eat.  I suggested Red's Ale House and everyone wholeheartedly agreed.  

Red's Alehouse is owned by Faye Swift and her son, Matt.  Both have an extensive background in the restaurant business in the Iowa City area - Faye Swift was the longtime owner of Slugger's Sports Bar located on the Coralville strip, and Matt Swift has been involved in a number of local restaurants including Blackstone, 30hop, and was one of the founders of Big Grove Brewery that now has four locations across the state of Iowa.  

Pictured right - Faye and Matt Swift.  Photo courtesy Iowa City Press-Citizen.  

But it was a natural disaster that precipitated the Swift's buying a building in North Liberty that had stood since the 1930's first as an illegal bootlegging/gambling house then later on as one of the more popular destination restaurants in the area.  

Faye Swift started Sluggers in 1988 and helped revitalize the part of the Coralville that included hotels, restaurants and retail businesses.  Around 2006, Faye Swift turned the management duties of Sluggers over to her son Matt and started to dabble in real estate.  

In 2008, a monumental flood inundated parts of Coralville and Iowa City including Sluggers.  Having been through one flood before the big one in 2008, Swift realized that she couldn't reopen the restaurant anytime soon.  She let the lease lapse and looked for new opportunities.  (Sluggers was in what is now Monica's in Coralville.)  

Faye Swift thought she was done with the restaurant business and was looking forward to a career in real estate.  However, in late 2008, the opportunity to buy a restaurant in North Liberty - E.B. Tayler's - came up.  The Swifts had applied for a government loan to help rebuild Sluggers, but when it came through they had since walked away from the building because it was going to take too long to rehab.  Instead, they took the money and bought the restaurant in North Liberty that had housed a number of establishments since it was built in the 1930's.

The original owner of the building had run an illegal gambling and bootlegging operation during Prohibition.  Once Prohibition ended in 1933, the owner built a building next door to his original bar/gambling hall and called it Ma Shannon's.  Even though they were still illegal, slot machines were housed in a room in the back of the establishment.

In the 40's, two gentlemen took over the business and simply called it Shannon's.  Shannon's was in business into the early-60's when the business was sold and it became a pizza place - Charlie's Pizza.  Pizza was still sort of a novelty and the owner was having trouble getting the locals to take notice of his business.  In 1967, the owner of Charlie's Pizza sold the building to Dale and Kay Dahnke, the owners of the locally famous Lark Supper Club in nearby Tiffin.   The Dahnke's remodeled the building and opened the Red Garter Supper Club soon thereafter.  

While there were a number of supper clubs in the area, the Red Garter became known as the first place to have a salad bar.  But because the Red Garter had a lot of competition, the Dahnke's decided to sell the business to focus on The Lark.  The new owners of the business - The Winner's Circle - changed it into a horse racing-themed bar and grill.  The centerpiece of the bar was a large fiberglass horse that was on display just inside the front door.  After a short while, The Winner's Circle became a "member's only" after-hours gambling house.  

But in the late 70's, Pam Hanrahan along with her brothers Mike and Tim bought the building and turned it into The Hitching Post.  Now, I remember the Hitching Post because it was right next to some softball fields that I used to play on during my time in Iowa City in the early 80's.  It was a great place to hang out after the game and I sort of remember they had a pretty good burger there, too.  

After I left Iowa City in the mid-80's, the ball fields next to The Hitching Post were redeveloped into housing tracts and the Hanrahans sold the business.  This was sort of the downtime for the building - it housed a couple bars that didn't last long, and during the 90's when it was vacant the local North Liberty Jaycees would use the building for their annual haunted house around Halloween.  

In 1996, two friends bought the building and transformed it into Rookies, a more upscale sports bar/restaurant that featured steaks and seafood along with a party room for all occasions.  The restaurant ran for about 10 years before the two partners sold it to one of their longtime managers who changed it into E.B. Tayler's and focused on pizza and pasta.  However, that incarnation didn't last long and the restaurant closed in the fall of 2008.

That's when Faye Swift and her son Matt came in to buy the restaurant.  They took the low interest loan money they had gotten from the government loan and bought the building not long after E.B. Tayler's closed up.  From there, they managed an extensive remodeling of the building transforming it into an upscale bar and grill.  In February 2009, Red's Ale House opened for business.  Each summer, they have an annual anniversary celebration as Matt Swift said that no one wants to have a celebration in the middle of February.  

It was around 7:45 when we all met up at Red's Ale House located along N. Dubuque St. in the older part of North Liberty.  (see map)  It's obvious with Faye Swift's fledgling career in real estate, she had an inkling that North Liberty would be growing by leaps and bounds when they bought the building in 2008.  There were just under 10,000 people living in the community when they opened Red's Ale House.  16 years later, the population had more than doubled to just over 21,000 residents.  

We were met by a young lady at the hostess desk who took us into the bar to seat us.  There were high-backed leather (or pleather?) booths along two walls of the bar with short-top 4-seater tables in the middle of the room.  The bar was made from deep mahogany - or walnut - and it was really a pretty classy place for a town the size of North Liberty.  But it didn't feel pretentious.  It actually felt somewhat homey.  

The dining room on the other side featured two rooms including one sort of off to the side that could have been used as a private dining area or for overflow.  My wife had complained that during previous visits to Red's Ale House that it could get pretty loud in there.  But it was later in the evening on a week night when we got there and the inside dining areas were mostly empty as they were putting people mostly in the lounge.

Where there was a nice crowd was outside on a large and very nice patio area.  It was more of a courtyard setting with trees and green patches with slab tile as the main flooring.  It was pretty warm and my wife had been in the sun during the game, so the air-conditioned lounge area worked best for her.

Our server that night was a young lady with the very unique name of Tenli.  I thought she said her name was Kenley, so I commented how unique that name was.  My step-daughter said, "No, it's Tenli, with a T!"  

"Oh," I sort of exclaimed.  "That's even more unique than Kenley!"  We had gotten food menus and I took a look through the beer list they had.  They have 28 beers on tap - "No Crap on Tap" is Matt Swift's motto.  (Many of the new-release beers from the Big Grove Brewery he co-owns go to Red's Ale House for release parties.)  One beer that I saw they had on tap was the WarPigs Brewery Foggy Geezer hazy IPA.  WarPigs Brewery is the off-shoot brewery from the 3 Floyd's Brewery in Muenster, IN.  I ordered one of those from Tenli, but moments later she came back and said that they were out of that.  I ordered up the Big Grove Easy Eddy hazy IPA instead.  

The food menu featured sandwiches and burgers, flatbreads and house specialties such as mahi mahi tacos, a vegetarian tamale plate, and fish & chips.  They had a slew of appetizers including wings (boneless and bone-in), crab dip with chips, pretzel bites, a beef birria taco (of which I almost ordered 2 of for my dinner), cheddar and bacon fries, and tuna wontons.  Soups, salads and a pretty good-sized kid menu rounded out the menu offerings at Red's Ale House.  

Even though I considered the birria tacos, I ended up getting the Paddy Whack burger - two smash-grilled burger patties topped with American cheese slices, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, dill pickles, and onions, all topped with a Russian dressing.  And I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed in the burger - it was overcooked and somewhat of a gut bomb.  I guess I expected some thing a bit better from my first visit to Red's Ale House.

My wife got the sweet potato salad - chopped arugula mixed with sweet potato cubes, avocado chunks, goat cheese, chopped walnuts, craisins and finished with a Dijon vinaigrette.  She also had an option of adding some protein and she got a small sliced/grilled chicken breast.  She thought it was very good.  

Now, my step-daughter got what I should have gotten - the AleHouse burger.  It featured a burger patty topped with provolone cheese, a sweet chili aioli, and onion straws.  It looked juicy and delicious.  I was somewhat jealous when she said how wonderful it was.  

My step-grandchildren have been picky eaters for quite sometime, but I think I witnessed a rite of passage during this meal.  My step-grandson never liked anything spicy and he had trouble just eating everything on his plate.  But as a 15 year-old, he's completely changed.  He also got the Paddy Whack and had no trouble with it being overcooked (maybe his wasn't) and he eagerly wolfed it down.  I was happy to see that because he needs to put on weight to play soccer at the high school varsity level.  But when he asked Tenli if he could get some Cholula for his fries, I about fell over.  "This is the kid who cried when I put mild green chile sauce on his quesadilla a couple three years ago," I said somewhat incredulously.  

My step-daughter said, "Oh, yeah.  He puts Cholula on everything now."  I was completely blown away by all that.   Maybe some of my culinary preferences have rubbed off on him!

The other surprise came when my step-granddaughter ordered the chicken zingers (basically larger nuggets or smaller strips) with sides of both ranch dressing and a sweet barbecue sauce.  But that's not what surprised me - when my step-grandson asked for Cholula, my step-granddaughter asked Tenli if she could bring her some Buffalo sauce for her chicken.  Now, THAT blew me away.  She's younger (10 - going on 18) and now SHE'S eating spicy foods and condiments.  I was flabbergasted and somewhat impressed both at the same time.   

About the only disappointment any of us had with our meal at Red's Ale House was my Paddy Whack burger that I thought was overcooked and very dry.  But everyone else felt their meal was very good.  Now, my burger wasn't that big of a deal breaker where I wouldn't go back to Red's at some point and eat again.  They had a pretty nice selection of fixed and rotating craft beers (although they were out of my first selection), and there were other things on the menu that I would like to try at some point.  Tenli's service was friendly and very capable, and I really liked the laid back atmosphere in the lounge area.  North Liberty is lucky to have a place like Red's Ale House.  It's a great destination if you're ever in the Iowa City area.  

Blue Agave Mexican Cantina - Phoenix

Our flight to Phoenix out of Denver was late getting out of the gate due to a faulty sensor that took about 45 minutes to get fixed.  We had hoped to get into Phoenix around 1 p.m., but it was well after 2 p.m. after we gathered our bags and made it to the tram that took us to the car rental facility about 3 miles away from Sky Harbor Airport.  A couple missed turns, we finally made our way up to Scottsdale where we were going to stay for the evening and to have dinner with my two sisters and my brother-in-law who live in the area.  Knowing that we were going to be hungry when we go into town, I had asked one of my sisters where a good place to eat would be close to our hotel.  She didn't hesitate.  "Blue Agave," she told me.  "Their food is so good!"  We made it to Blue Agave Mexican Cantina about 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon.  

Brian Johnson grew up around the restaurant business.  He worked at and, eventually, cooked in restaurants and found a great love for the business.  But Johnson was encouraged to go off to college to study business.  However, it became evident that business college wasn't for him, so he decided to drop out of college and head off to culinary school.

In 1994, Johnson enrolled at the (now closed) Scottsdale Culinary Institute, one of the largest culinary schools in the nation.  Johnson went through the full program and graduated with honors in 1997.  

(Pictured right - Brian Johnson.  Photo courtesy Phoenix.org)

From there, Johnson found work at a French restaurant before moving on to an Italian restaurant.  He eventually ended up at a corporate-owned Chinese restaurant before the place closed down in 2005.  By this time, Johnson was ready to get out of the corporate restaurant world and do his own gig.  

The same year, a Mexican restaurant on the border between Scottsdale and Phoenix had come up for sale and the owner was motivated to sell the business.  Johnson decided to take a chance and bought the restaurant, opening Blue Agave Mexican Cantina in 2006.  He changed up the menu and eventually ended up renovating the spot over time making it one of the top destinations for Mexican food near the tony North Scottsdale neighborhood.  

The one thing I really liked - after the fact - about Blue Agave is that it's not a chain.  There are a number of Blue Agave-named restaurants in the Phoenix area, as well as in the Denver area and down in Texas, but this Blue Agave is a stand alone business and that made it even more appealing to me after I found out it was a single outlet restaurant.  

There's ample parking in front of the restaurant which is located on the corner of a strip mall just off the 101 Loop and N. Scottsdale Road.  (see map)  There was a patio area in front of the restaurant and an open air bar just inside the restaurant.  We were greeted by a young man who wanted to know if we wanted to sit at a high top table in the bar area, or in the dining room. 

Even though I thought the bar was sort of nice, we ended up getting a booth in the dining room.  It was more air conditioned in there and even though it was in the upper 80's with very low humidity, I knew my wife would be more comfortable.  80's and 90's rock music from the likes of Pearl Jam, Oasis, and 3 Doors Down were playing in the background at a moderate level.  

Our server that day was a hip and laid-back guy by the name of Eddie.  We had gotten food menus and were looking them over when he brought over a basket of fresh warm chips and a bowl of a smokey and delicious salsa made with roasted peppers and tomatoes.  We were both famished and dug right into the chips and salsa.  

I wanted a margarita and they had an extensive selection on their drinks menu.   I ended up ordering the El Maestro Especial - Blue Agave's top shelf margarita finished with a shot of Grand Marnier.  It featured Maestro Dobel Diamante (diamond) Tequila, Clement Creole Shrub orange liqueur, fresh-squeezed lime juice, and agave nectar - just like I make mine at home.  The only problem is that the bartender forgot to put the shot of Grand Marnier with the margarita.  But that was fine, I probably didn't need the extra booze.  My wife didn't want a drink just yet, but she did take a couple sips of my margarita.  It was excellent - a great start to our vacation.  I made short work of the margarita and then ordered up a Dos Equis Ambar to have with my food.  

Considering it was mid-afternoon and we were going to have dinner at my sister's house later that evening, we really didn't want anything heavy.  But they had a lot of interesting items on the menu that made my mouth water.  Their Ultimate Chimichanga was listed as their most popular dish - by far - on the menu.  It featured a huge chimichanga stuffed with slow-roasted pork, pinto beans, rice, cheese, a green chili sauce, a Baja cream sauce, a jalapeño cream sauce and pureed chipotle peppers.  There was a warning with the description that it was "very hot".  That sounded more like a challenge to me!  

Some of the other house specialities included a spicy Baja shrimp pasta, cilantro lime chicken, and a spicy carne asada rice bowl.  My wife considered the cilantro lime chicken, but thought that may be too much food.  Other items on the menu included fajitas, a jalapeño steak wrap, and assorted styles of enchiladas.  

My wife ordered up the single chicken tamale.  It was served with a green chili sauce, Manchango cheese and cilantro with picked red onions.  It came with rice and a choice of black or pinto beans.  She hesitated on the beans for a moment and I was sort of incredulous.  "You LOVE black beans," I said to her.  "That should be easy for you."  She sort of chuckled and agreed.  She said it was the perfect lunch for the time of day - nice, light, and enough food to fill her up for now, but to leave room for dinner in about 4 hours.  

I also went light with a couple of tacos from the a la carte part of the menu.  I got the grilled fish tacos and a shredded pork taco.  I considered getting a birria beef taco, as well, but I knew that would be too much. The fish tacos were cut in half and filled with grilled white fish, pico de gallo, red cabbage and a sliced avocado.  It came with a delicious chipotle mayo sauce on the side.  The fish tacos were sort of bland, but the chipotle mayo dipping sauce helped zip up the flavor.  The shredded pork taco was the winner of the plate.  It was pretty simple - pulled pork with pico de gallo and mixed cheese finished with a dollop of spiced sour cream.  In hindsight, I should have gotten the birria beef taco instead of the fish taco.  But I always want to try fish tacos, so I couldn't pass it up.

Even though we weren't able to try any of the house specialties opting for a light mid-afternoon lunch instead, my sister's recommendation of Blue Agave Mexican Cantina was spot on.  Although I wasn't as impressed with my grilled fish taco as I was with the shredded pork taco, my wife raved about her green chili chicken tamale.  The El Maestro margarita was a spot-hitter - even if they forgot to add the splash of Grand Marnier - and the service was good.  It was a clean and comfortable atmosphere at Blue Agave.  But I would like to go back and try one of their house specialities if I get the chance.  

 

Sedona

My wife and I just celebrated a significant wedding anniversary and wanted to make it a memorable one.  We looked into going back to Hawaii, but while plane fares were reasonable, the cost of hotels and restaurants since COVID has skyrocketed on the islands.  We thought about Boston for a moment, but we kept coming back to a place that we had been thinking about for quite some time - Sedona, AZ.  We had airline and hotel points stocked up and we took off for a week in the desert Southwest.  

We stayed at 3 places while we were in Sedona - well, actually just two places.  We had originally booked the Hilton Sedona Summit, but they pissed me off because I didn't realize that it was a time share property with no bar or restaurant; the room they had us in was huge, but had no view; and they kept trying to get us to attend time share sessions.  I already had a bad taste in my mouth from the pressure we got upon checking into the property, but then after looking at the room my wife and I determined that we weren't going to stay there.  

We saw a Hampton Inn along the stretch of Arizona Highway 89A in Sedona on the way out to the Sedona Summit and we ended up staying there for three nights.  Then one morning after a long and strenuous hike south of Sedona, we ended up in the Village of Oak Creek to have breakfast.  After breakfast, we drove around town and my wife saw a Hilton sign off in the distance.  "There's a Hilton property," she said as she pointed to the sign.  We drove around the property and determined that we wanted to get out of the Hampton Inn in Sedona and relocate to the Hilton Resort at Bell Rock.  

This is the place where we should have been staying at the whole time.  They gave us an upgraded room that overlooked the mountains east of the Village of Oak Creek, a full living room with a kitchenette and a balcony, a king-sized bed that was in its own room, and a full bath with a private shower room.  The staff was unfailingly helpful and pleasant during the three nights we were there, and it was close to some good restaurants.  

But the great thing is that it had a great pool area (with a bar), a nice patio off the main lounge area, live acoustic music at night in the patio, and one night they had a local amateur astronomer set up his telescopes behind the hotel to allow people to see far away planets and galaxies.  We saw a number of shooting stars and satellites in the clear desert skies. While we thought Sedona was too touristy in some parts, the Village of Oak Creek was green and lush, the people were laid back, and there were some excellent views of some of the rocks and buttes in the area.  

That's not to say Sedona didn't have many great vistas within the city.  There were some high spots that you could either drive to or hike to that offered some spectacular views over the city.  And we hit the weather at the perfect time the first two days we were there - bright blue skies, light winds and temperatures in the upper 80's with humidity levels at 15% or lower.  

We were able to make it to a viewing area near the airport in Sedona.  The airport is built on a mesa and you literally have to go up a winding roadway to get to the airfield.  Just before the airport is a scenic overlook that we went to first in the morning, then later in the day, then finally just before sunset.  While most people left just after the sun went behind the hills and buttes in the distance, we stuck around for a while longer to catch the colors of the sunset.  This is the video I took of the scene about 20 minutes after the sun set that day.  (Click on the square in the bottom right corner to enlarge the video.)

There were some interesting drives around the Sedona area including the Oak Creek Canyon road that went from just outside Flagstaff to the eastern edge of Sedona.  There was also another shorter drive that has a number of great views - the Red Rock Scenic Byway - that is on the far west side of the city.  It is the gateway to Red Rock State Park which we visited one afternoon doing a nice little hike and hanging out in the hummingbird garden they had there.  

While many of the areas majestic rock formations and buttes were visible along the 7.5 mile road, probably one of the more interesting views were of this house that was built near the top of one of the buttes about halfway around the loop.  This modern structure is owned by furniture designer Glendon Good who also designed the house and built about 25% of the building on his own.  

The 2,170 square foot home is only accessible by a gondola that makes the approximate 200 foot trip in just over 3 minutes.  Good bought the land that the house sits upon in 1999 for about $250,000 - a rock bottom (get it?) price because it was thought that nothing could be built on the property.  He started work on the house in early 2018 with much of the building material hauled up via a makeshift gondola or via helicopter and dropped down into place.  Good, his wife and their young son moved into the home in October of 2021.  (For more information and pictures, click here for a Wall Street Journal pictorial article on the home.)  

Another interesting home in Sedona is one that is known locally as the House of Seven Arches.   Built in 1978, it somehow became known as "Lucy's House" after actress  Lucille Ball, but it's a good probability that Ball never set foot in the house.  However, Ball and her brother Fred owned much - if not all - of the land in the immediate area as Ball vacationed in Sedona on a regular basis.  The main contractor on the home was Herb Wineberger with an assist by Ball Brothers Construction - relatives of Lucille Ball who owned a construction company in Flagstaff.  Wineberger then sold the house to someone in Ball's family, but it was sold a handful of years later.  Easily one of the most recognizable homes in Sedona, the property is now owned by author, playwright and composer Terrie Frankel.  Frankel is more well-known - along with her twin sister - as the original Doublemint Twins for the Wrigley Gum company.   There is a popular webcam site that runs a live-stream of scenery from the side of the House of the Seven Arches 24/7.  

One of the other more popular places to visit in Sedona is the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a small Roman Catholic church built on one of the small red rock mesas that permeate the area.  We went early in the morning - the church gates at the bottom of the hill open at 9 a.m. - and it only has spaces for 100 vehicles along a winding road that takes you to the top where the church is located.  We got there just after 9 a.m. and many of the spots were already taken, but we were able to find a parking spot up near the top of the road.  

The building was finished in April of 1956, but was beautifully maintained.  The chapel features a small congregation area with small benches and a stunning view just beyond the altar.  There was a gift shop in the basement of the building and - I swear - that space was larger than the floor space of the chapel.   My wife, who grew up a good Catholic girl, lit a couple candles while she was there.  We took in the great views from the outside of the church including Cathedral Rock, one of the more famous sandstone rock formations in Sedona.  


Just south of the small chapel were two of the more familiar rock formations in the Sedona area - Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.  Those are the two rock formations in the picture above right with Bell Rock in the middle of the picture and Courthouse Butte to the left side of the photo.  (As always, you can click on the pictures to make them larger.)   

We took a major hike one morning not expecting to take a major hike.  There are trails out around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte that go from fairly easy to moderately hard to trails for experienced hikers only.  We ran into all three on what turned out to be a pretty aggressive hike one beautiful desert morning.  

Once we got deep into the hike and as it became more challenging, I sort of felt like the guy in the old joke who said he tried to swim the English Channel, got halfway across and decided he couldn't make it, so he swam back.  But the views were spectacular each time I stopped to look up at the rock formations.  You could walk 150 feet and get a whole new perspective of the buttes.  It took us two-and-a-half hours to make the 4.6 mile loop around both Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte and it almost ended our marriage two days after celebrating the milestone.  (That's what I would tell people, only half-jokingly then.  But more of a joke today.)  

We took some side trips to other areas around Sedona.  One day, we decided to get lost in the backroads outside of the town.  Paved roads became dirt roads which became non-maintained roadways that weren't much better than the paths we took when we hiked around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.  But, once again, the vistas were spectacular along the way.  

We drove out to the Honanki Heritage Site, the former home of members of the Sinagua people who lived in cut out dwellings of the cliffs of the butte.  Well-preserved rock art and cliff homes are the big draw to the site.   It was quite the trip out from Sedona, but the place was pretty interesting.   

Another place we were told to go to was the small former copper mining town of Jerome, AZ.  Located about 30 minutes south and west of Sedona, Jerome - at one time - was a bustling city of over 5,000 people, many of whom worked at or relied upon the copper mines in the area for commerce.  Jerome was a notorious town due to the mines with a number of illegal speakeasy's and brothels during the height of the mining boom.  At one time, it was known as "The Wickedest Town in the West".  Today, it's a fun little hippie town with a laid-back vibe.  We liked it so much that we went back after visiting there earlier in the week.  

The small town was originally built on a hillside (Cleopatra Hill) above a vast deposit of copper in the valley below.  The first claims for copper mining were staked in 1876 and the small town grew from a tent city to a prosperous community by the turn of the 20th century.  Financiers from around the world bought billions of dollars worth of copper, gold and silver that were mined in the valley.  At least three times the city was devastated by fires, but continued to thrive after whole sections were rebuilt.  However, the fluctuation of mineral prices along with the Great Depression, labor unrest, and World War II caused uncertainty with the mines in the first half of the 1900's.  Jerome's final mine closed in 1953.  

From a population of nearly 5000 in 1930 to a population just over 200 people by 1960, Jerome became known as a ghost town and a number of years ago enterprising locals jumped on the notion that many buildings that had been empty for years were actually haunted prompting a slew of "ghost hunters" to descend on the town in search of spooks, ghouls and paranormal activity.  A renaissance of the town took place in the 1980's when a number of shops, restaurants and galleries came into the city making Jerome a great day trip from places such as Sedona, Prescott and Flagstaff.  

It has also become somewhat famous for being the home of Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of the progressive metal rock band Tool (and other bands over the years).  Keenan owns vineyards around the area, as well as a couple winery/restaurants in nearby Cottonwood.  He's a philanthropist for many causes in the area and has been called the catalyst for many of the positive changes in Jerome and Cottonwood.  

In Jerome, we were directed by a longtime resident to a shop that was touted as having the largest collection of kaleidoscopes in the world.  Nellie Bly Kaleidoscopes featured over 200 of the eye-pieces on display and for sale.  Originally opened in 1988 by Mary Wills, she had been fascinated by kaleidoscopes after buying one in New York City in 1969.  After opening the store with another partner, Wills met Sally Dryer who was running a frame shop in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Dryer was a former child voice actor and was the voice of Violet in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and then became the voice of Lucy (and other characters) in subsequent Peanuts television specials and movies.  Dryer met Wills through a mutual friend and Dryer moved to Jerome to join Wills as a business and life partner.  The kaleidoscopes on display were fascinating and people were encouraged to view the changing images inside each kaleidoscope.  We spent a fair amount of time at Nelly Bly's one afternoon.   

I hate the term "bucket list" but one of the things in life that I've always wanted to see was the Grand Canyon.  We drove up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon one beautiful morning to experience one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  Everyone I've ever talked to who has gone to the Grand Canyon has said that any picture they've seen of the huge gorge doesn't capture what it's like in person.  

And they were right.  I took a lot of pictures and the interesting thing was that you could walk along the south rim for a couple hundred feet and see a completely different perspective of the canyon.  I don't think there was a view that wasn't breathtaking.  

But the big treat was taking off to the east from the main entrance to the south rim and heading along Arizona State Highway 64 through the park where there were four or five places where you could turn off the road toward the canyon and get a whole different - and equally spectacular - view.  The video below left was from one of the turn-ins along the east rim. (Click on the square in the bottom right corner to enlarge the video.)

I understand most people just go up to the main viewing area along the south rim and then turn around and head out of the park.  But the views to the east were just stunning.   Once again, I couldn't capture the superlative vistas we experienced while we were at the park.  At some point in the future, I'll have an entry on our trip up to the Grand Canyon on Road Tips complete with more pictures and videos.  

And with that our week-long trip to Sedona ended way too early.  While we ate at some very good restaurants, there were still some places that we didn't get into, a couple spots we neglected to visit, and some trails that we didn't take the time to explore.  While the start of our trip to Sedona was shaky, it turned out to be one of the more memorable places we've ever visited.  My wife and I usually don't like to go back to a place we've visited within a year or two after going there, Sedona is a place where I'd have no problem heading back to sooner than later.