Babymoon Trips - Phoenix, AZ and New Braunfels, TX

Phoenix, AZ: March 2 - 5, 2012
In the previous post, we mentioned that we took a babymoon trip to Phoenix, Arizona, for Cleveland Indians Spring Training. In addition to seeing the Indians on opening weekend, we also enjoyed the following sites in Phoenix ...

Visited the Biltmore - We're told that the Arizona Biltmore is known throughout the world as the "Jewel of the Desert," providing a restful oasis of 39 acres covered with lush gardens, glistening swimming pools, and Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. (Of course, that wasn't necessarily known to us until we got there.) While we couldn't necessarily afford to stay at the Biltmore, we did enjoy a nice dinner on the patio at Frank & Albert's restaurant.

Walked around Scottsdale Downtown - Old Town Scottsdale was a flavor of the old west. There were wooden sidewalks, many quaint stores lining the streets, and various eateries in the area. We stopped at Big Earl's BBQ to eat lunch.

Toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West Home - Frank Lloyd Wright began building this desert masterpiece in 1937 as his personal winter home, studio, and architectural campus. Jay and I knew very little about Mr. Wright, and we probably aren't his #1 fans, but we thought the tour was very interesting. I even got to play the piano in his home.

Toured the Arizona Diamondback Stadium - On our last day before going to the airport we took a stadium tour of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Impressive, but not as impressive as the Cowboy Stadium! They were replacing the grass on the field because the stadium had just been used for a motocross event.

New Braunfels, TX: March 23 - 25, 2012
We took one last trip to the hill country in New Braunfels, Texas, before I was advised to not travel, since I entered my third trimester at the beginning of April. We stayed at a quaint bed and breakfast called the Lamb's Rest Inn.

We arrived on a Friday night and enjoyed dinner at the Gristmill in historic Gruene followed by dessert at the Old Country Store.

On Saturday, we got up to a home-cooked breakfast (candied pears, cinnamon bread, and a fancy hash brown/egg casserole) and then headed out to New Braunfels. We had lunch at the Heishache Grill and then over to Landa Park. We walked the trails in the park and also tried our luck at paddle boating. It's much harder work then we thought! We also took a drive to Seguin and McQueeney, but let's just say there was NOTHING in those towns of interest. We were exhausted that evening, so we relaxed on the back patio to read before dinner at the Gruene River Grill.

Sunday morning we awoke to another home-cooked breakfast (caramel french toast). We checked out by 11 a.m. and headed back towards Texas. We decided to eat lunch in Austin at the Stubbs BBQ, but they were booked, so we ended up walking from downtown to the Capital and then over to UT to have lunch at Austin's Pizza just off campus. We watched the Baylor men's game on TV while enjoying lunch. We certainly got our exercise in that day!

We arrived home Sunday evening from a fun and relaxing trip!