Grande Casa

As I may have mentioned, we went to Casa Grande, Arizona for the weekend last. We drove away on Friday sometime after 3 pm. That is a cursed time to leave the city. 3 pm on a Friday. And though we took the convertible, sitting in traffic with the top down inhaling fumes from all the cars that surround you is not a pleasant way to kick off a trip.

After doing our best to get the hell out of town, we stopped at the outlet mall outside Palm Springs. I had coupon for 30 percent off at Polo that expired on Sunday and I was going to damn well abuse it. To give you an idea, the total AFTER discount was over $200. Yeah, I got some stuff.

But we weren't anywhere near close to our destination of Robb's mum's house so we needed to pack it up and get a move on. Luckily my packing skills are still amazing and we were able to fit our new purchases into the tiny truck without luggage and the roof of the car. We arrived in Casa Grande just after midnight.
Every morning Robb's mum takes a half hour walk through the housing development where she lives. Lyle and I joined her and it was beautiful to see all the desert plants in bloom.

In the evening cocktail hour arrives.

No one drinks the same.
Three people.
Three different mixers.
Three different liquors.

We went to dinner at Bedillon's which also houses a historical museum of the area. They have a large outdoor cactus garden that you can wander through while your dinner is being prepared. I had the salmon on a cedar plank with shrimp, mango and corn relish. It was terrifics! The big hit at our table was the bacon wrapped olives stuffed with jalapeno cheese. Sounds a little odd but bacon wrapped anything is always a winner and the cheese was not overpowering at all.

I'm sporting a new shirt and tie from the Polo outlet.
How come I always look like the giant?

As I promised Lyle, we made a stop at the local Dairy Queen. Hot eats, cool treats.

On our way home we were making great time (shhhh, don't tell my dad that means we were kind of speeding) when we had a flat tire just before the California border. I offered to call AAA but Lyle thought he could change the tire before anyone would be able to get to us and do it for me. Once the tire was changed we had to decide whether to stop and buy a new tire or drive slower home on the spare. We decided it would equal amount of delay and opted to continue for home slower. But that meant we'd hit LA at EXACTLY peak drive time instead of skating in just before it. So were forced to stop in Palm Springs for a late lunch and then an additional stop at the outlet mall. Can you believe it, FORCED to shop again!

We got home about 7 pm and I was beat. Oh, and I've already worn some of my new delightful purchases.