Pot o' gold is to rainbow, as taco is to sunset
- Alex Lilly
- Jan 15, 2022
- 4 min read
Surprise! Shel didn't have to start work until Thursday!!! I, Al, have already found myself in a surprise two week extension of my vacation thanks to my background check not going through in a timely manner.. oh well.. as antsy and excited as we were to get started in our new hospitals, this ultimately translated to more time to explore this wonderful new town of ours! *insert star eyed emoji here*
Two things I left out of my introduction (haven't read it yet? hop back to my first post!) are two more of my loves-- sunsets and tacos.. and tacos especially on Tuesdays. I'm a sucker for a good theme and even more so will jump on board with any excuse to eat tacos. Now if only I could just convince Shel that sunsets and tacos needs to be worked into our weekly routine.. ha! who am I kidding, I'd put money on the fact that this is only the first of maaaany sunset/taco outings.
This Tuesday's outing started at Papago Park with a hike along the "Double Butte Loop Trail" and "Big Butte Loop Trail" because, well, we like big buttes and we cannot lie. After some googling, I learned that a butte is an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top, similar to, but narrower than a mesa. I think I might need to start taking notes to keep track of all of these terms.. or maybe I'll just stick to pointing and saying, "oooooh, aaaaaah!"
There were lots more "ooh's and aah's" as I detoured our hike off the loops trails, across the way to "Hole in the Rock," a town favorite spot to watch the sunset. Somehow I feel like they could have been more creative when naming this spot, but at the same time, it was much easier for us novice geologists to identify than "butte" or "mesa." As you could likely guess, "Hole in the Rock" is a hole... in a rock... but what the name doesn't tell you is how perrrrfect of a sunset view you get, so allow me to tell you. It's perfect. The horizon line is long and decorated with cityscape and mountain tops and was painted with reds and pinks and oranges peeking through the clouds. As the colors changed, the dimension only increased as we overlooked the airport that was welcoming planes in and bidding them goodbye.
The spot is easily accessible for many types of legs, including friends with four legs (hello adventurous doggos!), which also meant that it was fairly crowded, even for a random Tuesday. Thankfully, Shel scoped out a spot down in front, so our view was not obstructed by the backs of the heads of all of the other adventurers. Any further down though, and we likely would've fallen off the rock. In efforts to avoid that, we decided to make the descent back to the car before the sun set completely. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the walk back allowed us even more views of this absolutely gooooorgeous sunset. The colors and clouds and light leaks just kept changing and made the sky look like it was almost on fire at one point!! I think it was safe to say that our first ~official~ sunset in Phoenix was a darn good one.
If this video doesn't want to play for you, click here to watch it on my tiktok! But wait there's more! Don't forget to come back and keep scrolling :)
After filling our souls with the wonderful hike and breathtaking views, we ventured off to fill our bellies with, I'm sure you guessed it, taaaacos.
Our taco adventure was just a short walk from our new home at Taco Guild (100% one of the biggest perks, I mean.. tacos? just a few steps away? what more could you ask for?!)! This bar/restaurant was a church once upon a time (and I'm talking like some 120+ years ago). Inside you can still see many aspects of the church kept alive and well. Their happy hour is even called confession hour! Now we missed this because of our hike, so we'll have to review that another time, but I can tell you, the 'Taco Tuesday menu' did not disappoint. They had a few taco specials and a margarita of the week (this week's was a mezcal, orange, guava situation with a champagne floater which seemed especially appropriate for our celebratory first ~official~ sunset in Phoenix). We sat at the bar (our favorite) and enjoyed chatting with the staff and getting recommendations, all of which were echoed by our happy food dances and continued participation in #CleanPlateClub.
We both also indulged in some Mexican street corn (Shel for the first time) and loved it, and finished our meal with the tres leches cake (which was also phenomenal and not even on the menu!! The berries, coconut, mascarpone cheese... all of it, *chefs kiss*). Other high points include the starter complimentary chips and salsa (the chips get bonus points for coming out warm and toasty) and the guac appetizer that came out in a little cauldron of sorts! Our bartender hooked us up with little containers to take the salsa and guac home which Shel utilized to make a superb egg/bagel/salsa/guac concoction for breakfast Wednesday morning. Continuing with the highlights, we'd like to emphasize the great atmosphere/ambiance, the friendly service, aaaaand the proximity to a thrift store. My goodness, can't you just TASTE the possibilities for our next adventure!?
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