Staycation ... or Steak-cation

John and I have been married for four years as of tomorrow, and to celebrate John planned a fun weekend full of surprises for me. It was amazing, fun, and (candidly) a little bit nerve-wracking: I am the planner in the family and not only did I not have any part in planning the weekend, but John kept everything a surprise right up to the last minute.

We had our very first (but hopefully not last) Staycation--we stayed in town, but took a little vacation.

We started out Friday with a special lunch at a place I've only been to for happy hour, but always wanted to try a meal. Fez is a downtown chic sort of place--something I would enjoy trying, but not really John's type of place.

Lunch was a little late, so we had a light fare of crab and shrimp risotto cakes and garlic rosemary french fries.

YUMMY!

After lunch we drove to the Hilton Suites in downtown Phoenix. I didn't know our destination until we arrived and it is a beautiful hotel. John had already checked in and arranged for a room on the top floor so we had a nice view and an incredible, huge suite.

We chilled for a while and enjoyed the big screen t.v. and movie channels as well as the lovely bathroom to get ready for a special dinner. We left the hotel to walk to dinner and, trust me, it is interesting to walk to an unknown location for dinner!

The destination was excellent: Durant's, a local steakhouse just down the street from the hotel. The food was AMAZING. We started with a special appetizer of "Durant's Debris," skewers of the "debris" left over when the chef makes the special cuts of steak. So yummy!

In the background of the picture you can also see the tasty bread and olive oil.

After our amazing steaks (so good that we almost want to call the whole weekend a "steak-cation")and a tasty new wine, we had a fun surprise when they brought us a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake on oreo cookie crust.

One of my favorite things is enjoying a hot tub or jacuzzi and so it was lovely to come back to the hotel, which had a great hot tub.

On Saturday morning, we got up and the only information I had about the day was that I needed to wear comfortable walking shoes, a hat, and jeans. We walked across the street from the hotel and hopped on the light rail...and I still didn't know where we were going. John kept teasing me as to whether we would get off at each stop until we finally reached a stop at Priest and Washington streets.

At this point I figured out the end destination: the Phoenix Zoo!! I was very excited because I've never been to the zoo here before. We waited for a bus to go from the light rail to the zoo, about 1.5 miles away. But then we got impatient and walked the rest of the way.

The zoo was great fun, and such an opportunity to enjoy each other and God's creations.

We always really love the monkeys and apes. I'm not sure why, but it's definitely a Perkins thing.

And then we also just love being silly. Obviously.

For your enjoyment, we also took some videos. In this first one, the youngest orangutan was playing with a toy and provided great amusement for all of the kids watching.

Next, our fun with the otters. You can hear some whistling in the background, which is John, and then the otter in the video seemed to be responding. This little fellow certainly had a lot of personality and we enjoyed "talking" with him for a while!

Finally, I just got a kick out of the prairie dog babies.