Course Restaurant--Erik's Birthday Dinner

On April 11, Erik and I finally got to try Course Restaurant as a late birthday dinner. It is a multi-course dinner (hence the name), similar to Cafe Monarch and Binkley's (unfortunately the owners of Binkley's have retired, boo). Erik heard about this restaurant from work and wanted to try it. When we arrived, they asked us if we wanted to sit outside or inside. I said inside, and that was a mistake because they sat us in the worst possible seat ever--right in the middle of the restaurant. We were an island on full display with waiters and people passing by all around us. I wasn't very happy with our seating arrangement, but Erik was too scared/stubborn to ask the wait staff if we could move to a different table.
Anyway, lots of courses at Course, of course (ha), 10 in total. Erik also ordered a drink. The food was pretty good. Very, very small portions but with 10 courses, we were satiated by the end. 

The course menu.

First course: Oyster. It was pretty tasty.

Erik and his lemon turmeric soft drink

2nd course: Swordfish. It was good, and the guacamole was interesting, kind of like guacamole-flavored ice cream.

3rd course: Manicotti. Yet another restaurant that served us this green foam stuff. If you've ever owned cats, you'll find it as unappetizing as I do. It has the same look and texture of what a cat will barf up after eating grass. No thanks. Because of the green foam stuff, I didn't care too much for this course.

4th course: English pea. It was okay. Good for being pea-flavored, if you like peas. I'm not the biggest pea fan, but it was interesting to try. 

5th course: White sea bass. I was surprised when another fish course came out since we'd already had one. But it was pretty good.

6th course: Lamb. Lamb is always yummy to me, so I liked this one. 

7th course: striploin. Delicious. 

8th course: strawberry dessert. It was fun and yummy

9th course: Deconstructed Banana Chocolate Birthday Cake. I think. This one was weird. It tasted good, but anyone with food texture aversions probably wouldn't like this one. It didn't have a concrete form; just a bunch of dessert fragments plopped on a plate.

10th course: Toast and honey and "pocky" dessert. It was served on a bed of river rocks. How strange. Pocky sticks (they were okay) and some honey butter pucks that we ate plain. I wasn't sure what to think of them. I felt like maybe they should be served on a cracker or something.

All in all, a fun night (minus the seating logistics) and interesting food. Binkley's is still a clear winner for course restaurants, but I'm glad we got to try this restaurant. 

A Visit from the Blaylocks, Day 9: Jerome

April 5th-Saturday. Lisa had been begging and pleading to go to Jerome since her last visit. I finally said fine I'll take you there. We left the girls and Gabe home. Erik didn't have to work that day, but he stayed home with the other kids. It was just Lisa, the little boys, and me. We left in the morning between 8 and 9. It wasn't too long of a drive up to Jerome from Phoenix, about an hour and a half. The drive was uneventful, which are the best drives. I do remember going through at least 10 roundabouts before we got to the little old city. Lisa (and yes even I) would have loved to do a ghost tour, but the timing didn't work out since it was only a day trip. Besides, the boys wouldn't have enjoyed it, and it wasn't cheap at all. Our first stop was the Douglas Mansion located in Jerome State Historic Park. There was a fee to get in, but it wasn't that much. The mansion is self-guided, and the very first room is a gift shop fill with: lots of gemstones! It fit nicely into the theme of Lisa's visit. There was even a room in the museum filled with gemstones. I guess it makes sense since it was a mining town, and most gemstones are mined. I had already been to the museum a few years back, so I don't have too much to say on it other than it was mildly interesting. The boys seemed to have a good time, especially looking at all the old mining stuff outside. Their favorite part was picking out gemstones for a souvenir! There were also arrowhead (replicas) and old coins. I bought some prickly pear cactus syrup, taffys, a big chuck of amethyst for Ian, an arrowhead, and an 1890s Indian Head coin for Ian. Lisa let Calvin and Aiden pick out a bag of tumbled gemstones and an arrowhead for Aiden. 

Ian bought Minecraft glasses for the Minecraft movie and wore them around Jerome. Makes sense since Jerome is a mining town!

We spent the most time in this room--the gemstone gallery!

A picture of trains that I sent to Gabe

A "Minecraft" car that Aiden got really excited about!

All three boys wearing their Minecraft glasses!

Lisa and I with the town of Jerome in the background

Picking out gemstones--our theme for the visit.

Lisa and I as we exited the park, just before getting in the van. The background was awesome scenery, but since a short little kid took this picture, it's hard to see.

A cool lizard/gecko on a cool rock.

Our next stop was the Gold King Mine Museum and Ghost Town. I had been to this place years ago with Tootsie and Mark and thought it would be fun to take the Blaylocks there. Yet another gift shop with tons of gemstones welcomed us as soon as we walked it. The boys agreed to not beg for anything at the gift shop since I was purchasing the gold mining, gem mining, and geode package for them; the package also included feed for the animals.  We enjoyed looking around at all the old junk, a few animals, and walking into old houses, but the best part was definitely the package I bought. The boys loved panning for gold. Yes, it was real gold, and no, it wasn't much at all, especially when split between three boys. But they didn't seem to mind; it was the experience of it that they enjoyed most of all. 

Panning for gold. It was a process for sure, but the boys caught on fast

Panning for gems was a lot easier!

Crackin' those geodes.

Lisa in a replica of a mine shaft

Ginormous machinery

Turkeys and chickens wandered around the place. So did Ian.

We were getting hungry, so we stopped by Bobby D's BBQ for lunch. I remember the kid's hamburgers being really yummy and inexpensive last time we went there. This time, however, they were cut in half. But on a regular sized bun. How dumb. I can't remember what I got--I think I just shared with Lisa. Ian ordered the pulled pork sandwich. Lisa got the brisket sandwich, and it was super delicious. 

Lisa and her brisket sandwich. Yum!

After eating, we browsed the shops along the center of town/main street. Lots and lots of gemstones for sale! We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look around. One shop even had an old theater in the back (or maybe the theater had a shop in the front--probably more accurate) that was neat to see with all the old cameras and projectors still there. Lisa wanted to keep looking, but the boys were done. I was getting antsy to leave since I didn't want to hit traffic, and I wasn't sure what Erik wanted to do for dinner. I had to cut her shop browsing short so we could leave.

Aiden in the theater. You can see the old equipment behind him.

We were going to try a new Restuarant, called Course, for Erik's birthday. Since we weren't sure exactly what time we would get home, Erik waited to make reservations. By the time we got back, there weren't any more openings at Course for that evening. Instead, we got Domino's pizza for the kids, and Lisa, Erik, and I all went out to Humble Pie for dinner. We ordered 3 pizzas and the humble fries for an appetizer. It was delicious. This wasn't our first time being here, even for Lisa, and we all enjoyed the meal.

Lisa with the humble fries. I like stuff with different sauces to try.

Erik and our pizzas. I ordered This Little Figgy, and I think it was the yummiest.

A Visit from the Blaylocks, Day 7 & 8: Antique Mall, Cirque, and Cheddars

April 3rd. Another fun day out with Lisa. In the morning, we ran the canal trail by my house. I ran while Lisa and the boys walked. When I was done with my 3-mile run, they were still out on the path. When they came back, they had a handful of cool rocks that they found. I told them to save them so I could tumble them later in our rock tumbler.

Lisa and her boys

During the day, Lisa and I went to The Brass Armadillo Antique mall for a look around. It was fun to look, and mostly we just looked at the gemstones and even bought a few. I found a chunk of amethyst for only $4, a little Precious Moments piano, and an angel quartz stone for Elisa for her birthday. Lisa found some Siamese kitty salt and pepper shakers for Tootsie, and a cool shiny gemstone for herself. It was fun looking at all the old stuff. Most of it was too expensive I thought, and a lot of it was just junk. By the end, I was tired of looking at old stuff and was ready to go.

An Easter teapot and teacups I debated buying. I decided to pass on them.

For Christmas, Erik bought Elisa tickets to go to the Cirque Du Soleil Thursday night April 3rd. I invited Lisa to get her own tickets for her and Aaliyah so that they could come along. Alas, Lisa didn't double check the dates that I sent her, so she bought tickets for the wrong night! Whoops. Fortunately, I was able to find a friend that was willing to buy the tickets from her. Unfortunately, Lisa had to sell them at half price. At least she got some money back though. Not checking dates is an expensive mistake to make! Anyway, Lisa re-bought tickets for the same night, in the same section as ours. Lisa's seats were a little further back, and Elisa and Aaliyah sat in them, they wanted to sit together. Lisa and I sat in the seats that Erik bought for Elisa, which were a little closer to the stage. We were all so very hungry right before the show started, so we had to buy expensive junk food and eat it in our seats. I bought pretzel balls and soda for the girls, and Lisa bought pizza and a pretzel dog for her and me to share as well as a soda. The show was pretty neat. I wasn't 100% sure of the exact plot, but it was something about a girl falling through ice and finding herself in another world, hmmm...yep, I still don't know exactly what the plot was. But it was fun to see all the acrobatics and ice-skating skills. The girls had a good time, too.

Our seats

The girls enjoyed the show.

Cool acrobatics!

Awesome ice-skating!

*************************************************

The next day, Friday April 4, we took all the kids out except Gabe. Gabe never seems to want to go anywhere. I kept Ian home. Elisa went to school, but I picked her up early so we could go out to lunch together to Cheddars. Lisa really wanted to check out the other Brass Armadillo Antique Mall way out in Goodyear. It was lucky that those two places were close to each other! First, we took the kids to eat. Lisa and I split a Monte Cristo. Ian sure liked the Monte Cristo too! We ordered the cheese curds for an appetizer but skipped the dessert.  After a yummy lunch, we drove down the street to the antique mall. I thought the kids would be more excited than they were. The girls begged for some expensive junk (I told them no way) and within an hour the kids were asking to leave. I spent too much money despite telling Elisa no to most things she asked for. I ended up buying some Mario posters for Gabe and Ian and a shirt and earrings for Elisa. Nothing that I bought was antique, not even close. I now dub The Brass Armadillo Antique Mall "expensive thrift store". 

We couldn't stick around that store for too long anyway; I had bought tickets for all of us to see the new Minecraft movie that evening. At least, I thought I did. I found out when we were seated in the theater that the tickets I bought were for Thursday (the night before) and not for Friday. We only discovered that because we were sitting in someone's seat and there was confusion since I had also picked those seats. The other people who had bought the tickets for the correct night were good sports about the whole thing and sat in a nearby seat, and the employee let us stay. You would think that the ticket wouldn't scan as easily as it did. The nice thing about this mix-up? We got to see the 3D movie for the same price as the 2D movie that I had purchased. I bought the expensive $11 popcorn, but we had a free refill since I'm a rewards member, so $11 wasn't too bad of a deal for two large popcorns, considering their popcorn is the most delicious popcorn of them all. The movie itself was fun, and the kids really enjoyed it and seemed to get super into it, especially when the baby zombie rode a chicken, all the kids screamed out "chicken jockey!!" I didn't know what it meant, but I'm glad the kids got a kick out of it! Not having played Minecraft (sometimes I'd just watch though), I thought the movie was overall a bit dumb, but Jack Black and Jason Momoa made it fun. And as long as the intended audience enjoyed it, I would consider it a good movie! 

After the movie was over, it was Aaliyah's turn to misplace her phone. At least she thought she did. Lisa went back into the theater to look for it, and we waited in the van for a solid half hour while Lisa searched for the phone. Turns out, it was in Aaliyah's backpack the entire time--she just didn't look hard enough for it. Meanwhile, Erik--who was able to get off work in time to watch the movie with us--went with Gabe to pick up some Brewster's ice-cream. He bought a few different flavors, which were very creamy and delicious. He also bought some oatmilk ice-cream, which tasted like disappointment compared to the other flavors.  

Waiting for the food to arrive.

Me and my Ian

Enjoying a delicious lunch

The train section. It didn't have many of Gabe's N-scale trains, and the stuff they did have looked like dirty garbage to me.

The posters I bought for Gabe and Ian.

A Visit from the Blaylocks, Day 6: Eisendrath House, the Spicery, and Doll Museum

Lisa wanted to visit the Eisendrath House in Tempe. I had never heard of it, but I guess she was searching for things to do in the Phoenix area and wanted to see it. I said sure why not. She bought tickets (they weren't too expensive, like $10 each), which reserved us a time with a guided tour at 10am. It was located in Tempe, so not super close but not far enough to complain about. We left Lisa's kids home with the Nintendo Switch for a babysitter. 

Lisa and I were the only two on the tour. The Eisendrath House was interesting; it was fun learning about the early settlers in the area. We learned about how the house was built with adobe, the care of the house, and some of its history.  A wealthy German/Jewish woman had it built as her vacation home at the turn of the century (1900's). All in all, it was mildly entertaining but not the most amazing house I've toured. I think it would have been more interesting if the original furnishings had been in the house--they found random furniture to furnish the house, and it just didn't quite do the trick. Lisa seemed really engaged and asked a lot of questions. The house was undergoing renovations, so our tour guide took us outside to see how the house was constructed using adobe. I don't remember why I didn't take any pictures of this house tour. Here's a picture I stole off the internet of the house:

The Rose Eisendrath House in Tempe

********

I had reserved a three-course tea experience at the Spicery that same day around noon. It was a fun experience! I've only ever done one other tea place: the English Rose Tea Room back in November (see other post here). I was unable to get reservations to the English Rose Tea Room during Lisa's visit, so I took Lisa to the Spicery instead. I had been to the Spicery several times before but never for the tea experience. I thought the food and desserts were better at the Spicery than at the English Rose Tea Room, but the scones at the English Rose were better than the Spicery's. The Spicery's scones were too biscuity-soft to be scones in my opinion. The tea was about the same quality I thought. We were too full to eat most of the desserts, so we took them to go. 

A picture of Lisa just before we dug in!

The sandwiches--yum!

The "scones" and some shortbread

Eating a cute bunny scone

Some tea and the desserts

********

Instead of just going back home, Lisa wanted to check out some shops that were just around the corner. It was cold and rainy (probably the only cold and rainy day of the entire year) but I was up for it. After putting the food in the van, we went to where a few shops were. Lisa wanted to go in the doll museum. The lady at the front desk told us it would be $5 for the museum tour. I was like sure, why not. A couple of other people joined us on the tour, but other than them it was just us. The museum wasn't very big, but it sure had enough fun stuff to look at for hours! There were lots and lots of dolls, some were quite old. Some were creepy, some were cute, some I recognized, and some were just plain weird. I took lots of pictures of the museum tour. It was fun learning about the old dolls. After the tour, Lisa and I shopped around for some dolls that were for sale. I guess people donate these dolls and they fix them up and either put them in the museum if they are rare/old/special enough, or they sell them. The prices on the used dolls were pretty good compared to places like the Brass Armadillo antique mall or even Ebay. I picked out a small, old fashioned doll for Elisa, along with some vintage plastic trains (from the 1950's) for Gabe, a piano figurine, a little trinket box with a piano painted on it, and a kitty card for my mom. Lisa bought Aaliyah a few dolls. We spent a long time looking at/shopping for dolls. So long that I was worried I'd be late for my piano lessons. What a fun museum! I wish I would have known about this place when Elisa was younger and into dolls.

A miniature doll house. This is the sewing room. Dolls have better sewing rooms than I do.

The oldest doll in the museum--over 200 years old now.

A neat/creepy doll classroom

An original Strawberry Shortcake doll!

Dolls that my mom has! I took pictures of and sent to her. Above: Penny Brite. She is still in good condition with her clothes on. Bottom left: Baby Kissy. She's unfortunately in pieces and her hair has all fallen out, but I still recognized her! Bottom right: Crissy doll. She's in ok condition but missing her clothes.

Lisa in the room full of for-sale dolls. She bought Aaliyah that baby doll.