Milestone birthdays, love 'em or hate 'em, they're entirely unavoidable!
There's a lot of milestone birthdays while you're young, you turn 10 and you've made it to a decade. 13, you're officially a teenager, and in some cases even become young men and women. At 16 we get wheels! (Or, at least the license to operate wheels, perhaps our parents' or our friends') 18 marks your adulthood and right to get involved in good old fashioned politics! And let's not forget the all night bender that is 21.
As we get older, the milestones space out a little more. 30's the first real big doozy, it can mess with you, but in the grand scheme of things, it's another milestone we all celebrate making it to.
Dylan just experienced a monumental milestone: the big four oh.
I remember during an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy and her teenage friends were lamenting about how "grownups are strange." That's when it hit me, the idea of "grown up." We're not old yet, but we're not kids anymore either. We have the luxury of cruising in this "grown up" middle space for a very, very long time. So what does a bonafide grown up do to celebrate their birthday? Huge perk here: whatever they damn well want.
Dylan and I have an incredible network of the most amazing people we get to call our friends. I have no idea how we've been so fortunate, but I'm grateful every single day. That being said, we rallied up a few of the troops (not everyone was able to make it, more fun parts of being grownups is you gotta pick and choose when/what you can afford. See, this is where Trust Fund Babies have it way better!) Where was I? Ah, yes - we rallied up a few of the troops and headed to Flagstaff, AZ for a long weekend getaway.
Why Flagstaff? I have two words: Disc Golf.
This was a google image search, sorry, I wish I could credit the artist! But it is the perfect depiction of Disc Golf. I'm not addicted myself, but I get it about my discing friends. Discers gotta disc. Anyone you've ever known who's gotten into disc golf, is now obsessed. Well, at least that's the case I've experienced. Which is fine in my book, I don't do the sports much myself, but I tag along to get walks in from time to time. It was especially nice to do so in Flagstaff.
Which, brings me back to Flagstaff, I'm pretty sure Disc Golf was born there. It's where Dylan's buddies, who introduced him to the game; first discovered it in college. (The same buddies that were part of the rallied troops who were able to make it on the trip, of course!) There are lots of disc golf courses in Flagstaff, and one of them happened to have a couple of VRBO rentals right next door. We put down deposits, and planned our trip.
The grand total was 9 of us, and when we arrived in Flagstaff we tacked on a couple of locals. There were a few times when we ALL were together, too. It was pretty amazing. I suppose we should begin at the beginning: ROAD TRIP!
Okay so riding in the Scion was just me, Dylan and Jon. Most of the folks who came up had their own vehicles and we all sort of staggered into Flagstaff. Also I don't have many road trip photos because, well, the trip from Tucson to Flagstaff is short and painless! We three arrived first and covered the essentials: coffee + beer.
From Mother Road Brewing.
Alright so I didn't get any photos of Mother Road - which in retrospect I regret. But let me tell you about it!
1. Delicious beer.
2. Excellently priced branded tchotchkes
3. There was the world's largest most adorable dog outside who sang to you.
Okay, so he had nothing to do with the brewery itself, he belonged to one of the patrons who told us his breed was "bear" and he full on sang to you as soon as you started paying attention to him - the dog not the patron. It was the best welcome to Flagstaff we could have asked for.
From there we found our rental and dropped off the bags, then we headed straight out to Thorpe Park so the dudes could do some discing. Emily could snap a few photos and enjoy the outdoors.
We ran into just a little bit of weather that first day
Rain would sprinkle on and off, and it was chilly enough to keep your jacket on. The best part was when we heard a clap of thunder! (Another fantastic welcome, if you ask me)
The guys got in a full round of golf
Let me go ahead and warn you, this will not be chronological order because I can't remember to save my life what happened when. I do have some highlights to share though, so let's continue.
On Thursday night, one more car arrived carrying two of our buddies. We hoofed it downtown to enjoy some cocktails and dinner, as well as meet up with some resident Flagstaffians.
(Did I mention the VRBOs we rented were in walking distance to ALL THE THINGS?! Because that was incredible!!) Anyway, onward to night one!
A couple of shots from our trip to downtown Flagstaff:
I do recall we had dinner Thursday night at The McMillian, and everything was fantastic. If you're there, someone in your party has to get that Mac & Cheese because: NOM. Also, they have the most amazing tres leches cake. (Which I didn't have until Saturday, but I have a feeling I may not remember to share that tidbit when I get to what I think may be Saturday's adventures.)
We parted ways with our local Flagstaff pal and walked home. The walks home on this trip are some of my favorite memories. It's those blissful times with your closest friends where your minds wander, and you make each other laugh until you pretty much pee your pants. Maybe that's a crude way to put it, but I know you all know the moments I'm talking about when I share that. <3 My #1 absolute favorite parts of the trip were our late night walks home!!
I think that brings us to Friday. We were up fairly early to head back out to Thorpe Park with our added troops.
Which I believe brings us to Friday night, a few more friends arrived in Flagstaff, and we headed out to a local joint with another local!
Everyone looks a little bushed because they spent all day discing, and it was pretty late. The memorable part of this (I believe we were at Hops on Birch) is that the place was PACKED heh, funny how Hops was hopping! ZING! Anywho, very busy! Small, too, so you were sort of like sardines. But on our way out of the establishment, our large line of people was stopped dead in it's tracks because: PUPPY! Yes. The fuzziest, softest little chocolate lab baby ever in creation wearing a little freaking t-shirt AHMAGAD. I didn't get a photo, but it was fun to have the "Gah, why aren't we moving?! - PUPPY!!!!" moment run through every single person, one at a time, in our crammed, sardine line of people.
At some point we breakfasted at the Toasted Owl, because, I have these pictures ... I can't remember if it was Friday or Saturday morning though. Here's the thing about the place. Adorable decor, and that's really ... ... it. Sorry Toasted Owl :( the drinks were bad, the food was inconsistent, and our waiter - while adorable - was higher than a kite.
We were together, though, and managed to have a good time.
There was some point in this trip where the discers headed to a second park, and I did not go with them. It was at that time, I finally freaking blogged, and snapped a few photos of our amazing vacation rental. Here we go!
Here's where I'm going to show you the second house our party rented, because it fits theme wise and I have no idea when we did this ..
Alright pics of the 2nd house don't do it justice. It was neat. Like living in a tree house and it had all these little cubbies, one of them was even a room! Really, really cool place.
Saturday was one of the days we spent the most time as a giant group all together. We started with lunch at a local noodle joint. We had local beer, of course, and played with dogs. Flagstaff is a dog WONDERLAND.
We shopped for discs
From there we sort of split off and did our own things. Dylan and I walked around for a while downtown, did a little shopping, including olive oil, candy and T-shirts (what else do you need?!) Then we relaxed at the rental for a stent, I got to watch King of the Hill (seriously, NOW what else do you need?!)
Then we made plans for our gargantuan group to all have dinner together at Southside Tavern. Famous for it's stuffed burgers, and again, walking distance from our rental location.
From here we split off into groups again, Dylan and I had a mini adventure with our dear friend P. for Spanish Coffees and to find an ATM. After that we met back up with the brothers and had the worlds most amazing tres leches cake at The McMillian, followed by another one of my favorite things: amazing and bonding walk home!! <3
(sorry, I have no idea who I did/didn't get permission to mention on the blog, I am showing our photos though. Holler if you want them removed, haha)
Sunday was the day some of our party split off to go discing (of course) myself and one of the girls had a walking adventure and hit up a farmers market - then we all rounded up supplies to have a massive BBQ with EVERYONE at our rental! Yeah! Look at me, remembering things!
Okay, walking adventure & farmers market:
We had crepes at the farmers market. One was nutella, marshmallow and peanut butter. NOM. The other was swiss cheese, green apple, honey, walnut and basil. Yeah. Amazing times for our tastebuds. We also snagged some beef for kabobs, other kabob supplies, and a giant bunch of rosemary @ the farmers market for our BBQ later that day.
Next came Historic Brewing. My favorite brewery I've experienced in life so far.
I love the artwork! "Cuddling, I like that shit" for their Bear Arms American Strong Ale. Come on! Every beer was adorably named and delicious and the sours! SO MANY SOURS! How Now Brown Sour = love in a glass. I had to have the T-rex t-shirt and Dylan got an Undercover Cucumber hat. I will be back, Historic, because I love you.
We had a few beers while we were there, played with the shop dog, Molly, and filled a few growlers before we left. Then it was BBQ time.
STEAK
Cheesy bread appetizer was freakishly delicious.
STEAK!
We had avery, very full house and everyone was together. It was great! That's really all I can say. Oh, well that and it was fucking delicious.
Then it was Monday, and we all prepared to head back home.
One last breakfast as a crew:
We had a convoy on our way back to Tucson:
Stopped to see some sites:
Then, we enjoyed the drive home.
It's important to keep yourselves amused while on the road.
Dylan has been 40 for a couple of weeks now, and he's handling it pretty well. Here's to the next celebratory trip, as well as the next blog post that'll hopefully be soon! ;)
Thanks for reading!
