Yesterday we drove to Tempe to visit our niece Stacey and her husband Eddie (and also had a chance to briefly see their daughter Elise). We chatted for a few hours in the new outdoor patio eating area of Monti's which they are part owners of.

We thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and the continuous flow of appetizers like hard-boiled eggs stuffed with chorizo, bacon-wrapped dates in a wonderful sauce, and ground beef sliders with bacon, jalapeno and strawberry jelly (not to mention the guacamole and chips, etc). The food and conversation was so wonderful that we forgot to stop and take pictures of the beautiful food presentations (which included edible orchids)  for the blog.

In addition to Monti's, Eddie has taken on new responsibilities at a restaurant franchise, the national headquarters of the Tilted Kilt, and has been extremely busy. We had not heard of these restaurants before but apparently they are Hooter's-like sports bars with great food. We really enjoyed our few hours with them, and Stacey will probably journey up here to Cottonwood sometime during the next two weeks for another visit..

Today (Easter) we went out for an special meal. We did a Google search for local restaurants with Easter Brunches and came up with a restaurant about 10 minutes away in Cornville.

It's called the Manzanita and we had a wonderful meal beginning with Easter Egg Coolers.

For this day-long occasion they narrowed their menu to four entrees. Sharon started with carrot with ginger soup (foreground) and Rick had a chilled strawberry soup.

For the main course Sharon had the salmon filet topped with crab, spinach and artichokes (served with lemon wine)

and Rick had the lamb shank brazed in burgundy demi glace.

We finished it all with a slice of carrot cake and a lemon berry mascarpone cake.

The trouble with a big meal in the middle of the day is that we haven't felt like doing anything the rest of the afternoon - which is good because we can now catch up on this blog.

The weather here has been beautiful -crystal clear skies and warm days with temperatures in the upper 70s. Today it hit 80 and it is supposed to get even warmer over the next week. This signals to us that it is time to start migrating back to cooler country. Highs in the low 80s are OK but when it starts inching up onto the higher 80s we plan to be out of here. So we have a general plan to leave here on April 15 and spend a few days in Flagstaff (at an elevation of 7000' and about 10 degrees cooler than here). Then we will head to the high mesas of NW New Mexico and visit the ancient Anasazi ruins at Chaco Canyon and Aztec Ruins. After a few days there we will move to SW Colorado (probably to Cortez) and tour Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, and Canyon of the Ancients. From there we will head to Moab and visit Arches NP and Canyonlands. By then it will be time to head back north for a couple of days visit with Shirley S. then back to Pocatello/Island Park for a few routine doctor's appointments. After dropping off the trailer and catching up on obligations we will head to the Seattle area to visit Chris, Kristen, Keira, and Kailyn probably over Memorial Day. Then back to IP for an enjoyable summer. Just thinking about it makes us exhausted. We'll keep you posted.