A day in Jerome

Yesterday, Ryan, Eva and I bailed out on the Phoenix heat for Northern AZ to spend some time in the high(er) country. It was 118 degrees yesterday in the valley (!!!!!) so it was the perfect excuse to go on a little road trip. 

The only problem was...everyone and their mother had the same idea. Then everyone proceeded to get into accidents on the two lane highway. Then everyone let their cars overheat. Needless to say...it was an unnecessarily long drive. (Note: if you're idling in 110 degree heat while slowly climbing a hill, TURN YOUR AC OFF. If you leave it on, your damn car will overheat. YOU WILL BE SWEATY. JUST DEAL WITH IT. OVER AND OUT.)

We entertained ourselves by chair dancing, listening to podcasts, and taking photos. In Ryan's case, that meant taking about 150 photos of the desert passing by out the car window.

New flippy floppies

Ultimate frisbee from Ryan's days on the team at ASU

Sweating

When we finally got to Jerome, our first stop, I got nervous trying to parallel park on the narrow street so I had to get out and let Ryan do it, lol. Normally I don't have issues parallel parking but it was sooooo steep! He parallel parked effortlessly!

We lunched at the Flatiron Grill. It was super delicious and the patio was pet-friendly!

Eva approved.

Still sweating

Seriously, it was so good. The absolute perfect meal.

There are so many beautiful little nooks and crannies in Jerome. It used to be a booming mining town back in the day, but now it's just a quirky tourist locale full of good art, food and music. Jerome sits on top of a mountain outside of Cottonwood. It's a tiny town!

And it seems like EVERYTHING is uphill in this town. My poor, poor calves.

The view from the top of one of zillions of stairs we climbed.

I think Jerome is best known for the Jerome Grand Hotel, which was formerly a state of the art hospital in its mining days. Folks say it's haunted by many ghosts of the people who stayed (and died, eep) in the hospital, including the asylum. People travel here just to stay in the haunted hotel and see if they can experience something paranormal. It's got a famous restaurant attached now, aptly named "The Asylum". Kooky.

We wandered around and took in the sights. 

There's SO much history in this town. Much of it remains untouched, if not minimally updated to house shops or galleries. 

This is the tasting room featured in Blood Into Wine, the documentary based upon Tool lead singer's Maynard Keenan and his venture into winemaking. He picked Jerome, AZ to place his vineyards and sell his wine. We didn't go in - rumor has it, the wine is overpriced and the staff are hipper-than-thou - but we creepily snapped a photo for posterity. Fancy.

What's this? Just a regular ol' Buick hanging out in Jerome?

Look closer...

Inside the light

And when we tired of sweating profusely in Jerome (it was almost 100 degrees, what the heck Northern AZ?), we drove down the scenic 89A highway to grab a drink in Prescott.


Except, have you ever tried to go to a bar with a dog? Um, it doesn't really work. Nobody would serve us, not even on a patio. So what did we do? Find a DOG-FRIENDLY BAR in downtown Prescott! It was amazing! Hello, Lyzzards Lounge.

It was the perfect way to end the day: a tired pup, two tired parents to said tired dog, and a few ice cold Stone IPAs. 

Prescott was also having a really great festival in town square, which we didn't photograph because we were searching for a place that sold booze. We did, however, indulge ourselves and buy some homemade honey from one of the booths. Orange blossom honey from New Mexico? Sign us up. It is DELICIOUS.


Aside from running into traffic AGAIN that delayed our drive home by OVER TWO HOURS, we had a really great day enjoying our beautiful state with our extraordinarily popular and well-behaved dog. Hooray for day trips and sanity :)