For The Journey Not just the destination…

I had nothing else to do this past weekend, so I drove up to Sedona…I was already in Phoenix for a business trip, so it was only 2 hours away.

After a way too expensive stop at the Ann Taylor outlet store, I took a Pink Jeep Tour to see some of the red rocks up close. They were beautiful, and our guide was very knowledgable, telling us about local history, biology, and survival stories. For dinner, I had rattlesnake and cactus.

Sunday, I headed out to the Desert Botanical Gardens for a couple hours in the evening. Even though the sun was setting, it was hot..hot..hot. It’s been around 115 degrees all week, but atleast they don’t have humidity like Atlanta.

I have also been swimming in the hotel pool, but mostly I stayed out of the sun. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2, finished a book, and watched way too much HGTV.
I took a bunch of photos on my daytrips, but I haven’t had time to caption them.

• Pink Jeep Tour Photos
• Desert Botanical Garden Photos

Look what I got this weekend! Thomas didn’t get the fun in surprising me with this one, but I did get to pick it out. And it will never be as unique as the original ring.  It was a crazy process, involving 5 stores, many rings, and a completely different idea than I originally imagined.

• More photos of the ring
  

Originally, I wanted a very plain yellow gold solitaire to go with a fancy band that resembles the Appalachian Mountains. But then, I found out that my great grandmother’s ring set had been passed down. That was very special to me, so I decided to use her wedding band as my wedding band, and to get a new engagement ring.

First, we looked at rings at Shane Company. They were very patient, and spent a few hours showing me all types of rings. I decided there that I wanted a white gold filigree style ring that would match Great Grandma’s ring.

Next, we went to Jared. There were so fast in showing me rings that I felt like I was in a whirlwind. They had a ton of gorgeous filigre rings, but they also had one that had a knife edge on the band, like GGma’s. I loved the idea of a matching band on the E-ring and wedding band.

Afterwards, we went to Brown and Company. They made a quick judgement that we were not shopping in their price range, and quickly told us that they don’t have what we want.

Then, we went to D Gellar and Sons, which was the car salesmen of ring stores. They were all about sell, sell, sell and said they’d do whatever they could to sell to us. The had an interesting ring that caught my eye with two pear shaped side diamonds. I didn’t think I’d like side stones, but they were small and I loved how the width and points matched GGma’s ring. But it had a very modern band that I didn’t like. They said they could modify it, but I was really turned off from their salesmanship.

Finally, we went back to Shane to look at the filigree ring again. It wasn’t what I was looking for, but when I described the white gold, knife-edge, teardrop-shaped side stones ring, the lady found one exactly like I was looking for. And now I’m wearing it. I just wonder if finding a wedding dress will be like this…

On Friday, Thomas and I had a date night. We started out by taking Clover to Vickery Creek Trail, a park in Roswell. The park is my new favorite local park – it feels like Umstead Park in Raleigh and has a covered bridge, a dam and waterfall, and an abandoned mill. I definately want to head back sometime to take more photos – it has a bunch of great views.

• Vickery Creek Photos

After dropping Clover back off at home, we headed out for fancy Italian food downtown. We were going to see a movie too, but after a glass of wine, there was little chance at getting me to stay awake.

On Saturday, we tried to meet up in Little 5 Points with Thomas’ friend who was in town from Charlotte. It didn’t work out, but we did get to have lunch at The Vortex. The burgers were good, but I don’t think it’s worth the hype.

We did some yardwork when we got back home – Thomas on the kudzu and me on ivy. Then we headed out to Brian’s place for his housewarming party where we played Upwords and Apples to Apples. Two of our NC friends have recently moved down here. Welcome, Catherine, too.

Sunday, I slept in hard – I didn’t get up until 11AM. That afternoon, Jane joined me for a catering tasting event at Triple J’s, while Thomas was at a motorcycle class. The food was decent, but I plan to keep looking around.

Sunday night, we met up with Anna and Dave for dinner at El Zorritos before Thomas and I tried to go to the movies again. This time we made it and we saw Cars. The movie was very cute – it even had a VW bus in it – and as expected, I cried before it was done.

Happy Independance Day! We’ve had a busy long weekend. Here are some of the highlights…

By the way, it was one year ago this weekend that I bought my house.