The last four months

So obviously it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog so listed below are some things we’ve been up to since September.

September 19, 2009
The Phoenix Symphony Oscar Night!! They performed some of the greatest scores from films such as Titanic, The Godfather, Chariots of Fire, Gone with the Wind and The Lord of the Rings, and other classics such as “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and “Lara’s Theme” from Dr. Zhivago. I think one of my favorites was “The Exodus” from Ben-Hur and one of Darren’s was the theme from Rocky. We even had the opportunity to walk the red carpet and have our picture taken by the paparazzi. We’ve could have also posed for a photo with the life-sized Oscar statues but the line was too long. The “statues” were technically two guys painted in gold but they did such a good job at remaining still I couldn’t tell if they were real or not. It’s always fun to get dressed up and go out on the town with my man.



October 24, 2009
Darren surprised me with a day date to Kartchner Caverns, just outside Benson, AZ. He planned it for weeks and wouldn’t give me one single detail. I love surprises but I absolutely cannot help but ask lots of questions in order to try and guess. Since Darren wouldn’t answer any of my logical and rational inquiries, I had to resort to questions like the following:

Me: Fine. Then give me a color.
Darren: A color???
Me: Yeah. A color. (I have no idea why he was so confused. It’s a perfectly logical question) ;o)
Darren: What do you mean a color?
Me: Give me a color that would best describe what we’re going to do?
Darren (with such an unsure and intrigued look on his face): Okaaayyyy. Yellow.
Me: Yellow huh? Soooo….it’s going to be something that requires some energy like hiking, cuz yellow is a bright, hyper-like color. Either that or it’s something outside so it’s going to be hot, like the yellow sun. Am I right? Am I right?
Darren: Ummm. Sure. (This is the point where he starts (at least outwardly) laughing and questioning my sanity)

He even tried to throw me off by getting on the eastbound freeway from Gilbert Rd. Prior to that I thought I had guessed it. But after he finally got off the freeway and turned around to head west, I knew I had it figured out.

It was a perfect surprise. I had never been to Kartchner Caverns before and it was absolutely astounding!! It’s mind boggling to think about how caves are made and how they continue to thrive. We did the Rotunda/Throne Tour which is about .5 mile in length and takes about an hour or so to complete. At the end of the tour they do a light show centered around "Kubla Khan”, the largest column formation in Arizona. It’s really cool to see all the shadows that the lights and formations create. I can’t imagine being one of the first people in search of this cave who crawled on their hands and knees in complete and utter darkness until they ran into this gigantic column. Crazy!! I don’t have any pictures since they weren’t allowed, but you can click here to see some from a website I found.

It's all just fun and games


Darren and I were reminiscing a while back about the different productions/concerts we have been to so I thought it might be fun to list them. One list consists of those we’ve done together and the other is ones we have gone to separately. So here they are:

List of shows we've been to together:
The Lion King
Rascal Flatts
Jack Johnson
Wicked (twice)
Phantom of the Opera
Blue October/Yellowcard
Live
One Republic
Barnum & Bailey Circus
Black Beard the Musical
The Christmas Carol
Andre Rieu
Les Miserables
Transiberian Orchestra
Brad Paisley
The Nutcracker
Warren Miller

Others:
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Light in the Piazza
Little Shop of Horrors
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
Michelle Branch
Staind
Nickelback
Nora Jones
Allison Krauss
Rick Trevino
Keith Urban
Brian Regan
Joel Osteen

Can you guess which ones I can claim and which ones Darren would deny? :o)


Story: Since we went to Wicked in L.A. the weekend we got engaged, as much as we wanted to see it again, we decided to pass when it came to Tempe in July. So one random Tuesday afternoon, Darren calls me in the middle of the day to see if I want to go to Gammage Auditorium after work and see if we can win some tickets through a raffle. Sounds fun to me! So we go after work, put each of our names on a piece of paper and wait with about 75 other people to see if one of our names will be drawn. After about 10 people we hear, "Darren Brown". We looked at each other astonishingly as Darren walks to the front table to pick up his loot. So for a total of $50, we received two 2nd row, center stage tickets to Wicked. Yay!! Doesn't get better than that :) We even got two of these prized buttons to show off.


Velkommen til Solvang!

November 11th-14thIn November, we spent four fun-filled days in sunny California. We woke up Veteran’s Day morning, drove to Santa Monica Pier, and then stayed the night in L.A. The next morning we drove along the coast from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara. We spent a few hours walking around downtown Santa Barbara looking in the various shops and taking some fun pictures.


Hmm...someday :)

Later that afternoon we continued on our journey towards Los Alamos, CA, where we stayed in the most unique bed and breakfast. Click here to check out the website. Click on the “suites” link on the left to check out the different bedrooms. After some deliberation we decided to stay in the "Egyptian Room". It was the coolest room ever!! The ceiling was draped with material in order to resemble a sheik’s tent and the bathroom door was a King Tut statue. You had to pull on his beard to open the door. It had a fireplace, hot tub and remote controlled lights (allowed you to choose the combinations of color that you wanted). It even had Egyptian music playing and its own “Egyptian scent”. Ours was also the only room to have its own personal patio that overlooked the tree lined streets below. As we were leaving I asked the hostess what the old ship in the backyard was for. She informed us that the owner is currently renovating it to be the 7th guestroom. The theme will be Cast Away. Awesome!! Once that one is finished he wants to build a Tree House Room. Like an actual room in a tree! How cool would that be!? We definitely want to go back and stay in a couple of others.


The Victorian Mansion


The next room


The bathroom door


You know those optical illusions where two objects are morphed together and you either see one thing or the other (depending on right or left brain capabilities)? Well...where Darren saw a statue with a long beard, I saw a statue with a wide, gaping mouth. Imagine seeing that by firelight. Ahh...so romantic.



The next morning we went and walked around The Depot Mall, an old railway depot converted into an antique shop. It’s because of this depot that Los Alamos is knows as the Home of the last Pacific Railway Station. It’s the biggest antique store I’ve ever been in. It was fun to walk around and look at all the old stuff.

After looking through the depot, we headed south to Solvang, CA, in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country. Solvang, a quaint little village meaning “sunny field”, was founded in 1911 by a small group of Danish educators who came looking for warmer weather and less oppression. It consists of many shops and buildings that follow traditional Danish architecture and bakeries that offer authentic Danish food. It has a copy of the famous Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen and a park named after the famed Danish fable writer Hans Christian Andersen (even though when asked, Darren thought he was a famous speed skater). For lunch we tried the famous frikadeller, medisterpølse, and rødkaal (meatball, Danish sausage and pickled red cabbage). For breakfast we tried the aebleskiver (light and airy pancake balls dusted with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam). Needless to say, lunch was an adventure but the aebleskivers were amazing!! Some of our favorite shops were Jule Hus, a year round Christmas shop, the Thomas Kinkade Gallery (so many amazing paintings), and the Solvang Antique Center. My favorite part was the antique clocks. They were so beautiful and ornate. The most expensive one I saw was an 1870 American made for $123, 000. Can you even imagine? Solvang was such a fun place to visit with its old fashioned buildings and tree lined, lantern lined streets. What a perfect vacation!






Hans Christian Andersen statue






???




medisterpolse and rodkaal for lunch




there were storks on a lot of the buildings (In Denmark, a stork roosting on your roof is considered good luck)