Last weekend I drove up to Flagstaff to play in my old stomping grounds for a few days. The fact that my trip happened to coincide with the new year was completely and totally on purpose. I invited my family to join me for the festivities, and the 3 of them drove up on Sunday evening.
During my solo drive up the mountain on Saturday morning, I sang my lungs out to my combination Disney-and-Broadway Musical Pandora station (throughout my senior year I was completely enamord of Wicked the Musical and listened to the soundtrack pretty much nonstop while I was driving to school, work, or just down the road to get a coffee). Whenever I stopped singing long enough to take a breath, my thoughts turned to where I would take my rumbling stomach out to lunch (I skipped breakfast knowing full well I'd be starving by the time the I-17 turned into Milton Rd).
My first meal was a no-brainer: Mountain Oasis is and always has been my favorite Flagstaff lunch place. It's been five-ish years since I've had the opportunity to dine there, and it held up to its (well, my) standard of excellence nicely (though I could tell that the chef was different because the ingredients in my all-time-favorite Rach Chicken wrap were subtly changed. Still delicious as all get out, though!) The waitress was of the overly-friendly, I-almost-just-went-ahead-and-invited-her-to-sit-down-and-join-me variety, but I was in such a good mood and so happy to be back in Flag that not only did I not mind her chattiness, I chatted right back and then left her a ginormous tip!
For dinner that night I went to Hiro's, where I had tried my very first sushi roll freshman year (the Philadelphia roll, because the salmon was smoked and I wasn't brave enough yet to eat raw fish). Since then I have become an avid sushi fan and a lover of salmon nigiri and the Rainbow Roll! I also went on a nighttime Safeway run for some apples, since I start chomping at the bit if I go too long without apples the same way some people get cranky without their coffee fix.
On Sunday morning I decided to stroll around the frozen grounds of NAU "for old time's sake." But first, I headed over to my beloved streetside drive-through coffee joint, Wicked AZ. The fact that it shares a name with my favorite musical from college just makes me all the more nostalgic about it. While waiting in line, I noticed that the day's trivia question happened to be about the main reason I chose come to Flagstaff for that particular extended weekend (which I'll get to in a minute).
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| The Wicked Trivia board says: "What year did the Flagstaff pinecone drop start?" |
I ordered my Wicked AZ Coffee favorite, the Snickers (I actually like the cold drink better, but t'was not the season for icy drinks!). I always order it decaf with no whipped cream, but the tasty confection still contains enough sugar to pack a hyperactive punch! Especially when the girl drinking it is so nostalgically ecstatic that she leaves yet another enormous tip, causing the barista to give her TWO punches on her Wicked coffee card!
At NAU I parked in the parking lot behind the library and music building, then half-hoped I would (and really kinda still hoped I wouldn't) slip on the thick coating of ice leading to the sidewalk (I took two big spills during my wintery Flagstaff college years - one in that parking lot, and the other by the Liberal Arts building). No falling ensued this time around, which is actually good since I was still holding a hot coffee in my hands. I then spent the next hour wandering around the deserted campus while four years of memories jumped out at me everywhere I looked. I was too cold and too lazy to make it all the way down to south campus, but most of the good stuff happened on central and north campus anyway (of course, now that I've typed that, my neurons are firing in defense of what south campus fun did occur, and some very not-fun things that happened on central campus). After treading carefully back to my car, I had lunch at Crystal Creek and ordered my regular Crystal Club sandwhich (I could be thinking of Jitter's, which is now closed, but I could have sworn that the tabletops at Crystal Creek used to be wood slabs covered in graffiti carvings. Now they are boring green and yellow tiles).
My family had to drive up the mountain in a snowstorm on Sunday night (in conditions not unlike the very first time I drove my Roxy car up the mountain my junior year!). By the time they arrived, I was ready and waiting for them with several yummy dishes from my favorite dinner place, Dara Thai (the timing was perfect, as my car was still idling in the driveway when they pulled up beside me. I myself had just had a crash-course in remembering how to drive in heavy snow!). Ever since my first bite of Evil Jungle Princess (spicy level 2) my freshman year, I have been in love. No other Thai food restaurant has measured up, at least not in sentimental value!
As has become our tradition for Flagstaff adventures, my family and I stayed in a ComfiCottage house (though not our favorite, the Beaver St house from my freshman year). On New Year's Eve, my mom and brother stayed warm in front of the Beal St house's cozy fireplace while my dad and I braved the 9-degree temperature to watch Flagstaff's infamous pinecone drop!
In all four years that I lived in Flagstaff, I never did the pinecone drop thing because I always went home to Phoenix during winter break. I figured it was high time I finally saw this New Year's Eve phenomenon for myself! The pinecone "dropped" from the top of the Weatherford Hotel (where, incidentally, the fam and I had stopped earlier that day for a beverage - hot apple cider for the ladies, beer for the boys- after some downtown Flagstaff shopping).
It was 30 seconds of very much excitement accompanied by about 50 school children blowing noise makers (we went to the 10pm drop because the midnight crowd of downtown drunkies would have killed my happy-to-be-in-Flagstaff endorphine buzz). After cheering for the LED-lighted 6-foot metal pinecone, my dad and I traipsed over to Rendezvous for a drink (yummy mojito for me, I've never been a martini kind of girl).
It was 30 seconds of very much excitement accompanied by about 50 school children blowing noise makers (we went to the 10pm drop because the midnight crowd of downtown drunkies would have killed my happy-to-be-in-Flagstaff endorphine buzz). After cheering for the LED-lighted 6-foot metal pinecone, my dad and I traipsed over to Rendezvous for a drink (yummy mojito for me, I've never been a martini kind of girl).
Because we are a family of desert rats, we couldn't drive back to Phoenix on Tuesday without taking a bunch of Flagstaff winter wonderland photos.
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| For my brother: "Ermagerd! Ercicles!" |
The 4 day trip was a literal bite out of heaven! My whole family keeps telling me how glad they are that I suggested it. It was so much fun, packed with foodie food and enough nostalgia to last me at least until next year (at which time I intend to make the trip again!)
PS: the answer to Wicked Coffee's trivia question? 1999
PPS: of course I also drove to where I lived for three years, one year of which was with the 3 best roomies ever. I elected not to drive down the still-icy-because-the-plow-doesn't-go-there small streets to get to the actual house, though. I settled for driving down the adjacent bigger road and basically spying on everyone's back yards trying to see into mine (which puts me right on the edge of creeper-status, I know haha).
PPS: of course I also drove to where I lived for three years, one year of which was with the 3 best roomies ever. I elected not to drive down the still-icy-because-the-plow-doesn't-go-there small streets to get to the actual house, though. I settled for driving down the adjacent bigger road and basically spying on everyone's back yards trying to see into mine (which puts me right on the edge of creeper-status, I know haha).