Epic Road Trip: Lake Havasu, Arizona

Our vacation was one epic road trip.  We traveled over 2,500 miles and drove through six states: Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada.  Despite many hours in the car, it was a good trip.

We started our drive toward New Mexico to drop off some items to my in-laws and spend some time visiting with them.  My Aunt Barb offered us to stay at her place which allowed us some time with her.  I had really wanted to try out a few of the breweries on this trip but there is just never enough time.  My aunt took this photo of us as we rolled out of town.  I rarely have any photos of Kenyon where he is actually smiling!  On this trip, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.

We left New Mexico a day early with an impromptu plan to drive a few hours that evening to Gallup, NM and then make a quick detour to the Grand Canyon National Park on the Arizona side.  I have never been to the Grand Canyon and even though it was a very quick trip, it was amazing.  Maybe one day we will be able to return.

We finished the drive to Lake Havasu getting in after dark.  I could tell as we were driving in it was a lot larger of a city then I expected and I couldn’t wait to explore.  We woke up to a beautiful view right out of our kitchen window which also included a balcony.  

The Havasu Dunes Resort was amazing.  We really loved every minute of this resort and can see ourselves on a return trip.  The staff was so friendly and we were able to use the pool one of the days, although we should have done it on the hottest day of our trip, which was 82 degrees!

Lake Havasu is this great mix of desert, palm trees, water, and mountains.  It was beautiful and I really loved having a place right by the water.  Our resort was only about 1.5 miles from town and it make getting around really easy.

We tried several restaurants:

Juicy’s and The Red Onion where the two breakfast places.  The wait at The Red Onion was quite long on Saturday so we waited until Sunday for the sweet spot around 1pm.  I really enjoyed the pastrami sandwich and the homemade chips with their Red Onion dip.

Barley Brother’s Restaurant & Brewery is right on the waters edge and has amazing views of the London Bridge.  The beer flight was great and the stuffed mushrooms were incredible.

Javelina Cantina was a restaurant near Barley Brother’s that advertised a tye dye margarita.  When I looked at their website, I spotted $10 fajita Mondays, which was a fantastic deal.  The margarita was really good and they have thin crispy tortilla chips…oh yum!  

We walked along both sides of the London Bridge, which is the actual bridge purchased by the founder of Lake Havasu and shipped to the U.S.  The views are beautiful.  Saturday was the busier day on the water which was also the hottest day and the best weather.

Lake Havasu has a club that maintains replicas of famous lighthouses across the U.S.  they are hard to get to and the cruise that takes you to view most of them was not running during the dates we arrived.  It will have to be something we do on a future trip.

We decided to take the ferry to Havasu Landing Resort & Casino, which was just $2 round-trip.  The ferry gave us views on the water and went really fast…faster than I had expected for a small ferry boat.  It was a really cheap way to see the sights and we managed to play off some casino winnings while we were there.  It is also a smoke free casinos which was an added bonus.

After feeling like we did all we wanted to in Lake Havasu, we headed to Las Vegas a day early.  This allows us to see Phoenix and Stacey a day earlier and I also got to see another friend that was in town the same time we were.  We enjoyed food, drinks, and managed to play off the house money for quite some time.  

Vegas was PACKED over spring break.  It was wonderful to see the return of travelers and with the reduced capacity of dining, restaurant wait times were long and/or often booked up for the week.  

With that, we made the drive home stopping in Lehi, Utah for the night, which also allowed us to stop in at IKEA.  This will be our biggest trip for a while.  We are still waiting to see what will come of causing as we are still booked for October.

Arizona Vacation - The Last Few Days

The last few days in Arizona were also really low key.  

We hit up another air museum, this time the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. It was a lot smaller than Pima Air & Space Museum but the planes were in excellent condition.  

My air-enthusiast husband really enjoyed our visits to the air museums.

I really wanted to check out the Downtown Scottsdale Old Town area, which had a trolley for easy access.  It was a tough sale for my introverted husband but I figured a visit to two air museums earned me something.

It was quite alarming to board the trolley and see your driver looks like Walter White from Breaking Bad during his Heisenberg phase.  I really wanted to get a photo of the guy but that felt rude.  I wonder if he hears that often?

We made a loop on the trolley and then went in search of food.  We stopped into a restaurant near the mall area that had bison steak, which caught Kenyon’s attention.  Afterwards, I suggested we walk along Old Town to the Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row.  

Sadly, they didn’t have two of the drinks I was interested in.  The music was fun and atmosphere was great.  It was trivia night.  I enjoyed my cocktail and then we walked back to the car and called it quits for the night.

Our last day in Arizona involved a lazy morning and a late start.  I was able to enjoy a walk around our resort complex a few times during the week.  We popped into a casino, lost our money, and killed time until we met Kenyon’s high school classmate and his family.  We met at a delicious Mexican restaurant with green chile/New Mexico flare.  Marc, April, and their children were lovely.  We look forward to another visit soon.  Sadly, we were not able to meet up with any other family or friends.  Maybe our schedules will coincide next time.

We really enjoyed Scottsdale and we will for sure be back.

Arizona Vacation - The First Few Days

The first few days in Arizona were the warmest days.  The sun has been shining the entire trip, which has been glorious.  While I thought we would dodge the snow in Idaho…it turns out it is waiting for our return.  So, I had better soak up the last of the sunshine and warm(er) temps while I can.

One day we visited the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin West House.  

I’ve never been to a Frank Lloyd Wright House before and this makes me want to seek out and visit all of them.  We have already thought about a trip to Pennsylvania to see the iconic Falling Waters House.  This is was a guided tour of the house where you were able to learn more about Mr. Wright, Mrs. Wright (his third wife) and the time he spent with his students/appetences half the year in Arizona.

Taliesin West is still used as an architectural school and is now an accredited school.  Our guide said there were three students currently living on the campus.

We toured Mr. Wright’s office, his living quarters, Mrs. Wright’s living quarters, the main living room, and the theater.  Since the building is a working campus, we were able to peak into a few other areas but not able to enter.  It was fascinating. 

The next day we made the drive to Tuscan to visit the Pima Air & Space Museum.  

This place was huge with many hangers you could walk through as well as a huge outside area with planes as far as the eye could see.  It wasn’t crowded as it was close to the end of the day.  The sunshine made for an enjoyable day outside looking at the many displays.

I’ve been to many airplane museums since marrying Kenyon and this one was really neat.  We enjoyed the afternoon.

I spotted a couple outlet malls along our drive south to Tuscan so I talked Kenyon into stopping into the Tuscan Premium Outlet Mall on our way north.  I am so glad I did because I found this amazing small crossbody red purse that has sparkly signature C’s on them.  Oh boy what a great find!  I can’t wait to bust this out on our Girls Weekend in Vegas in March.

Have a great Friday.