the best of scottsdale, day 2: birthdays, balloons, burgers and butterflies

Michael’s birthday started on a high note – literally – with a hot air balloon ride over Scottsdale/Phoenix. It was his 57^th birthday, he was born in 1957 and 57 is my lucky number, so it had to be a special celebration.

Oddly enough, hot air balloons fly over our house all the time in San Diego yet we have never gone for a ride. Although neither of us wanted to admit it, I think we were both a little nervous because those balloons often come so close to us that we wave to the passengers, who look like they’re coming in for a landing in our backyard.

Nevertheless, we headed over to Rainbow Ryders, where we met our pilot, Taylor, and our fellow passengers, a young attorney named Larry and his mother, Gladys. Taylor and his assistant took us via van to an empty lot where they sent up a helium balloon to analyze the wind. Once they were assured the conditions were right, they started getting the real balloon ready. I’d always wondered how they did this, and it was fascinating to watch.

Climbing into the basket was not the most graceful moment for any of us but once we took off, all eyes were on the gorgeous Arizona sunrise. Michael had been concerned that the ride would be turbulent but it was so smooth, it was hard to believe we were over a mile from the ground.

It was so peaceful up in the air and such a calm morning that Taylor asked if we minded staying up longer than the usual hour. Duh. We could’ve happily stayed up there for hours, taking in the scenery of the Sonoran Desert from a totally different perspective than we’d ever experienced.

I’m happy and actually kind of surprised to report that I never once felt afraid during the ride, and it wasn’t at all scary looking down on the world. In fact, we got very chatty up there: Hot air balloon video

After an hour and a half of floating around at an average nine miles per hour, it was time to come back down to earth. Taylor showed us how to bend our knees and prepare for landing, warning that we might tip over. “I’d rather we didn’t,” I laughed, to which he replied, as we got closer to the ground, “Oh, we’re going to.”

Boy, he wasn’t kidding. As we braced for the landing and touched down, we tipped over backwards, the basket sliding along the desert floor, with all of us holding on and giggling as though we were on a rollercoaster. It was so much fun, we stayed in that position so Taylor could take pictures. We thought it was hilarious that we couldn’t even look at the photos on my phone because it kept trying to auto-correct them so we were sitting up rather than lying on our backs.

Once we were all standing again, Taylor set up a yummy champagne breakfast for us and made a memorable toast to our safe landing. It was awesome, and you can watch it here: Hot air balloon toast video

He then handed us our official flight certificates and pins to commemorate our ride. This is definitely something everyone should try once in their lives.

By the time we got back to the Phoenician and took a leisurely stroll around the grounds, it was time for lunch at Relish Burger Bistro, overlooking the golf course – which Michael eyed longingly. Next time, honey.

How cute is the Relish logo?! My True Bleu Kobe burger was exceptional – and it came with Tater Tots! There was no way I could finish it because we had already stuffed ourselves on Fried Pickles and BBQ Chicken Nachos. Somehow we did find room for the Chocolate Cookie Skillet Michael was presented with for his birthday dessert.

After lunch, we headed over to Butterfly Wonderland, the newest must-see Scottsdale attraction. First, we watched the short feature, Flight of the Butterflies, which uses 3D better than pretty much any movie I’ve seen. It’s filled with fun facts – did you know butterflies taste with their feet? – that make it even more exciting to visit the Butterfly Emergence Gallery, where we got to see the most fascinating stage of a butterfly metamorphosis. This was such a rare treat.

We were then ushered into the country’s largest butterfly pavilion, where thousands of butterflies soar through the lush rainforest environment. It’s said that it’s good luck to have a butterfly land on you, and it was so much fun to watch people stand like statues, arms spread, hoping to attract one of the beautiful creatures.

Because we felt we should get a little more exercise before we started eating again, we decided to do the Scottsdale ArtWalk, which has taken place every Thursday night for 40 years. There are more than 100 art galleries downtown, and they open their doors to the public to browse the wide variety of artwork and enjoy complimentary wine and appetizers. If we lived here, we would do this every week.

We were excited to walk over to dinner at Virtu Honest Craft, named one of Esquire’s 20 Best New Restaurants in the U.S. It’s a cozy little space tucked into the Bespoke Inn, Scottsdale’s only luxury bed and breakfast. Chef Gio Osso has created an eclectic Mediterranean-inspired menu, which our fantastic server, Carly (below), helped us navigate, recommending popular dishes and her personal favorites.

Our dinner started with grilled octopus – one of Virtu’s signature starters – and grilled asparagus with bacon candy (bacon candy!!) and foie gras hollandaise. And that was only the beginning. Michael had a delicious ahi tuna, which was only trumped by my scallops with a white chocolate beurre blanc. Are you drooling yet?

Michael was treated to birthday dessert number two, this time a key lime pie in a jar.

By the time we were rolled out of there, we were sated, ready for a good night’s sleep and excited to see what adventures day three would hold.