Upon making our trip up the mountain from Scottsdale to Flagstaff, with our bellies rumblin’ for food, we made a beeline to La Bellavia Restaurant for breakfast.
There seems to exist, somewhere deep in my DNA, a magnetic sort of pull to small town breakfast eateries. To be fair, Flagstaff probably doesn’t qualify for what most people would call a small town, but this restaurant has the look and feel of many a small town diner across our land.
As we pulled off the main street onto Beaver street, we immediately sensed a sort of bohemian feel to the area. You know, college age kids walking around with that artsy kinda look about them. Even though it was winter, and 31 degrees outside, some young guy was strumming his guitar on a picnic bench across the street, while two other picnic tables full of onlookers sipped their steaming hot drinks.
As we walked through the blanket draped over the doorway to keep the draft out, we found ourselves gazing upon a delightful diner with artwork from local artists on the walls, a mild smell that lets you know that you are in a building likely over 100 years old mixed with wondrous breakfast smells from the kitchen, and the beaming smile of Jennifer (pictured with Carol) our waitress.
Even though it was just after 12:00 I was here with one central purpose: breakfast!
After scanning the menu, I chose the Trout and Eggs completed with a made-from-scratch buttermilk pancake, while Carol chose the Eggs Beaver Street, which was a salmon and creme cheese play on Eggs Benedict.
Now, before you start lecturing me about my non-heart-healthy food choices, please understand that this is precisely why I came here. When I saw the Trout and Eggs feature listed on-line, I knew I was going to visit Connie Ghiglieri’s La Bellavia Restaurant.
The trout was delicious, and Carol’s Egg Beaver Street was out of this world.
If you, like me, enjoy small town breakfast eateries, then La Bellavia ranks with the best of them. We highly recommend it.
Today we made our journey up the mountain to Flagstaff. When we left Scottsdale, at 9:00 a.m., it was 60º, and when we made it to Flagstaff, two hours later, it was 31º.
As we made our climb we saw patches of snow at 5,000 feet, deep snow at 6,000 feet, and gobs of snow in Flagstaff at 7,000 feet.
The photograph above is from Arizona’s Snowbowl at 9,200 feet, and as you can see, we were blessed with some sunshine in order to share this phenomenal panorama with you.
When I stepped out of the car, I was majorly bummed because I forgot to put the SD card back in my Nikon D80. Therefore, all of my photographs from this weekend are going to be from my little Sony point-and-shoot. Sheez! I was not happy with myself for such a rookie mistake.
This weekend we have planned the maiden journey for The Roaming Boomers travel and adventure website.
We live in North Scottsdale with an altitude of roughly 2,100 ft, and enjoy winter weather that is typically sunny, and produces highs of 70º each day. Flagstaff, on the other hand, sits at roughly 7,000 ft, and is currently blanketed with snow from a week of massive snow storms.
As Michigan natives we are very familiar with snow, but we have never experienced snow in Arizona. When we noticed that Flagstaff was having its 24th Annual Winterfest, we thought this might be a fun little excursion to try out our travel planning systems.
As we were building out our website, we engaged the help of our Facebook fans through their helpful comments. To reward them for their kind comments, we held a drawing for a Kodak Zi6 HD Video Camera. Here is the video of that drawing:
Next week we will be visiting the Chicago Cubs Cactus League Spring Training at Hohokam Park in Mesa, Arizona. Prior to the game, we will also be visiting The Cactus League Experience at the Mesa Historical Museum. [Photo credit: Tom Tingle, Associated Press / March 1, 2010]
The Roaming Boomers
Upon making our trip up the mountain from Scottsdale to Flagstaff, with our bellies rumblin’ for food, we made a beeline to La Bellavia Restaurant for breakfast.
After scanning the menu, I chose the Trout and Eggs completed with a made-from-scratch buttermilk pancake, while Carol chose the Eggs Beaver Street, which was a salmon and creme cheese play on Eggs Benedict.
