Desert by moonlight - A great anniversary

You know, with two little babies around 24/7 these days, it was pretty easy not to have given any thought at all to our 3-year anniversary. But, as luck would have it, the idea for a special night dropped in my lap, and I jumped on it.

Our recent trip to Mesa, Arizona was a study in orchestration (more on that in another blog post), and meant that for a good chunk of the trip, my husband was back in Ottawa.  However, on the evening of his return to Mesa for the last few days of the trip, a special phenomena was taking place; what they called the 'super moon'. I discovered that a nearby county park (one of the amazing benefits of my parents' location is their proximity to the nearby desert mountains for hiking) Usary Mountain Regional Park was putting on a park ranger-led moonlight hike that night, and it was free.

Now, I don't think there has been a single trip I have taken to Mesa yet that hasn't included a nice, sunny hike, but this time? No go. I was hoping to go with the girls in carriers on an easy hike, but, uh...you'll hate me for saying this but the temperature was too hot for hiking while we were down there!  So...enter moonlight hiking!

It was great, and so very romantic.  Just the two of us...and about 400 others. But really, it WAS great. Very cool to see the Saguaro cacti rising up against the night sky, and see all the funkier cacti, like the jumping cactus, lit up along the path. The iPhone even managed to capture the scene with the lights of Mesa and Phoenix in the background.

The hike was admittedly short (there were a lot of kidlets and seniors along for the ride), but I really enjoyed the evening, which started off wonderfully at a nearby restaurant which came highly recommended to us, El Rancho Tia Rosas. 

YUMMY.

I started with a margarita (of course) and we had the tomales for our appetizer. For the main course, Art chose the traditional fajitas, and I had the seafood enchiladas.  Sooo good.  Some pix:

And of course, we couldn't stop there. We ordered desserts, and those might have been the best part. We shared the churros (that had custard piped in them and were drizzled with caramel -OMG) and tried Sopapillas for the first time.  Soooo goood!

It was a great night. So lovely. So unplanned. Such a treat, with honey on top (of the sopapillas).