Chandler and the San Macro Hotel (Sunday, July 1st, 2018)

When we woke up this morning, we wanted to check out the upstairs of the original hotel (the one that is supposedly haunted).  And as we strolled over, we took a few pictures of the hotel grounds.

This hotel was originally built by Dr. Alexander John "AJ" Chandler in 1912, he was also the founder of the city of Chandler, AZ.  This was his first coupe, a 1925 Dodge Brother's Coupe, which is now on display in the lobby of the hotel.

After a brief stop in the lobby, we headed up the stairs to check out the original rooms, and hopefully some ghosts.

Outside the theater.

As hard as we tried, we weren't able to find any ghosts.  Maybe they have all moved over to the speakeasy where it's much more lively (see my post from yesterday)!

We decided to take the long way home to see some country we haven't seen before. 

We stopped at a rest area just outside of Wickenburg in the Hassayampa wetlands where we had our lunch, left over San Antonio mac and cheese from last night.  The bbq flavor had mellowed over night, and the mac and cheese was much better today.

As we were enjoying our lunch at a picnic table, we were joined by this friendly lizard.  Maybe he likes mac and cheese too!

And this beautiful red bird kept flying around us.  He was gorgeous!

When we got home, we looked him up, and he is a Vermilion Fly Catcher.

When we finished our lunch, we continued on and decided to stop at a new community just north of Wickenburg, AZ called Wickenburg Ranch.  It is an active all ages planned community that we hear a lot about on the radio.

As we were waiting for a real estate agent, we enjoyed the views of the golf course.  According to the agent, it is the fourth best rated course in the US.

We enjoyed a full two hour tour of the grounds and a few houses in the community.  It is very beautiful and well thought out, and the houses are great, but it is in the middle of nowhere.  I don't think it would ever work for Steve and I.  

As we continued north on highway 93 (the Scenic Joshua Forest Road), we drove in to the most incredible Joshua Tree forest.  There were Joshua Trees everywhere.

It was a fun, scenic route home, and only added about four minutes to our drive.  So glad we took the opportunity to explore some new things in Chandler and on the 93 north.  It's always fun to see something new!

A Hotel, a Speakeasy and a Ghost??? (Saturday, June 30th, 2018)

My parents are out of town right now, so we decided to take a trip down to the Phoenix area to check in on their house.  We usually stay at their house even if they aren't there, but since we would only be in town one night, we decided that a hotel might be easier.  We had free night with our IHG rewards that was about to expire, so we booked a hotel not far from their house.  As we pulled into town, my parent's house was our first stop.  Everything looked perfect and their yard looked beautiful!  We enjoyed a facetime call with my dad so we could show him how great everything looked.

And we enjoyed a nice lunch at the pool before continuing on.



Then off to check into our hotel.  It is the Crowne Plaza in downtown Chandler, AZ.  It is an older complex, but pretty nice.  

We were very happy with our room!

We enjoyed some time at the pool until it was getting to be time for dinner, then went back to the room to get cleaned up.

We had the choice of reward points for our stay (which we always take), or a free drink coupon when we checked in because of our status with IHG hotels.  We were feeling a little wild and crazy, so we decided to take the drink coupon this time instead, and we didn't realize it at the time, but it was well worth it.

Our bartender's name was Shannon, and she very kind and was a wealth of  knowledge about the hotel and the surrounding area.

The first thing we learned from her was that the hotel was built in 1912, and was a single building which is now the lobby, bar and upstairs meeting rooms and theater.  We also learned that the upstairs and basement portions of the building are thought to be haunted by all of the staff that works there.  There are areas of the hotel that Shannon refuses to go in.  She told us to go upstairs and check out the old hotel.  Since we were getting hungry, we decided that visit could wait until tomorrow.

The second thing we learned from Shannon was the discovery of an old speakeasy right next door under what is now a restaurant called Crust.  This sounded intriguing as well.  So as we headed out to dinner, we made our first stop at the employees entrance to the speakeasy.  The wall with the pots and pans is actually a secret door that the employees use to get into the bar.

The speakeasy is now called the Ostrich.



Then, as we rounded the corner from our hotel, we could see the glow of the porch light from the speakeasy.



Dinner tonight was at the SanTan Brewery.  They rated really high on TripAdvisor so we decided to give them a try.

It is a very popular restaurant and was extremely crowded, but we were seated very quickly none-the-less.

I ordered the San Antonio mac and cheese, which is homemade mac and cheese filled with smoked brisket and their own homemade ale bar-b-que sauce.  

Steve ordered the gouda and mushroom burger.

We shared our entrees, and we both actually liked the burger the best.  The bbq sauce on my mac and cheese kind of took over, although they were both good.

After dinner, we made our way back across the street, following the glow of the porch light to the Ostrich speakeasy.  As we walked through the dimly lit door, we noticed the peep hole, once used to verify the guests coming in.

They had a nice selection of drinks like all of the speakeasy's we have been to before. I ordered the Trader Vic's Mai Tai and Steve had the clover club.

OK, I know that it's the hotel that is supposed to be haunted, but what is this apparition to the left of Steve?

When we got our drinks, mine was WAY too strong for me, and Steve's was WAY too foofoo for him, so we did a quick trade.

When we had finished our drinks, it was back to the hotel for a good night's sleep so we could carry on tomorrow.