Spring Break Staycation ~ Phoenix Arizona
Spring Break Staycation time. As you manage work, schooling, and a new way of living a staycation can be a wonderful adventure. Arizona is home to great history, beauty, and top resorts in the world.
Taking a staycation with your children can be incorporated with their school work – history, geography, geology, and even math. Here is a great road trip for spring break or any weekend.
Spring Break Hotel
Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort Phoenix, AZ
A glorious resort in Phoenix nestle in the Tapatio Cliffs . This resort has comfort, COVID-19 protocols, and great entertainment. The comforts of home are here. A nice sitting room, and comfortable bedroom. The location is stunning for sunsets and sunrises. The several pools are accommodating for children and an adults only pool with a pool side bar.
Relaxing and enjoyment with spa, salon, and room service available. Take a moment to enjoy a desert and glass of wine on the patio or pool side. Experience the stunning outdoors with golfing, hiking, or the sun deck for evening sunrises. This location is prefect to venture and explore the great location around the state.
Hilton Staycation 
Spring Break Food
Staycations really need to have great food stops along the way.
Pappadeaux Phoenix, AZ
Southern food is comfort food. Pappadeaux is a generation to generation restaurant brings fresh seafood and Louisiana-style favorite to the plate. Attention to details and tradition brings the comfort food to your dinner plate. This is a great place to get family style for your picnic or party in your hotel room. Dinner this night is Shrimp Etouffee, green beans, fried crawfish with one of the 2.27 million baguettes they make each year. Curb side pick-up perfection, not one item missed. Dinner was delish.
Foodie Ellie enjoying her first Spring Break in Phoenix AZ 
Andreoli Scottsdale, AZ
This is a home take on traditional Italian restaurant is popular with local. They have had many features including Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. This quant location serves as an Italian grocer and restaurant. You can cook your own or enjoy a home cooked meal.
They make everything from scratch including their own prosciutto, desserts, and homemade breads. The food is like walking into a great Italian home on Sunday. The food is a purest approach. If you are looking to mix and match your pasta this is not the location. They portion are fitting for one person not family style.
We enjoyed the Filetto Di Sogliola alla Mugnaia (fresh seafood), Gnocchi alla Corsara, and spaghetti with meat sauce. Dessert a must, the pasta is not over filling or heavy. We enjoyed chocolate mouse, coconut cake, and almond chocolate bark. The food is fresh and organic. The hand crafted pasta and food is by chef Giovanni Scorzo. He states on the web profile, “EAT the BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD and SHUT UP.”
The atmosphere is a true antique decor replicating any Italian grandmother’s living room. The family affair is felt within the staff as well.
Eclectic Cafe Tucson AZ
Eclectic Cafe 
Dining 
Road Trip to Tuscon
Eclectic Cafe in Tucson is “Where quiche meets enchilada.” The concept is a fusion of a variety of cuisines. The meal today includes vegan gazpacho (great summer treat chilled with garden fresh vegetables, Sherry’s shrimp salad, and Chicken Quesadilla. Took home a loaf of their zucchini bread, fabulous toasted with eggs for breakfast.
Mammoth Steak House and saloon 
Mammoth Steak House and Saloon Lost Dutchman Gold Mine
This location is inside the The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine has great views of Superstition Mountains, food, and atmosphere. You can sit on the patio, at the bar, or inside. There is always a musician performing and has the real feel of the old town saloon. Enjoy a shot and a beer at the bar or a great meal.
Sweet Country Charm Payson AZ
The smell of sweet permeates the parking lot. It is a quant cozy welcoming candy shop in Payson Arizona. This sweet shop is in the Swiss Village Shoppes. They have homemade fudge, gelato, locally roasted coffee, handmade organic chocolate truffles, popcorn bar, nostalgic candies, handmade gifts.
Spring Break Attractions
Tucson Mission San Xavier del Bac
This mission is apart of the wonderful history in Tucson. The missions are a big part of the culture and religion in the Southwest.
Mission San Xavier del Bac, a historic Spanish Catholic mission, is 10 miles south of downtown. This mission on the Tohono O’odham Nation San Xavier Indian Reservation. This location began with Franciscan missionary Fr. Juan Bautista Velderrain beginning in 1783. This mission has been apart of the New Spain, Mexico, and the United States since construction began.
The mission presents shells as a symbol of pilgrimage. The Baroque architecture is traditional with marbling, faux doors, and other details. The mission represents the struggles that have been with the Southwest, living in harsh conditions, the changes in governments, fire, and earthquake.
Domes of Casa Grande 
Casa Grande Domes
This is fun spot to stop and see from your car. It is a no trespassing area that is very unsafe especially for young children. This location was the hopes and dreams of many that never came true. This location was for manufacturing of computers but was never completed. There is an eerie feeling here. You can hear the walls speak as if there was life there but really the life has been one of decay and destruction.
Road Trip to Payson AZ 
Spring Break Payson Arizona
Payson Arizona is about 89 miles from downtown Phoenix to Payson on highway 87. It is a great drive from the Sonoran Desert to the top of the Mongolian Rim. The change in climate, altitude (from 1100 to 5000 ft.), and from big city to small town. This town offers a real homie feel and great location for adventure. A great lake and park for picnics, photos, and more. The beauty is pristine with four seasons of recreational activities.
Spring Break Tonoto National Forest
This is a great day in the old west driving up Apache Trail, an old trade route. There is so much to see and experience here. There is the Elvis Church with some old scenery from old cowboy movies, and a small replica of in the area gold mining. The actual gold mining town The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. This location has great fun, shoot outs, and a train ride to the mine. It is the actual town prior to the mine flooding and the town shut down.
The road winds up to Tortilla Flat a small place with a gift shop and restaurant. This location was established as they built the Roosevelt Damn. The location has great water fun from boating, swimming, and kayaking. It is a breathtaking ride but well worth the journey.
Photo Olivia Rose 
Wonderspace Scottsdale AZ
Great interactive art at Wonderspace in Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall. The art here is interactive, bigger than life, and digit. You experience a new reality from the artist creations. The art changes the frame of art to an endless pallet. The children enjoyed the exhibit. My favorite is a tie from Myrkvidr and Shigeto: Hovering.
The art on exhibit at this time is:
RAINBOW ROOMS ~ Pierre le Riche
Stimulates a dialogue about identity, exploring struggles of discrimination, acceptance, and masculinity
FUJI ~ Joanie Lemercier
Focuses on projection or light in space and is influence in our perception.
SEWING MACHINE ORCHESTRA ~ Martin Messier
12 antique sewing machines presents a 3 minute concert
PLUME ~ Ian Brill
This creation is an immersive, interactive dome of synchronized light and sound gestures.
HUMAN STUDY #1, 3RNP ~ Patrick Tresset
This exhibits allows the participant to have a portrait drawn by robots.
THANK YOU BAGS ~ Reed van Brunschot
This is displaced, daily life through transitional moment one in which a a given situation suddenly and unexpectedly changes.
MYRKVIÐR ~ Yasuhiro Chida
This is a circular hoop, not linear, rotates around in the piece to create the effect of immateriality.
KILLING TIME ~ Eric Mesplé
This combines Mesplé use of ferrofluid and metal work
OUR TOP 100 ~ Jody Servon
This is a community-built playlist consisting of songs and memories about songs shared by participants
AYAHUASCA KOSMIK JOURNEY ~ Atlas V
This is a journey is from a mind-altering visual-aural journey of an ayahuasca ceremony.
MICROMONUMENTAL MAPPING, THE ESSENCE OF CREATION ~ Limelight
Created by a group of artists who specialize in projection mapping and light art. This uses the Greek god Apollo images built into the Lille Opera House.
LIGHT LEAKS ~ Kyle McDonald and Jonas Jongejan
Created after McDonald noticed how environments that filled up his peripheral vision with light created a usually immersive mirrors.
A MIND SANG ~ Vier Nev
Short film on perception, rebirth, and transformation.
SHIGETO: HOVERING ~ Conor Grebel and 79Ancestors virtual reality
The virtual reality film inspired by how water came to earth.
A great place to visit and explore. There is so much more than just a desert in Phoenix, Arizona. What is your favorite location in the state of Arizona? Post your response here.
Connect With us here for your best lifestyle:
