August 1, 2010

25 and Counting

Hubby and I hit 25 years of wedded bliss last week and celebrated last night with dinner at Wrigley Mansion, which has a little history of its own. William Wrigley, Jr., of chewing gum fame and fortune, built the mansion in the late 20s as a 50th anniversary gift for his wife Ada. It sits on a hilltop in the Phoenix Biltmore area, was the smallest of five homes they owned, and was used as their winter cottage -- small being 16,850 square feet and 24 rooms! In July 1992, Geordie Hormel, an heir to the Hormel meat packing family, purchased "The Wrigley Mansion Club" to preserve the landmark.

We had dinner in Geordie's Restaurant & Lounge in the room that used to be the Wrigley's formal dining room. Hubby and I wandered through much of the mansion before eating and I think there was a fireplace in nearly every room. It was old and beautiful.


A few views from the hill, including this first photo of Camelback Mountain ...


The beautiful double doors and entry staircase ...


I took photos as we meandered about ...


Check out this old switchboard ...


There was a wedding in progress ...


These amazing peacock lamps flanked the vanity in the ladies room ...


It was a very nice evening and dinner was lovely. My first course was the Beet Salad, full of mixed greens, golden beets, apples, candied nuts and goat cheese with garlic dressing. I chose Root Beer Braised Short Ribs for the entree that came with pureed sweet potatoes and root vegetables which were, unfortunately, mostly beets. As much as I love beets, I wish our server had warned me that I'd be overdosing on them with what I ordered. Dessert was fun -- we ordered a plate of beignets with dipping sauces of chocolate, caramel and blackberries. When Hubby tried the blackberry sauce, he asked what I tasted. It was decidedly garlicky, which seemed odd. We asked our server what was in it and he said blackberries and cream. So he took our blackberry sauce back to the chef and returned with additional beignets and sauce without garlic as it was supposed to be. No one knew how the garlic got into our sauce.

It was nice to be off the couch and out of the house, celebrating with the man of my dreams. While we did not exchange gifts, I figured 25 years was worth at least a gag gift on my part and you know I have that embroidery machine ...


You may not be able to read these easily because I used white thread on white boxer shorts and
embroidered our wedding date on the fly and our initials on the leg. He got a good laugh out of that. But the pièce de résistance was the second pair. Here's what I put on the leg ...


And here is Alec Baldwin as Pete Schweddy, along with the gals from Saturday Night Live doing their hilarious skit on NPRs Delicious Dish - Pete's Schweddy Balls. Always makes us laugh!

10 comments:

Carol said...

How wonderful! 25 years with the man of your dreams. Sounds like dinner was amazing and the company even better. Love the gifts!

Baby Sister said...

Congratulations!! The restaurant looks amazing!! Looks like you had fun. The boxers look awesomely hilarious!! Very well done!

Loren said...

Oh my gosh! I love you! You are just toooo stinkin HILARIOUS!!! Those boxers are a HOOT!

Happy Anniversary my friend! Sooo glad you had such a wonderful evening ~ What a beautiful place to celebrate :) Praying you are blessed with many many more years to come!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Happy Anniversary. What a wonderful way to spend it. That place looks awesome. Funny, I own Hormel stock because I worked for them in Chicago at a Regional Office. I also worked a switchboard like that back in the 70's. The company I worked for moved out to the suburbs and took the switchboard from their downtown Chicago office. Brought back some memories. Your dinner sounds like it was awesome. Love the gift!

Tightwad Mom said...

Happy Anniversary!! What a fun dinner! The restaurant looks fabulous. I love your choice of gifts,too. I am still chuckling!

Kathleen said...

Congratulations on 25 years!

paige renee said...

Congratulations!!! I love your gifts - so fun! My husband and I just celebrated our 2nd anniversary and I embroidered pillowcases for him. :)

Dazee Dreamer said...

Congrats on the 25 years!!! woot-woot.

Those pictures were awesome. What a nice evening. I would love to be taken to a place like that. Wow.

Joann Mannix said...

Congratulations on 25 years! We are right behind you in our 23rd year.

that place is just pure gorgeousness! And what I would give for those beautiful peacocks! Oh, my!

And what a perfect, fantastic present.

Duchess said...

Happy 25!!! So glad you both had a great dinner! :0)

You are too funny and I love the embroidery