There are few things in life more satisfying than enjoying a civilized breakfast with a dear friend after a mildly rigorous hike.

After my four hour + flight from Nashville, I was looking forward to some mid-morning exercise with my friend CP. He suggested a three-mile hike in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, where we’d hiked last May. Since I was still on Nashville time, I was ready for a hearty breakfast, so we headed over to the Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley. As we were walking towards the restaurant, CP pointed out the former governor, Doug Ducey, who was heading towards his SUV. Apparently, the governor holds court at Mountain Shadows on a regular basis. The loquacious maître d’ told us as we were leaving that the governor had breakfast with Mike Pence a week ago. Hmm.

Not surprisingly, the breakfast was excellent, especially the perfectly roasted fingerling potatoes. The friendly server, who’d waited on CP in the past, was an added bonus.

When I paid the bill, which including a nice tip was around $100 (without alcohol), I joked about the cost to my friend, who commented that at Mountain Shadows, one isn’t eating breakfast but, rather, leasing the table for an hour. The food and ambience was so pleasant that we returned the following morning after an even longer Mountain Preserve hike.

On the third morning we headed out early for a much longer hike on the Gateway Trail in the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy in North Scottsdale. https://www.mcdowellsonoran.org/gateway/

The weather was windy but mild. We lucked out on the mid-April weather. There were no domestic pick-up trucks in the parking area, which was extremely Blue-coded. Although the lot was full, the trail was pretty uncrowded. What struck both of us was the mismatch between men and women; in fact, we noticed the same phenomenon on the earlier hikes. The women, mainly Millennials and Zoomers, outnumbered the men 2 to 1. I’d been noticing the same mismatch on the trails around Nashville. Today, younger women appear to be much more fit and outdoorsy than young men. Where are the guys? Are they drinking energy drinks while gaming? The women hikers were invariably smiling and friendly. This mismatch continued after our hike at the ingredient-centric (my friend’s great coinage) Amelia’s, a UMC (upper middle class) Millennial hangout. We were lucky to grab two seats at the bar since the place was packed. CP had the breakfast burrito, while I ordered three scrambled eggs, a rasher of crisp bacon, cottage cheese with superfood herbs and drizzled EVOO and sourdough bread. When I asked the server if they served “three ingredient bread” he knew exactly what I meant.

The customer mix was about 60% women, all of whom looked like they just finished their Pilates sessions. ALO and Lululemon were well represented. Nice people doing nice things.