Arizona Sky
Arizona.
What beauty.
When I confirmed my ticket to go to Phoenix, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Except hot. I tried to look things up to do, and asked this super awesome Travel Group I’m a part of about any suggestions. There seemed to be only a lot of hiking trails.That’s awesome! While I love hiking, in 107 degrees, maybe that wouldn’t be the best idea. Honestly, I just needed to travel again.
As we were preparing to land I took a look at the city. It was brown. It made me slightly nervous, it was not pretty from the air. The Phoenix-Sky Harbor was a super easy airport to get out of (San Francisco and I did not get along). When my friend Shaun picked me up we were going straight to the Grand Canyon!!!! I was soo excited I couldn’t contain it!
I love road trips. I also love driving. So this was the first road trip I wasn’t actually driving in a long time. It was so much fun. We had music playing. He was super informative; he was telling me about the mountains that we passed, about how long it takes this type of cactus to grow one of the arms, etc. I was totally obsessed with the type of Cacti that they had here. (Mostly because I was super disappointed that New Mexico didn’t have this same type!) I didn’t get to hug it, but there’s always next time. 😀 The more North we drove (and out of Phoenix), the Greener the state became. It came to a point where it felt like I was driving to Minneapolis. It was gorgeous.
Once we got to the Grand Canyon (the Southern Rim), it was as if my whole world exploded. It was unbelievable. It looked like a stock photo! We went around the Southern Rim to catch different views of the Canyon, and every side seemed to make it more and more incredible. It’s obvious why it’s a Natural Wonder. My friend is a Pilot, so he says seeing it from the top is even more incredible. Which, I completely believe, but from where I stood, it was breathtaking. The different colors, the different type of rock formations. (It was here that I wished I understood my Physical Geology course.) Even the sky looked staged.
We did the 2 Billion Year Walk, which was pretty cool. They had the years on the ground, and pennies marking years as well. There were also different types of rocks that the Canyon has, so you can touch them, and see where they were in the layer of the Canyon. I’m ready to hike and camp here. So that’s definitely on my “Life List”.
Next we went to Old Town Scottsdale, where I did shopping. I found my new favorite store “Earthbound Trading.” This was amazing! I would call it a little Gitana (Gypsy). I bought so many things; headbands, earrings, and a push pin globe. It was fabulous. I was disappointed I couldn’t buy everything–which was only because I didn’t have a big enough bag to carry it in. (*sigh*). I did get some great goodies, and souvenirs. The only thing I forgot was a cactus! We also went to this old school ice cream shop. It was super cute! Inside it looked as if we were still in the 1950s. I got a Camelback Pineapple Soda. (Camelback is a name of one of the mountains/hiking trails). It was sooooooooo good. It had shredded pineapple, soda water, and vanilla ice cream. I was still full from breakfast, but it was fantastic.
After this we went to check out the Downtown Phoenix Area, saw the Diamondback’s stadium, as well as we saw the Wrigley Mansion *Go Cubs!*.
At the end of the day, we went to South Mountain to watch the sunset. The view was stunning. I mean it was truly incredible. Shaun pointed out where ASU was, downtown, the airports, Old Town Scottsdale, and he named the mountains (which all looked the same to me). The sky was crazy and breathtaking.
Then we had dinner, which was delicious! Actually all the food was pretty spectacular. Yum! Mexican food! This place was called “Mi Patio,” the tacos were fantastic, but let me tell you about the Margaritas. Top Notch. Goodness, they were fabulous! There may have been a bit more tequila in them than I thought at first, because when we got up to leave, I felt pretty good.
On Sunday, Shaun had to go and be super cool and fly, so I went and caught up with a friend from college and after her, I met up with a friend from elementary school. It was so much fun!! Catching up is one of the coolest things, ESPECIALLY when you’re in a different city!
It turned out I had a lot more friends that live in Phoenix than I thought. On my way to Phoenix I was on the plane with a childhood friend, and when leaving I was on the flight with a friend that I used to work with. I saw a lot of people in 3 days that I haven’t talked to in years.
Such a good weekend trip!!
Categories: Adventure, Airline, Airplane, beauty, Food, hiking, Outdoors, Spontaneous, travel, Uncategorized, United States, Weekend Trip
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