4/6/13

Arizona Trip summed up : Dam, Hot, Wedding.... Grand Canyon!!!


First trip to Grand Canyon. Highly recommend being there at sunset. 


In March one of my college roommates got married in Phoenix. The original plan was for me to drive down to AZ from UT with one of my other ol' roomies. During the planning stages, I had called up one of my cousins living in Utah and invited her (and her car :) on this road trip, as my ol' roomie would be very close to her due date and might not be able to go. Turned out to be a good call since as the wedding drew closer, my ol' roomie felt to stick close to home and not go down for the wedding. A hard call for her to make because she really wanted to go but completely rational one.

So that's how I ended up on "crazy cousin road trip, 2013". We started the day out around 4am and hauled down to St. George where we stopped for some breakfast at the grocery store. We took our chow up to Pioneer park and ate it overlooking St. George as the sun was cresting.


Then we got the blood pumping by taking a quick squeeze through crack in the rocks that last a few hundred feet. 


From there we got back on the road and drove on down through Vegas, making a quick stop at the Hoover Dam. It was a first time for both of us. It's pretty big but the pictures just don't do it justice. 


We got to Phoenix in the afternoon where the temp had peaked at 93 deegrees. We met up with yet another ol' roomate at our hotel, who found us tired and stinky, so we laid around watched "The Help" (first time seeing it, very good) and got destinkiefied. 


We found out there was a BJ's Pizza (one of my favorite places to eat when I lived in Long Beach) close by so set out from our hotel room. As we were walking out to the car, we witnessed one of the most amazing sunsets ever! The desert has a way of making you feel that every sunset is the "most amazing ever" though.  


Look, how grown up me and my ol' roomie are now!


The day of my ol' roomies wedding I ran into some old family friends on the temple grounds. I didn't even know they were living in Arizona. Turns out one of their family members was getting married on the same day as my roomie.  Its a Small world, but being LDS makes it smaller! (when I say they were old friends I mean that she was practically like a cousin to my mom and I grew up addressing them both aunt and uncle) 


Mr and Mrs Newlyweds 


Killing time by taking in some downtown Tempe art


Looking at Fish! Killing more time at Bass Pro Shop! (Yup, we were the only ones in dresses) 


This is just one reason why me and this roomie are friends. She had Erlenmeyer and Florence flasks instead of vases at her wedding.  


It was a pretty fancy reception so we did our best to blend in


When we were leaving the reception, the valet brings the car around and comments on Nickelback playing on the stereo...Why Radio, Why?!






On the Drive home we made a detour to the Grand Canyon. We snapped this shot while getting some lunch in Flag Staff, AZ. Super cool town, hard not to be when you've got route 66, lots of history and hippies.  


Here is my thing with the Grand Canyon. I've never not wanted to go, but it wasn't high on my priority list since it seemed like one of those touristy things "everyone" does. Well "everyone" does things either for hype I agree with or disagree with... 


 ...Well I here by endorse the hype of the Grand Canyon! Lives up to the name. 

We made our visit to the Southeastern part. We didn't have time for hikes and pretty much just stopped and check out the views from the road. If I'm ever in the area I'd like to see more



 We had a late night of driving back up north but after the views we saw, completely worth it!!!
 


3 comments:

sixgunsue said...

Nice! It's like I was there!! We need a road trip together sometime.

Unknown said...

Loved your pictures and commentaries. Great you and Mandy had this experience together. Fun!

Wendy said...

I think Flagstaff is a lot like Bisbee (a neighboring town to us). Lots of history and hippies! Leigh's cousin lived in Flagstaff and was a teacher at a Montessori middle school...no desks...kinda weird. She hated every minute of it. Especially the 6 feet of snow in the winter!