We strayed from our beloved North Captiva Island to check out Arizona this year! Back at it with the Bonofiglio's in the desert!
Day 1: We drove down to a preserve for our first hike. The kids loved seeing cacti, climbing the rock formations, and searching for lizards. Afterwards we had lunch downtown at Four Peaks Brewing and then took Laney to walk around Arizona State University. Back to the house for an evening swim to cap off our awesome day!
Day 2:
We did a big thing...with the time change working 3 hours in our favor, we packed up the cars and headed 3 hours north to the Grand Canyon South Rim at 2:30am. Our optimistic goal was to see sunrise. We parked, threw on our hats and gloves, and ran (following some other visitors considering we had no idea what were doing). It was like we were in a parking lot, ran around a corner and THERE it was. So much more vast and majestic than I expected. We saw that sunrise with about 3 minutes to spare.
After the Grand Canyon we headed back down south stopping in Flagstaff at the Toasted Owl for brunch. So YUMMY! We also saw Snowball ski resort. It was 23 degrees at the Grand Canyon that morning.
After Flagstaff we continued south to Sedona where we hit Cathedral Rock for a hike. The kids and Patrick went to the top, me and Amanda panicked and watched from mid-way, anxiously wanting them to turn around and come back down. It was a much scarier hike than I would have liked but SO BEAUTIFUL. The kids loved it and we all spent some time hiking the trails around Cathedral Rock.
We still had time to swim that night before we all passed out. It was a JAM packed day of fun and discovery. So many new things to see it was amazing.
Day 3: Sunday Funday at Top Golf! After that we just layed around the pool and went for a boat ride.
Day 4: We got up and drove to Scottsdale to hike the Marcus Land Slide. It was so scenic. We got about halfway out on 2.5 mile trail when a couple walking the opposite direction as us warned us of a rattle snake on the path not far ahead. I hadn't even turned around to talk to Patrick about what he wanted to do and he was already briskly heading back to the car waving. So that was that, hike done :-)
Day 5: Patrick and I ran and hiked the mountain right behind our rental. Had lots of pool and hot tub time, and then headed to downtown Phoenix for dinner at Huss Brewing and a Diamondbacks baseball game.
Day 6:
Last day. One last hike on our mountain, last swim, last boat ride...what a fun trip this one was. It was 75 the day we arrived and 105 the day we left. There was never a cloud in the sky and the sun felt oh so good. We loved Arizona!
But...where is Carson? Carson went on an alternative spring break with Camp Henry to Colorado. It was the ski trip he's been dreaming of! He drove out there with his favorite counselor from Camp Henry, his good friend Graham, and several other boys from our area. They had an awesome time, stopping at the Largest Truck Stop in America in Iowa and spending a few days at Winter Park, A-Basin, and Copperhead Mountain. On the second to last day he fell awkwardly on his OTHER shoulder (the one that's not dislocated yet) and had a scare. He didn't have much mobility in it and was in moderate pain so he sat out of the last day of snowboarding. He got to see Dr. Cam (thank God for him) the Monday he got back and x-rays showed no break. He was able to take a couple days off of crew and is already back in the boat this weekend for his first regatta. It was a really cool experience overall and he made some great friends along the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment