A Winter Wonderland

Happy Friday and Happy New Year! It's been a while so I thought I'd check in with you all. If you follow me on the gram or FB you have probably already come across all of the wonderful pictures from my 2 week road trip across Arizona but for those of you that haven't, I'll fill you in. On the 19th of December we headed to Sahuarita, Arizona, we have friends there so we popped in to visit for a few days. Larry got to catch up with his best bud and we had a wonderful time visiting the little western town of Tombstone. If you didn't already know, I'm a huge fan of that movie...I even named my stuffed monkey Wyatt as in Wyatt Earp...lol. After spending 4 nights in the southern tip of the zona we headed north for Sedona. We arrived to Red Rock country on Tuesday afternoon, we had an amazing view from our patio that made me want to move there (but on second thought 3 nights there was enough). We spent Christmas there, just Larry and I...it was definitely different but a nice change. On Christmas day we hiked Devil's Bridge, a pretty steep hike but amazing views all around. Luckily we reached the Bridge when we did because on our way back it started snowing. After our three nights in Sedona we headed to Flagstaff, let's just say this was my least favorite part of the trip. We spent 4 days there, if you've ever been to Flagstaff you know how boring this city is. We occupied our time by visiting the Lowell Observatory, The Meteor Crater, The petrified Forest, the town of Williams, and we even have a movie and dinner date. Those must've been the four longest days of my life, luckily I was in good company. On Tuesday, December 30th it was finally time to head out to the Grand Canyon. We would be there for 3 nights including new years. We arrived and I swear in my entire 27 years on earth have I seen anything more beautiful than the Grand Canyon. It was a clear, sunny day when we arrived but later heard the news of a snow storm coming so we had to cancel our plans to hike the canyon. New years eve we woke up to a winter wonderland, it was a cool 16 degrees and completely white out. I felt like a kid waking up on Christmas day, I'd never been anywhere where it was actually snowing. The excitement soon diminished when we had to walk to the shuttle stop if we wanted to go anywhere, and we needed to eat. Snow and all, my experience at the Grand Canyon was positive, I felt a sense of gratitude and felt overwhelmingly at ease. I'd never felt so small, nature is indeed powerful and mysterious in wonderful ways. My hubby and I spent our new years in our room drinking vodka tonic after a very nice steak and lobster dinner at El Tovar. We checked out on Friday, January 2nd and headed to Sin City for end our road trip with a bang! A bunch of our friends were already out there. My buddy Kyle decided it was a good idea to ride Vespas over to Ceasar's Palace to get some bloody Mary's....(I mean, when are bloody mary's ever a bad idea). With a motorized scooter, a no helmet law and alcohol involved, something bad was bound to happen. I had a street and dirt bike before so I knew a Vespa was no biggie, I was more afraid of the Vegas strip traffic we had to cross in order to get to my prized bloody mary. Made it to Serendipity 3 and literally inhaled 2 bloody marys (with sriracha and jalapeno infused vodka, can you say YUM!) on our way back to the timeshare, I followed Kyle as we rode through traffic and made it safely to the parking lot of the place we were staying...that last turn though, I ate it on the very last turn! lol landed on my hip and got some pretty gnarly road rash on my elbow and a couple of bruises on my knees. I was just glad it happened there and not on the strip. I had survived the Vespa ride and even wore a dress that night, putting my bruises and bloody elbow on display....all for the sake of a good and final night out. The next day we headed home, boy was it nice to be home. I definitely enjoyed my time off, a great way to say goodbye to 2014. Ready to see what kind of crazy adventures this year will bring.