Arizona Adventure

I took a trip to Arizona for mid-winter break. I went down to visit my cousin Katie as well as to explore a little of Phoenix and Tucson and see her new house. The trip down was good. It was a fairly easy flight that went from Albany to Detroit to Phoenix. First off, the Detroit airport was really neat one of the best I have been in. One thing that I didn't like about my airport visits and the trips to different parks in the area was that people don't understand that it is gross when you talk on the phone or text while you are going to the bathroom. I got to hear a lot of this - can't people wait to text and talk until they are done doing their business. When I got to Phoenix, we went back to Kate's house to see what a beautiful house she has. We spent the evening at the house as well as going to Manuel's which is a Mexican Restaurant in Phoenix. On Wednesday, I woke up and went for a run. It was 46 degrees out at 7 am and was beautiful to run in. I had a great Fartlek run in the dry temperatures. We then got ready to go and took the journey down to Tucson. I love Tucson and was excited to go to a couple of different places that Kate hadn't gone to before. On our way down we got to tour the Biosphere 2 which was really neat even though our tour guide was a little more excited than was necessary. Also, (this is coming from an AP science teacher) her science knowledge was not very good as she defined enzymes incorrectly as well as had a not very good comprehension of other science terms. It was so neat to be in the area where Biosphere 2 was because you could see the Catalina Mountains with snow on them while enjoying 70 degree weather at the biosphere. The biosphere 2 is where the people in the 90's were locked in to see if they could survive on the land for 2 years. Now, they use it to test what will happen to areas of the globe with different environmental changes. It was beautiful. We then took the trip down to the Tohono Chull Park and ate in the Tohono Chull Tea Room. It was a beautiful place to eat and the food and service were great. The lemon cheesecake was the highlight of the meal. We then went through the park which is a lovely botanical garden with great views. It was great to be able to have been outside the entire day. We then found our hotel on Starr Pass which again had amazing views. We then found a place called Wildflower and had one of the best glasses of wine - a geverstraminer (did I spell that correctly) from South Africa. I had baked brie with fresh fruit and bread for dinner which was very nice and then a banana creme brule. It was a very nice restaurant. The next day I woke up to 36 degree weather and wanted to use the outdoor pool. I struggled with this initially but then said - I booked this hotel because of the pool so I am going to use it. So I put on all of my warm clothes over my suit and walked down to the pool. It was cold initially getting out of my clothes but once I got in it was probably 85 to 90 degrees. It was a little choppy which is good and Tucson is a little higher elevation so it was a little more difficult to swim but it was great. (I was lucky that this week was my easy week of training so I only had to do short workouts this week while on vacation but I walked enough to make up for all of the lack of training). When I got out of the pool, I got into the hot tub and stretched and then made my way back to the hotel room. We got ready to go and went to a little restaurant called The Mosaic Cafe which had great mexican breakfasts. It was fantastic,beautiful, and very resonably priced. It was a great start to the morning. We then went to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum which is pretty much all outside and saw a lot of really cool stuff between hummingbirds, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, quail, prairie dogs, and big horn sheep as well as lots of different desert plants. We spent 4 hours there. It is one of my favorite places to visit in Tucson. In order to get there and get out of there, you go through a pass which is steep but absolutely beautiful. I got to enjoy the scenery because Kate was driving. We then went across Tucson to Sabino Canyon. It is in the foothills of Tucson and I remembered it being one of my favorite places ever. We went on a tour of the canyon and Kate and I had a great time looking at all of the really nice scenery. We then treked back to Phoenix to meet my aunt for dinner and get packed to leave. I wish I could have spent more time there in order to hike in some of the canyon or hike the mountains near Starr Pass but I will go back again. This was a great little vacation and some girl time all in one. It was fantastic. I got really excited about all that sun (even though I also slather myself in sunscreen). I love the sun and the warmth and the southwest in general. I posted a few pictures down at the bottom for all to see the beautiful southwest.

Now, back to my next three weeks of hard workouts and of course the snow and the cold.