Sooooo, yeah.
Sorry....
It's been a 1.5 years since we ventured west during a January snow storm here in Virginia to find red rocks and cacti and warm sunshine. I really meant to share this trip with you much sooner than now, but life during that time was busy! And my desk at my tiny apartment was usually covered with so much "stuff" that I found it hard to dedicate time and space to sitting down and looking over everything.
But here we are. Better late than never, right?! I have so much to share that I'm going to break this down into 3 different posts. I think we'll start with our our trip north to Sedona then over to Page to visit Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Monument Valley.
A little backstory here -- M had lived in Phoenix for about 13 years and he was my tour guide for this trip. While he'd pretty much seen everything that we did in his stint there, he was gracious enough to indulge me and my wide-eyed self muttering "I thought cactus only grew in pots, these are in the ground!!!" He probably thought I was an idiot, but he loves me and he's used to me saying crazy stuff :)
We actually flew out of Norfolk, VA right at the start of a major snowstorm. Which...if you know me....irritated me because I LOVE SNOW!! I couldn't believe that we were leaving right before our area got a substantial covering! We had a 10am flight which we changed to 6am. We also decided to get a hotel a mile from the airport the night before, checking in around 10pm so that we didn't get stuck in potential hazardous weather the next morning. I think we both slept about 4 hours that night...partially from excitement and also from the fact that we had to be at the airport around 4am! And we got very lucky, because all the flights after ours were cancelled!
Once we arrived in Phoenix I felt like I'd landed on Mars. It was truly shocking to me.
So. Much. Red. Earth.
However, as a kid I lived in California and Spain and I truly felt like I was back in both those places. The topography and climate were very similar! We rented a car at the airport and immediately made a beeline to In n Out burger for dinner! We stayed at a lovely hotel that night and then the following morning after breakfast we jetting north to Sedona.
Here's how my eyes saw everything, enjoy....
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