Brooke was out our way in November, but it’s been a minute since we’ve seen the rest of the family. It’s funny how so much time can pass between visits and when you get together it feels like it was yesterday. We got to hang out at the house and have a home cooked meal and simply enjoy being together.

Saturday Bob and Brandon golfed (Bob’s first desert golf course) and Brooke and I just putzed around for the morning. We found this amazing little bakery where we grabbed a blueberry and cream cheese filled croissant and a raspberry jalapeño filled Kouign (pronounced “Queen” – ya know I’m liking that!) Amann (it’s a French thing) and man were they good!! Since we were close by, we decided to just do a drive through the eastern side of Saguaro National Park – well we tried to. Brooke and I have this woo woo thing that happens when we are together – we skip timelines, go into a different dimension or something. It is so weird. And it happens every time we’re together, most of the time just the two of us. We got lost going to the park. Somewhere she’s been dozens of times and knows the roads. It just flipping goes invisible or something because we ended up on a dirt road. The road going to the park just wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Now there will be some who say we’re just flappin’ our jaws so much we don’t pay attention to where we are … but we know different. Things go woo woo when we’re together. It is very strange. We did eventually find it and did a drive through.

The Saguaro cacti in this part of the country are amazing. They are everywhere! And I had never seen then bloom before. I was fascinated. The desert in bloom is so beautiful. The Saguaro Cactus lives on average 150-200 years, is very slow growing and doesn’t grow its first arm until it’s 75-100 (according to Wikipedia) – and some never grow an arm. And these flowers come before the ruby red fruit it bears. You can read more about these amazing cacti here.

We all met at the Fire Truck Brewery for lunch after the guys finished their golf game. Beer, good food, laughter and family. Who could ask for more?

Graduation was a 7pm that night and gates opened at 6pm. After going back to the hotel and regrouping, Bob and I met back at Brooke’s to ride with them. There were about 500 graduates in the class and each graduate could get up to 15 tickets, which meant they needed a space for up to 7,500 guests. So they held the graduation in a baseball field. We got there right at 6:00 and you would think we were at a concert there was so much traffic. We had to park way out in the back of the parking lot – partially because Brooke has a big ass truck and it’s a challenge to put that puppy in tight places and partially because there were so many people already there! Thankfully, we managed to find seating in the shade and there was a nice breeze so it really wasn’t as bad as you’d think sitting in Arizona heat for an outside graduation.

As Student Body President, Vanna was part of the ceremony and had a speech – and she did amazing! It was so awesome to see so much support for these kids and their accomplishments! The amount of kids who were graduating with honors (and a whole slew of them were recognized for having honors all four years!) was incredible! It’s always so heart warming to be a part of something where you can celebrate and support the accomplishments of the next generation.

Vanna was so emotional about all of it. Understanding that while it is the beginning of the rest of her life, it’s also the finishing of a huge part of it. She’s excited for the future, but sad this part is over. After meeting up and taking some pics it was time to try and find some dinner, somewhere. It was late. And the traffic getting out was like leaving a concert or other event. It was after 9:30 by the time we got to one of the few places that was still serving – Culinary Dropout. So we ate, we laughed, we celebrated and then headed back “home.” It was nearly midnight by the time Bob and I got back to the hotel, and he’s off again at 7:30am for another round of golf in the morning.

Sunday was a down day for the rest of us. Brooke fixed a casserole for breakfast and we just hung out at the house. We decided to grab the fixins for some home made fajitas for dinner instead of going out. We made it an early night since we knew Monday night was going to be another late night.

Monday we headed into the western side of Saguaro National Park. There was a short, easy hike where you could see some petroglyphs we were looking forward to. Otherwise the rest of the time was spent just driving through and admiring the desert scenery that is so different from our east coast views.

Next on our list of things to do during this visit was having our first Sonoran Hot Dog. I had been hearing about these hot dogs for years – they’re Walt’s favorite – and had been so looking forward to trying one. There are two places that were on a TV show called “Food Wars” I believe. We tried to go to the one that won but it was closed on Mondays so we ended up at BK’s. Boy was that a treat! It was certainly nothing like any hot dog we’ve ever had in our lives before! It was delicious!! The bun for these things are unique – they have to be to hold everything these dogs are topped with! It may have been our first Sonoran Hot Dog but it won’t be our last! (I gotta figure out how to replicate them!)

We had just enough room for a wee bit of ice cream and Cheyenne remembered this wonderful little creamery on the way home. Wow! The flavors this place had! We sampled quite a few of them and they all tasted amazing!

Temporarily parting ways, Bob and I went back to the room for a few hours to regroup (aka nap – haha) before meeting up for dinner and then going to Top Golf later that evening. We had so much food leftover from our fajita dinner the night before we recycled some of what was left into fajita salads for dinner – so good!

Top Golf was fun! I sucked, but it was fun! Definitely something different to do with a group of people. We dropped into bed after midnight. Tuesday we packed everything up, went by Brooke’s to say goodbye to everyone and drive to Phoenix. It was such a great visit. We enjoyed every minute of it! Can’t wait to see each other again. Hopefully, there’s some travel adventures in our future since they recently bought a new RV and are ready to hit the road!

Wednesday is travel day. Our flight to Charlotte was on time and no hiccups. Yah!

Summary:

We were gone 20 days. In those 20 days we stayed in 11 hotels, saw 7 National Parks, 3 state parks and some National Monuments, spent time with family, drove 2300 miles + the 500 to Charlotte Airport and back:

  • Valley of Fire
  • Bryce Canyon National Park
  • Drove Route 12
  • Capital Reef National Park
  • Valley of the Goblins State Park
  • Dead Horse State Park
  • Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky)
  • Arches National Park
  • Canyonlands National Park (The Needles)
  • Petrified National Park
  • The Painted Desert
  • Sunset Volcanic Crater National Monument
  • Wupatki National Monument
  • Antelope Canyon
  • Horseshoe Bend
  • Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim)
  • Saguaro National Park

Wanda’s Top 5 List:

  • Time with Family
  • Sunrise @ Bryce
  • Antelope Canyon
  • 4WD through the Needles
  • Arches National Park

Bob’s Top 5 List:

  • Time with Family
  • 4WD through the Needles
  • Sunrise @ Bryce
  • Arches National Park
  • Driving Route 12

All in all, as much as we did and saw, we didn’t go anywhere I would rather put roots down than where we live now. I love the going, seeing and doing but coming home is the best! And I’m ready for some GREEN!! LOL All the reds, browns, grays and tans are beautiful in their own right. But I love our little green bubble!

Home! And that folks, is a wrap for this trip!