Today was the day, finally a Segulia family vacation the first one in YEARS. If I emember correctly the last one may have been Disney World in 2008...even then it was with my aunt and uncle and their family so yes it's been a while. As we got ready for our early flight to Arizona my dad had to bring our dog, Jett, down to our grandparents house to watch them over our trip. He of course was happy to be visiting the grandparents but little did he know he was going to be spending lots of quality time with them. They love it when he comes down, they always claim he is the smartest dog they know. I agree with them, he is the smartest...and the cutest.
Around 9:30 AM we headed to St. Cloud, MN to get on our flight which was expected to take off around noon. While on the road it didn't take long for my mom to start cracking jokes and pulling funnies to either annoy us or just to amuse us...I'll go for the latter of the two. Either way it's going to be a LONG week with them...note my sarcasm mom you know I adore your jokes, dad's too ;)
As we arrived at the airport, it was the smallest most intimate airport I've ever flown out of. It had two gates, so yeah wrap your head around that one. It didn't take long to check in and get through security because we were the first flight of the day. By then we had an hour to wait till our plane would arrive and we could board. As we saw more people coming in we knew it was going to be a full flight. Never have I ever seen so many dogs go onto a plane. My mother, sister and I didn't mind, of course, because we love dogs and wanted to pet them all. We hoped my dad would have one in the seat next to him since the rows in the plane seated three across, so in our family of four my dad got booted to the row behind us girls. Thanks Papa Bear!
We finally saw the plane land at our gate and I was excited more than ever to board. Little did I know we would run into a small delay. I guess some birds, probably chickens, decided to play a game of chicken and sat on the runway and unsuccessfully lost the game and got ran over by he planes wheels...although they didn't make it we had to wait another hour to start boarding. Slightly sad, but ready to amuse myself, we waited. Thankfully we were watching the Vikings game and we got to watch the whole thing because our maintenance guy showed up at 2:30. One hour my butt but I was happy to finally get a move on.
The flight was smooth, and as we reached the final half hour of it we grew antsy to get off as we also saw the mountains and desert of the south. Naturally, my mom started cracking some jokes again and I had to pipe in as well so we had to make time fly somehow. We arrived in the Mesa-Phoenix airport around 4:30 (Arizona is behind Minnesota by 2 hours) and instantly when we stepped foot out of the airport we felt that Arizona heat. I believe it was 109 degrees outside? Yeah dry heat was alright but I was sweating right away. I was most excited to be greeted by some cacti, and as any tourist would, I had to get pictures of them. They are my new favorite plant.
We headed to get our rental car and set out for Prescott, AZ which is north from Phoenix and in the mountains, so we'd be in more comfortable heat. The drive didn't feel too long, we enjoyed the mountains and the different terrain than what I am used to seeing in Minnesota...not a lot of grass if you were wondering. The cacti never failed to amuse me as we saw plenty of it on the highway.
If you think it never rains in Arizona, think again. The last leg of our drive we faced light rain and dark clouds. My mother said it was Monsoon season, for those of you who don't know what that is it is a period where the state experiences strong winds and heavy rainfalls. Hopefully it isn't like that when we have to hike the canyons!
As we drove into Prescott, I already fell in love with the cute town. We drove down the infamous Whiskey Row and the huge courthouse that was in the center of town. We were going to dedicate a day to roam around town and visit the cute shops and art galleries. For the trip we were staying with my Aunt Val and her partner Michael in their home within the Prescott National Forest. We were surrounded by ponderosa pines and followed with the ambiance of rain it felt like Minnesota to me, and I fell in love with it. My parents have plans to retire down here...so far I approve.
When we rolled into Val and Michael's home, we arrived just in time for happy hour. We got a tour of the interior and would get the full tour of the ground when it was sunny the next day. They prepared a barbecue of burgers and hot dogs and we relaxed for a while. Shortly after we were pretty tired from traveling all day and we headed to our rooms we'd be staying in. My parents took the loft which had a bedroom and bath and to bring back the good ol' days of camping my sister and I slept in their camper on their property.
Our day came to an end, and I was the happiest I could be to finally be in Arizona. The rain died down and seemed to clear up for a beautiful day tomorrow, so until then!
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