Thanksgiving Vacation Part II

We didn't do a ton of things in Arizona. It was nice to just relax, enjoy the company, and eat good food. We did go to the Sonora Desert Museum and tram ride. It was a pretty cool place. I have literally never seen cactuses that tall in my life... they were everywhere! We also got to visit Boothill which is this graveyard full of sad, yet ironic, headstones. I am not going to lie, I think my favorite part of being in Arizona was that it was hot outside. It was so so so nice.

Carli

P.S. You can see Part I of my trip HERE. Most of the things I did in Arizona are on Instagram. You can see them HERE, or on my Instagram. @carlifires84

Thanksgiving Vacation Part I

FYI this post is on the picture heavy side. My apologies.

For Thanksgiving Tabby and I road tripped down to Tucson, Arizona. I have this philosophy that road trips are the best when you make stops and see new things. Actually, I believe that this is a fact.

We stopped in Vegas:

Then we stopped at the Hoover Dam:

Then we entered Arizona and I tried to use the timer on my camera to capture Tabby and I in front of the sign. Five seconds isn't enough time to run all that way and get in position. I did this like 5 times before I realized it wasn't going to work. 

  I ended up getting out my suitcase and setting my camera on that. I finally got it.

Carli

P.S. I posted Instagrams of my trip HERE.

Road Trip

Yes, I finally found the cord that connects my camera to my laptop! Actually my dad found it. I left it at home... so he mailed it to me. Finally, I am able to share the pictures from my road trip to Utah! Take a look.

 The drive from South Texas to Utah is... really long. Two of my good friends Robert and Phillip drove up with me, in my two seater truck I might add... it was a little bit cramped but really fun. We made it to Roswell the first day, and spent the night with a friend. The next morning we woke up early and hit the road. Since we all have made that drive several times before we decided to take a new route. Normally we would go through Albuquerque and the bottom corner of Colorado, but we decided to go up through Santa Fe and spend a little bit more time in Colorado. I am very glad we did. Somewhere between Santa Fe and Colorado we started to get into a really scenic area, and since we had been in the car forever already we decided to make a stop. We ended up running into a "natural amphitheater". Best thing ever.

 We hiked into the amphitheater and spent fifteen minutes just yelling and singing just to listen to the echo. It was awesome.

 We also came across Jay "Rock" Leno. Please tell me you see the resemblance.

Found some "precious" stone.

 It was especially difficult for us to get back in that tiny little car and drive away, but we did. The drive through Colorado was gorgeous. We stopped at a restaurant called "Restaurant" (clever name eh?) in some  little town in the mountains.

Once we got into Utah we stopped at Wilson Arch, which is the largest, and just so happens to be right off the highway. We hiked up into the arch (something I had never done before).

I just kept thinking "This is huge!" See how small Rob and Phil look in comparison.

 We watched the sunset. Kinda.

 Besides the fact that I almost died hiking around this thing, it was amazing. A reminder to me of how beautiful this world is. I had the best time on that road trip.

Carli

Road Trip: Wildflowers

This is the last installment of the Road Trip series (for now). Next time I embark on a road trip I will probably blog about it too, unless you don't want me to. These past couple of weeks I have been trying to get all my road trip posts out there and frankly, I was getting a little tired of posting them. I think that the reason I got tired of posting them was because I am starting a new blog series that requires the ending of my road trip posts. So today is the end of the Road Trip and the start of Texas Love!

Isn't it funny how you don't appreciate anything until it's gone? Most Texans are very prideful of their state. Maybe you know this already because you have been told off by an overzealous Texan, but I have gotten into some friendly and almost not so friendly arguments about how much better Texas is than Utah, and other states. I knew that I would miss my family and friends and of course my favorite restaurants but I didn't ever expect how much I would miss the state of Texas. So I decided that this summer I am going to take advantage of Texas and try my best to appreciate and love the little time I will be spending here. So for the summer expect pictures, adventure stories, and much more straight from Texas.

These are the things I love about Texas.

Living in Corpus Christi, it takes a day to get out of Texas in any direction but South (Mexico is a couple hours away) and I guess East (by boat which I don't have). The drive is almost always daunting. I feel like we spend more time driving out of Texas then we do driving anywhere else on a trip. On our way back from Utah we finally hit the Texas border and I let out a "Hooray!". I then realized that I still had 10 hours to go. Living in the second largest state in the U.S. is a curse and a blessing... The point is that I was very tired and very discouraged... Then I saw the wild flowers. In Texas there are almost always wildflowers growing on the side of the highway in the spring and summer. Anything from Blue Bonnets (state flower) to Indian Paintbrushes. My dad and I had to stop. Looking out the window and seeing these little flowers paint the side of the highway made the drive a little less brutal.

Carli