A week of recap for the Arizona trip…it’s never too late, right?
I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend. Ours continues with a holiday from school today. I have to say I am most grateful for it.
My intention was to do a better job of leading through Lent, but it was definitely not a season where I was feeling like I had the call to lead. Priorities around this temporary teaching assignment had me more in the learner seat and so I spent the season as a student of what God might be teaching me instead of passing along a teaching to you.
It never seemed appropriate to deliver a travel log of our trip to Arizona during the season. Now that we are post Easter Sunday, I am plan to use this week to recap our March trip to Phoenix, Sedona and the Grand Canyon.
It will be – as usual – a kind of photo and diary type report on some of the key takeaways. If you are planning a trip out that way, I hope some of these ideas are helpful.
Let us begin….
We flew Allegiant out of Peoria. There were no snags going or coming. However, I will mention we were using some credits from the botched trip last year which landed us in Belleville in the wee hours of the morning after a number of cancelations and suspicious announcements regarding flights being rerouted for us and such.
The accommodations on Allegiant are definitely budget class but they get us from A to B and we do enjoy the convenience of using the regional airports. Everything is easier to navigate from parking to rental car pickup and return.
Our first full day was in Phoenix where we visited some Decatur friends who winter there and Russ’s cousin and her husband, who live there year round. Ironically, they literally live across one of the holes of a golf course from each other and we could wave from the patios if we wanted to.
After a nice time with both sets of couples, we headed north to Sedona. The drive was so beautiful. One of the reasons we wanted to return to this area was the unique scenery we remembered from our first visit with Zach and Rachel’s family a few years prior.
Tomorrow I will share a bit about the area we stayed in and restaurants we enjoyed, but for now I wanted to leave you with a couple of things I do that I find helpful when traveling.
For a few years now I have enjoyed “journaling” my packing list.
As you can see from this one, I had fun attempting a desert motif to begin with. Since we were going to be experiencing several levels of weather due to our location visits, I recorded the forecasts by day.
The first time I did one of these lists, we were going to Maine and I needed to pack very lightly. I used a formula method I found on the internet and have applied it ever since. I am a mood dresser and this leads to overpacking.
Using the formula method, I force myself to select items that can work well together. It is a disciplined effort, but well worth the struggle at home to avoid taking more than I need and lugging it all back home to be washed.
The other thing I have always done is tuck a small notebook in my carry on. I jot down notes about where we ate, what we saw, funny or interesting things that have happened, sites we toured, etc.
I do this before bed, or first thing in the morning. Sometimes I add things while we are driving or waiting for our food in a restaurant. It is very helpful to look back and remember the trip. Also comes in handy if I decide to share with you a month or more after the fact!!
I am looking forward to sharing some of the memories and photos this week. Hope you plan on coming back tomorrow <3