Arizona trip: April 2013

In February, I traveled to Arizona for a work trip.  My mom, who lives in Arizona in the winter, invited me to come back and visit at the end of April, when the weather starts to warm up again.  So I made another trip a couple weeks ago. When I got off the plane, the temps in Phoenix were 90 degrees. The cactus were also blooming, which was a treat to see.

My mom also told me if I came back to Arizona later in the spring, we could visit northern Arizona when the snow melts there.  After a windy mountain drive, climbing up to 5,000 feet in altitude, we stopped for the night in Flagstaff.  We stayed at the Comfort Inn hotel, and we were greeted by this fireplace in the lobby.

We drove another 2 hours to our next destination: the Grand Canyon!

Obviously, my photos can't really capture the view.  But it was magnificent, and we couldn't have asked for nicer weather -- 60 degrees and sunny.

 

My stepdad got his finger in all the photos he took!

 

 The next day, we drove south to Sedona to see the gorgeous red sandstone rock formations.  My mom's friends recommended we take the trolley tour to really see the sites.

See the finger in the top left corner?

 Sedona really was beautiful.  Very touristy, but worth the trip.

In downtown Sedona, we bought a couple T-shirts, then stopped at an ice cream shop.  I had to try the prickly pear cactus ice cream.  Tasted a lot like strawberries.

More cactus flowers blooming when we got back to Phoenix.

One more photo from the Superstition Mountain Museum in Apache Junction.  See the finger in the photo? I wasn't kidding when I said every photo was like this! Oh well.

This is probably my last trip for a while.  There's nothing better than Iowa weather in the summer.  If only it would warm up already!  I'm waiting for the May snow to melt.