Arizona

I came back from my trip to Tucson, Arizona last Tuesday evening. I left the desert and flew into a snowstorm. Quite the homecoming! Thankfully my dad picked me up at the airport with Twinky so I got home okay (Max was only running intermittently) but my kitties ended up being snowed in with my mom until Thursday night!

My trip was great. For four days I was able to completely forget about my job, the feral cat living in my garage (I just figured that out the morning that I was leaving), the dirty dishes in my kitchen sink, the fact that I'm not supposed to be driving and consequently feel stuck at home much of the time...

This trip reminding me that I'm a card carrying Northwesterner. While I'm super thankful I made the trip and got to visit with friends and see amazing sites, it really made me appreciate home (even if it was covered with four inches of snow when I returned).

While in Arizona I got to eat at a 100% vegan restaurant that was in the middle of a strip mall (stroganoff and a brownie special with ice cream, whip cream, chocolate sauce and walnuts), go to a swap meet (I purchased a vintage Arizona license plate to use as a postcard, 70's era religious girl's club badges for collage purposes and a photo album of 1940's photographs),
visit the Saguaro National forest (yes, it does hurt when you get pricked from a cactus), tour the multi-million dollar Biosphere 2 project, listen to local music at Hotel Congress, eat brunch (vegan Shepherd's pie with salad and a fantastic chocolate malt shake!) under a tent at The Casbah with birds landing all around searching for crumbs, take many walks and sleep with Maxine the most laid back dog I've ever met, enjoy a home cooked vegan meal of curry eggplant with peanut sauce, laugh my ass off numerous times, tour the University of Arizona campus, test out my new digital camera and even get a little color on my face. The trip was a perfect blend of sightseeing and homeyness for me and I had a fantastic time.