Today was day one of my first ever girls trip out of state. My friend Leah and I have been planning this trip since March. Leah wanted to go hiking with me on what ended up being my first solo adventure to Tennessee, but it just didn’t work with kids schedules and everything going on during spring break. When we started discussing where we wanted to go both of our first choices was to go to Sedona. We had both seen the beautiful views, quirky places to go, and both knew we needed that in our lives.
Thankfully since we were on the road early we didn’t catch any traffic at all, and we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. As we were making our way through TSA I quickly realized why I like being early. I made it through the TSA check with no issues, but Leah got held up. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what could have possibly been in her bag that they were questioning. From the look on her face I could tell she didn’t know either. After she finally made it through I asked what in the world happened, and she said that there was a knife in her backpack in a hidden pocket, but she had no clue it was there because it was her ex’s backpack that she was just using for the trip. Thankfully the TSA attendant joked with her saying “someone wanted you trapped”, and happily let her go through when Leah told the attendant to please dispose of it. The whole situation got me thinking though, and I realized that I hadn’t taken the keychain knife Chris got me off of my keys either! I am thankful that Chris always liked concealed weapons that are hard to identify. The keychain knife has a metal casing in the shape of a key, which I’m assuming is why it didn’t get noticed. I was lucky with it, but not so lucky in forgetting that I had my solar charger charging in the window of the waiting area before boarding the plane and left it at IAH.
Day 1
After we landed in Arizona after a day full of flights thanks to a strange layover, we headed to get our rental car for the trip, and then to check into the hotel. When I described this hotel to people, I said it was a girls trip dream hotel. We booked at the Saguaro in Scottsdale, and it is this cute hotel/spa that is characterized by bright colors, and their amazing pool. Leah and I had already decided that the day after the hike would be our pool day where we could just lounge around and enjoy. After we checked in, we walked checked out The Saguaro, then headed out to check out Old Town Scottsdale. Old Town Scottsdale looks like a scene straight from a western movie, and is filled with restaurants, nightlife, art, and places to shop. As we were walking around, we heard music coming from a bar called The Rusty Spur and were intrigued. As soon as we walked in the door everyone in the place started cheering for us and clapping their hands! After our initial reaction of not knowing what was going on, then feeling like a celebrity, we found a spot to sit and realized it is what the crowd does anytime someone walks in. The musician playing for the night reminded me of a country version of a piano bar. The musician would take tips and you told him what you wanted him to play and he would play the song on the guitar and sing. It was such a fun atmosphere and we ended up staying for a while and enjoying some songs. After we left The Rusty Spur we headed to get a bite to eat. We found a Mexican restaurant called Cien Agaves that was wonderful. We shared some appetizers so that we could try several things, and enjoyed drinks while we were there. I realized very quickly that prickly pear margaritas were going to be my go to drink for this trip. I haven’t found many places in Texas that make them the way I like, but everyone I had while in Arizona was AMAZING. We turned in for the night after dinner since we knew we would be up early for hiking the next day.
Day 2
We woke up fairly early to make the 2 hour drive to Sedona from Scottsdale for our hike, but it was easy to do since our bodies were still on Texas time and functioning two hours ahead of Arizona time. We enjoyed our drive and all the beautiful scenic views along the way to Sedona. I was in awe of the cactus as we drove because they literally looked like the cactus you see in cartoons but they were all along the highway. We arrived to the Cathedral Rock trailhead first and were blown away by the sheer size of what we were about to climb. We chose to do this one in the morning first because we thought it would be the more challenging of the two hikes for the day. The hike is only a mile to the top, but you encounter a 551ft gain of elevation in that mile. When you near the top of the climb, you are using a big crevice in the rock to climb at about a 45 degree angle, but thankfully there are plenty of footholds along the way. The view at the top is absolutely amazing, and even more beautiful if you ignore the “end of trail” signs and hike around the corner. Once we reached the top we enjoyed the views and the shade for about 45 minutes, taking in all of God’s glory, before making the quick trip back down.
After leaving Cathedral Rock, we made the quick drive to the other side of Sedona to hike Devil’s bridge. This is where we obviously hadn’t really thought things through considering the heat, and the fact that we hadn’t eat much at all that day. At this point it was a little before noon, and while Devil’s Bridge is a gradual incline, and should have been an easier hike, it was not true in the heat wave that Arizona was experiencing while we were there. The hike to Devil’s Bridge is right at 2 miles, but with parking, and avoiding rough patches you can plan on hiking anywhere between 4-5 miles round trip. As we approached the trailhead we noticed two signs that should have been a huge warning to us, but we were feeling great coming off the first hike. The warning signs read, “Heat Stroke Advisory” and “Recommended 1 Gallon of Water per Hiker”. Now, we did have quite a bit of water on us, but not quite a gallon each. We started the hike anyway and quickly realized the importance of those signs. We felt like we were dying on the hike up, and kept stopping for shade, or just to get our heart rates down, or for a drink. What should have been a fairly quick hike took what seemed like ages. I also realized as we reached Devil’s Bridge, that we were going to have to ration the water on the way back which was a scary thought. Devil’s Bridge itself was absolutely gorgeous! We sat at the top watching people take photos for quite some time to let our bodies recover before doing our own photo session. Leah almost had a heart attack watching a dad and son traipsing along the bridge. There were also 2 young guys who decided it would be a good idea to jump across a split in the rock with a huge drop to the ground below. The dad decided to give them some pointers before they jumped, and used his young son as an example of how to do it! Thankfully mom who was on the sidelines taking photos quickly spoke up and asked that he not do it again. I think our biggest laugh was a guy who was hiking alone and was obviously exhausted from the hike as well. He looked at Devil’s Bridge with a straight face as he got to the top and said “they should call this Devil’s Bitch”. I died laughing because the word play was spot on, since we honestly didn’t know if we were going to make it to the bridge for pictures. Although Leah was hesitant about walking out on the bridge at first, we both lived on the edge and took pictures hanging our feet over the side, and even a jumping shot on the bridge. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated at the idea of having to make the hike back to our vehicle while rationing water. Thankfully we made it a good ways down the trail when an blessing from God himself showed up in the form a man who spends his days volunteering for the forestry service, and brings water to hikers who need it, and gives rides back to those who seem like they won’t make it. It was seriously our biggest blessing of the day; we needed water, and WANTED a ride back more than anything. You might be thinking we took the easy way out, but it definitely wasn’t. The road that we had to travel was awful, and I think our bodies hurt more from being tossed around in the vehicle on the way back, then they did from the hike.
After we got back to the car, we made our way into Sedona to finally get a bite to eat. I think anything would have been amazing at that point, but Leah suggested Italian, and picked an absolutely amazing restaurant. The place was called Picazzos, and the food was delicious. We had some spinach artichoke dip, and shared a meaty pizza. The one good side to eating so late in the day was that we hit Picazzos right at happy hour and tried some delicious drinks from their cocktail menu. The star of the night was a raspberry lemonade that you couldn’t even tell had alcohol in it. We headed back to Scottsdale, and realized once we got back that we didn’t want to hit the nightlife scene, but could use some dessert. Leah found a super cute place called Un-Baked that served ice cream, cookie dough, and boozy shakes. We opted for cookie dough and ice cream sundaes that were SO good. I think the unbaked cookie dough idea is quite possibly the best thing I have ever seen and would love to see one locally. After dessert we headed back to The Saguaro and crashed for the night.
Day 3
After all of our hiking the day before we made the decision that our last full day would include sleeping in, brunch, plenty of time by the pool, and some nightlife in Scottsdale. We really did sleep in after all the hiking the day before. When we finally woke up, we went to a brunch place we had been excited to eat at, only to realize that their brunch was only served on Saturday and Sunday, and not on Friday. Not discouraged we walked to another breakfast place called Daily Dose. We were surprised to see that there was a wait to be seated, and opted for sitting on the patio to be seated immediately. The hosted asked if we were sure, and we weren’t, but decided to chance it anyway. It was definitely hot on the patio, but so worth it. Leah and I both ordered eggs benedict, but she ordered them traditionally, and I tried them “DD style” which meant instead of hollandaise sauce and an English muffin, mine came on a biscuit with sausage gravy. Both were AMAZING! We also explored their brunch drink menu with a screwdriver and a bacon bloody mary. I went with the screwdriver, but bloody mary’s were always Chris’s drink of choice if he did drink, and Leah’s looked so good I ended up ordering one as well. It was very tasty, and brought back such sweet memories of Chris.
After brunch we headed to the hang out by the pool at The Saguaro. This pool is nothing short of amazing, and something we had been looking forward to enjoying the whole trip. Let me say, it did not disappoint. Not only does the pool have nice lounge chairs, cabanas, and umbrellas to give you some shade, but it also has a full bar and pool side food from the resort restaurant. I think our favorite drink ended up being the frozen Pink Whitney lemonade that was out of this world. We noticed as we swam and tanned that there were a lot of women there. It seemed some were there for a girls trip and some for a bachelorette party. We were intrigued towards the later afternoon when we started seeing a few men come to the pool, and our interest even more peaked when they started to talk and we realized they had an Australian accent. I finally mustered up the courage to ask what they were in Arizona for and found out that they are members of an Australian football team that is in town for training. I decided it would be fun to have them say hello to our friend Savannah who was a little bummed she couldn’t be on the trip with us due to a family event. She had been envious of our snapchat stories by the pool. The team was really sweet to fulfill my request, and let us know they would be in Austin in October if we wanted to come watch.
After the pool we decided to head out to have dinner at Belle’s Nashville Kitchen which is where we passed up for brunch. I was most interested in one of their appetizers. They had Kool-Aid pickles which are fried pickles marinated in red koolaid, fried to perfection, and of course served with ranch dressing. I couldn’t pass up the chance to try them, and they were so good. The mix of sweet and sour was perfect! We enjoyed exploring the rest of Old Town Scottsdale before heading back to The Saguaro and packing up to head home the next day.
This was such an amazing trip, and my first “girls trip”. I had two big takeaways from this trip. The first is that Leah and I decided that we need to do a yearly girls trip in the summer somewhere that doesn’t necessarily need to be hiking, but a time to connect with those women in our lives that fill our cups. Leah has been with me through thick and thin. She has been my rock and my prayer warrior through some pretty dark times in my life, and I have tried to be there for her as well when she needs me. Taking time to have that connection with those people we love in our life is important and I can’t wait to see where we go next year.
My other big moment from this trip was my continued awe and fascination with what God has created and how he is moving. There is no way that someone can hike and see these views without having their breath taken away and knowing that this world wasn’t create by chance, but by God. We were out there in a desert in unbelievable heat, hiking up steep inclines, and yet there was absolutely nothing to fear, because we could still see the beauty in God’s creation all around us. I’m so thankful for this adventure, for my friendship with Leah, for time to renew and refresh, and for God’s continued reminder that despite the situations I’m in, God is good and FEAR IS A LIAR!
Fear is a Liar 
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