A Visit from the East

My friend Rachel came to visit on Thursday. Her 3 and a half days here were filled with Arizona adventures. She came prepared though, having read up on AZ and all the awesome things to see here.

Any visitor that comes to see us is always treated to a mountain top sunset. So that was first on the list. And as always it was a good one.


Rachel is a friend from grad school and we have a lot in common. She happens to like birds a lot too. So I took her to Liberty to meet some of the birds I take care of every week. After the tour we ventured to downtown Phoenix so she could try the famous Indian fry bread.
Oh it was yummy and Rach was hooked.

Henry the barn owl checking us out

Brian got some inside scoop that they would be testing the Tempe town lake metro bridge. You see it has lights running up and down it and when the light rail goes over it, it will light up. After dinner we took Rachel to Tempe to see the lights and the bridge. It was actually pretty cool and to top it all off they were also testing the lighted trees in the park. They danced with the music, totally up my alley.

Rachel and I in Tempe

The metro bridge all lit up

Saturday the 3 of ventured to Sedona. Yes we tend to take everyone there, but it is so beautiful there, we haven't had any complaints yet. On the way up we stopped at Montezumas Castle. It was our lucky day as there was a Hopi Indian talking about his people and their views and beliefs on the area.

We did a short hike to the top of a mesa with views of the valley. We had dinner in town and walked around a bit. There were lots of Christmas lights which made the town even better.

View from the mesa

Sunday I took Rachel down to Tucson. Our first stop was the Saguaro National Forest. We drove the scenic loop and did a couple short hikes. As most of you may have figured out, I love Saguaros, they are an amazing part of the desert here.

My cute little car in the desert

Petroglyphs

Saguaro forest

After that we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. Here they have it set up as a kind of animal park with only animals that you would find in Arizona. Its very nice, with the different climates of AZ represented.

An elf owl (~4 in tall)

A coati

A prairie dog

We then headed for downtown Tucson. My most favorite Mexican joint is here and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into a potato taco. The street it is on is an eclectic area with a lot of artsy fartsy people, hippies and fortune tellers. Over the weekend they had an art festival along the street. The people watching was amazing. We saw drag queens, belly dancers with dreads, mohawks at least 2 feet high, and plenty of goth. It was Rachels lucky day because she had another chance to enjoy the fry bread. We each grabbed some and strolled the scene.

This morning I took her to the airport to fly back to chilly Maryland. I was happy to see her and to show her around AZ. Thank you for coming to visit Rach, see you in the Summer.
-Nina-