Back in 2010, Jim and I made a big life decision and moved across the country to Tucson, Arizona. We lived there for exactly one year before we decided it wasn’t really for us, and in that short time we found a few things that we knew we’d be forever thankful for. While the majority of these things are restaurants (don’t hate, we love food!) the main two things were our dear friends, Ally and Alex. Leaving these two proved to be more difficult than we thought, yet they made me feel a bit better about it as they soon moved to Colorado for Ally to continue her education. A few years later, it was FINALLY time for these two to get married and they did so back in their hometown of Tucson and were sweet enough to put us on the guest list. Well, if we were ever going to head back to our old home and soak up the things we missed, going for their wedding was going to be the absolute best time to do it!
We started our trip by flying into Phoenix and driving straight up to Sedona, as we had never made it there when we lived in the state. We barely made it before sunset, but it was worth every single second to be surrounded by those gorgeous red rocks. I just, ah, I can perfectly visualize the gorgeous surroundings right now, even while sitting at my desk.
Sedona was freaking gorgeous. Seriously. If you can go, go.
From Sedona we trekked back to our old home in Tucson! We didn’t make it to the hotel until like 1 or 2am (after a quick Raising Cane’s stop in Phoenix) and the next day we woke up and immediately decided it was time for lunch at one of our all time favorite restaurants: Oregano’s. Everyone asked us if we were excited to get back to some authentic Mexican food when we traveled back here but honestly, this pizza joint was #1 on our list of where to stop… sorry Mexican food! This place is the bomb, for real. From their cheesy garlic bread to an awesome pizza and ending with a pizookie AKA their pizza cookie it is just one of my favorite meals of all time. Nom.
For the duration of the trip we honestly just woke up and did whatever we felt like that day, all while hitting a bunch of our old favorite restaurants (which, yes, included Mexican!) and places to hang out. We went to the actual top of Mt. Lemmon for the first time ever, which was nice to cross off our bucket list. See, there’s a “ski resort” on the top of Mt. Lemmon (and I used quotes for a reason, it’s the saddest little ski area ever, even compared to Ohio skiing) and you can drive up there and be near the top of the mountain, however, to get to the actual top you have to take a ski lift. Well, I never realized that you could take this ski lift in the summer and go to the tippy top, so once we saw that was a possibility, we did it! I should also note, A. this lift was like, straight up and was actually terrifying, and B. riding a ski lift down is not something I’d ever like to do again. Super weird. But hey, we did it!
Oh, and while all around Mt. Lemmon we took lots of photos of ourselves and each other because hey, why not! So, enjoy those! 😀
Or sometimes as Jim is trying to get things set for a photo I just start acting like a cat…
Humans vs. Timer vs. Wind.
And then, FINALLY, it was time to take a couple days to celebrate our wonderful friends getting married. Not many photos from the last couple days of our trip because we were so caught up in happiness that we got to see them again, but I grabbed a quick one of us before we headed out to their reception (and then a quick photo of my favorite type cactus, too) just to show that sometimes we can dress up and look like decent human beings!
Honestly, if in our entire trip all we did was get to spend even 5 minutes with Ally & Alex to celebrate the two of them and their wedding day, it would have been enough. So happy we got to trek back to Tucson and soak up all the things we missed from when we lived there for just one short year. It’s amazing that in that one year we found some awesome forever-friends. (:
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