Earlier this month it was my 5 year anniversary with my husband and we flew to Arizona for a week to go hiking, see the Grand Canyon, skydive, see cacti, and check out Biosphere 2. A major goal of mine was too see lovebirds. I owned one growing up and loved her so much even though she was aggressive and a people hater other than my dad, ahaha.

Oh my gosh the heat. I knew it was going to be hot but I wasn’t as prepared for it as I thought. We did drink plenty of water and electrolytes to stay hydrated but the first full day I did get a headache.

Walking to the share ride spot with our language I could see cacti being used for landscaping and I was just blown away. Riding in the car to Phoenix downtown I saw Lophocereus schottii bigger than me! I tried to get a picture but at 11 at night and speeding by it didn’t turn out well.

On our way up to the Grand Canyon it was so amazing to see prickly pears (Opuntia) and saw Saguaros and then after a couple hours we went through a pass and it was forest of spruces among other types of trees I couldn’t name and occasionally you saw a prickly pear popping out somewhere. It was so crazy to see Arizona not as a complete desert like it was closer to Phoenix.

We finally got to the Grand Canyon and I had no words for a full minute, just staring at the vast canyon that stretched out before me. Pictures honestly don’t do it justice. We weren’t staying in Arizona long so we didn’t get to spend a ton of time at the Grand Canyon so we did the suggested paths for a day trip and it was still fabulous. I’d definitely start in the morning again as it’s not super busy yet unlike lunch time when we were coming back to the car.

Then the following day we visited the Desert Botanical Garden and it was so beautiful; although, it was getting too hot even for arriving at 9:30am. I started out strong getting photos but an hour in I was beginning tired of the heat, so we rushed through the rest of the garden just snapping photos quickly before heading into the Dale Chihuly exhibit which was air conditioned, baby.

He had some very beautiful and colorful pieces that looked so delicate, I was nervous to be even in the room with them.

We went through the Biosphere 2 on another day which was pretty amazing to see how they were conducting science experiments in the beginning and to this day even. They started out with 400 plants but knew some would be choked out and they were right, only 100 survived.

The last full day we went skydiving and that was a blast. What I thought would be scary was amazing and I looooved the free falling the best, but the gliding was great too. Right before I jumped I was like I can’t believe I’m doing this, ahaha. And I suggested we do this!

We wanted to see how we could handle the heat during the summer and we came to the conclusion we could – but want to find indoor hobbies, ahaha. So we’ll be talking this week and probably next week if we want to move. Our lease is up in a couple months so we have to decide this month if we’re renewing with our current apartment. We both agreed we would need a pool at the apartment and a balcony if we moved to Arizona so that’s a requirement. At least the balcony, and then get a membership to a nearby pool. 

I’m trying not to think about driving with plants in the back of my compact SUV, but even if we stayed in Michigan we might not renew with this apartment, so they’ll still be packed into the car regardless, ahaha.

Also, I’m like low key upset I didn’t get to see any wild lovebirds in Phoenix. I was looking forward to them almost more than the cacti!