Trip to Tucson, Arizona

About 7 weeks ago, I made my first completely spontaneous plane ticket purchase, a ticket to Tucson, Arizona to visit Kelly, my very good friend from college. And before I knew it the much-awaited trip came and went last weekend and what started out as a fun escape from the daily grind ended as a much more memorable experience than I could have imagined. I have now traveled further west than I ever have before, seen the most beautiful landscapes that I never really even know existed, and ate some meals that I’ll be talking about for a long time.

As with most trips that I take, they seem almost impossible to translate into explanation or words without sounding like I’m reading off of an itinerary. If I were to do that, the trip would sound a little something like this…

My trip included countless hours of country music, a day trip to Phoenix, pizza from Pizzeria Bianco (apparently the best in the U.S.), a 12-mile hike up and around the mountains of Sabino Canyon, air-force guys that did the same trail as us in about a third of our time, my first In-n-Out burger, wonderfully long catching-up sessions with Parent Trap or Duck Dynasty in the background, fried chicken and rosemary French toast from Prep and Pastry, a passionfruit doissant (aka a non-copyrighted cronut), a trip to the Desert Museum, a random craigslist meetup, shopping for “Hecho en Mexico” goods, excessively large margaritas, and the best damn Mexican food I’ve had in my life.

See, doesn’t quite capture the essence of it, does it? Nothing can truly come close to the experiences themselves but I do believe that pictures are second best, so here’s what I was able to capture of it all. And if you ever get a chance to check out Tucson, I highly recommend it, especially as an escape from the frozen tundra of the east coast.