The Beginners Guide to an Arizona Vacation
When people mention escaping the cold of a northern winter, they often mean going somewhere like Florida or Georgia or South Carolina. Basically, somewhere that has a beach and warm weather. Don’t get me wrong, we have gone to those places and have loved them. The difference between those places and Arizona, is Arizona has sneaked its way into our hearts.
The dry, crisp air of an Arizona February, chilly and refreshing in the mornings, warm and clear in the afternoons makes the weather more pleasant than the muggy warmth of the South. The rugged desert mountains and valleys and cacti provide constant opportunities for photography. Depending on where you are in the state, there is good opportunity to see elk or mule deer or wild horses or Coués deer… all of which we actually did see on our last visit.
In my mind, Arizona was a warm state, hot even, but that’s not entirely true. Large portions of the state do fall into the warm category, but a 2.5 hour drive north from Phoenix, (average daily high of 72* in February), brings you to Flagstaff, (average daily high of 47* in February)! In other words, you could spend Tuesday at the pool in Phoenix and Wednesday at the ski slopes in Flagstaff.
Last year, we went to Phoenix for a week and loved it so much that this year we decided to double our time in Arizona. We hope this blogpost can serve as your inspiration to spend a week or two of your own in the Grand Canyon State and point you in the direction of our favorite parts of Arizona so far.
We spent most of our time in Phoenix. I’m not totally sure why we love the city of Phoenix so much. It probably has something to do with the desert mountains that are always visible in the distance, and whole area feels “alive”. Here are few of our favorite places in Phoenix.
Park N’ Swap
Park N’ Swap. This is a large open air marketplace (flea market) where you can find just about any cheap toy or blanket or tool or any other little trinket you can imagine. As soon as you pay your $2 and walk through the gate into the vendor’s area, it feels as though you have walked into another country. Generally, it’s not the best prices for quality products that you will ever find, but it is a fun experience. Make sure to try out one of the churro stands while you are in there.
Our Favorite Restaurants
Taco Boys. Taco Boys is a small chain of taco restaurants… the service and quality of food that we got at both locations that we went to was unbelievable. Just remembering it now makes me want to hop on the next flight to Arizona.
Charleston’s- A nice steakhouse with excellent food and service to match.
Andy’s Frozen Custard- The best frozen custard I ever remember having.
Butterfields- The best breakfast place in all of Phoenix. Do yourself a favor and get a glass their fresh squeezed orange juice.
Hole in the Rock
Hole in the Rock. Hole in the Rock is exactly what the name implies. It’s a fun little hike, and we had no problem getting the kids up there. It’s not exactly “kid friendly” since they could fall down the rock if you aren’t keeping close tabs on them, but it’s a great break from the carseats.
Out of Africa Wildlife Park
Out of Africa Wildlife Park.
This fun stop 1.5 hours north of Phoenix is great for the kids. The park gives open window bus tours through the open area where all the African animals that “get along” live in. If you have ever been on a proper safari in Africa, it’s a bit underwhelming to see the animals in a “zoo” setting. However, this wildlife park does a pretty good job of making it as realistic as possible, and the kids loved when the giraffes walked up to the bus and we got to feed them. They have a large variety of predatory animals as well, ranging from lions and tigers to bears to wolves and more. If you are into zip lines, the park has a pretty impressive system of those as well… just hang on extra tight when you are flying over the lions. There are also some glamping tents right next door, if you are wanting to make it as much of a safari experience as possible.
PHOENIX sky harbor airport
The parking garage at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. PHX has a great open top parking garage that has runways on either side of if, making a great location to watch airplanes taking off and landing with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains and desert.
FLAGSTAFF
This year, we decided to spend a few days towards the middle of our trip in Flagstaff. Flagstaff is 2.5 hours north of Phoenix, and those 2.5 hours of driving take you out of the desert and into the high country. The official altitude of Phoenix is 1086’ and just north of Flagstaff, we saw signs that we were at 8000’ above sea level! Our poor rental car was about worn out by the time we made to our AirBnB.
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon. One of Flagstaff’s draws is it proximity to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon definitely makes the bucket list for “sights you have to see in America”. The Canyon is absolutely breathtaking. I did not have an appreciation for just how enormous it is until we saw it in real life. Something about the sheer scale of the canyon plays tricks with your eyes, as if you are looking into VR goggles rather than the real world. If your trip to the Grand Canyon is during the winter months, you definitely run the risk of running into a proper snow storm. When we were at the Canyon it was pretty chilly, but the cold was manageable.
Thanks to several observatories in the area, Flagstaff is also a “dark sky” city, meaning that all the outdoor lights are required to be under a certain level of brightness. The yellowish dim lamp posts do make even the nicer areas seem “creepier” if you are used to normal good lighting, but I had to admire the commitment to not tainting the night sky.
Our favorite things in the Flagstaff area were:
Bearizona
It was a bit unnerving to have a small herd of Bison walk withing reach of our vehicle.
Bearizona. Bearizona is a drive-through wildlife park forty minutes west of Flagstaff. It’s pretty much what you would expect a drive-through wildlife park to be. They had a pretty impressive display of animals; mule deer, brown bears, wolves, pronghorn, mountain goats, black bears, bison and elk, among others. Pretty much, they had most of the classic American West wildlife. After we had driven thought the park, we walked through their “normal” zoo area and were able to see some more animals there. Overall, the experience was great, and the children thought it was pretty cool.
The kids had fun walking around in Bearizona’s more “normal” zoo areas.
Sunset Crater National Monument
Sunset Crater National Monument. We decided to make the 34 mile scenic loop drive off of Hwy 89 that meanders past the Sunset Crater Mountain and the Wupatki National Monument. We made the drive toward last light, and the countryside was absolutely magical.
Sedona
Sedona. Located forty-five minutes south of Flagstaff, the town of Sedona is nestled amongst towering red rock formations. It looks as though God had a spare afternoon and He decided to spend extra time and attention creating this one valley. The crisp air of a Sedona January combined with the red rock formations in every direction make Sedona sunsets absolutely magical. The town is definitely set up to accommodate tourists, but it didn’t feel super “touristy” when we were there. I can imagine that the true tourist season is a much more crowded experience than the one we had.
Sedona boasts many great hiking trails and jeep rides but we didn’t schedule enough time there to get in on any of that this trip.
Tlaquepaque
Tlaquepaque. (Pronounced T-lockey-pockey) Tlaquepaque is an arts/shopping/culture/dining “village” designed to reflect the sights and sounds of Old Mexico. If you swing by Tlaquepaque be sure to stop at our current favorite spot in the village…The Chai Spot. The Chai Spot primarily serves Pakistani chai along with a few delicious snack options. I’m personally not a chai fanatic but I loved the experience and the actual chai was great as well. Their outdoor balcony area is a great place to sit down for a while and appreciate the charm of the area and it’s experiences.
The Chai Spot
After Sedona, we made the trip back down to Phoenix to finish out our vacation. Our last two recommendations are on our “must do” list for a trip to Phoenix. It may have something to do with the fact the both Anita and I love photography, but if you are wanting to experience pure desert beauty, you won’t be let down.
Apache Trail/Canyon Lake Area
“The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have. To me, it is most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful.”
The Apache Trail/Canyon Lake area. The drive from Apache Junction to the Dolly Steamboat on Canyon Lake is mind boggling. Here is Theodore Roosevelt’s description of the area: "The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have. To me, it is most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful.” The scenery alone makes the drive back to Canyon Lake worth it in my opinion, but if you are going back to the lake, do yourself a favor and take a tour on the Dolley Steamboat. We went on “normal” sightseeing steamboat tour last year, but we have it on our Arizona to-do list to go on their twilight tour. We saw a good amount of wildlife on the normal tour, but I can only imagine that the twilight tour would be surreal. If you want to get in on that tour, be sure to purchase tickets well in advance since those tickets are often sold out a few weeks ahead.
SALT RIVER WILD HORSES
Salt River Horses. Hand’s down, going to see the wild horses in the Salt River region is our favorite Arizona thing to do. Matter of Fact, we love it so much, we plan to dedicate the Salt River Horses their own blog post. Stay tuned.
To Change a Habit
Small changes. Great change.
To Change a Habit
I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of how simple it should be to change your life. Think about it… If you aren’t in your best physical shape, and you want to work towards getting healthy, literally all you need to is change what you eat and probably add some exercise to your daily routine. If you tend to be a bit lazy, all you need to do is to get up and get to work. Or if you want to master an instrument, all you need to do is practice with good technique regularly and you will undoubtedly get better. Procrastinator? Just do it. Hot tempered? Be nice.
This list could go on and on, but I’m guessing by now that you have either responded to these suggestions with “this guy is off his rocker, what about genetic issues that make weight loss hard, or what if people feel unmotivated because they have emotional trauma…etc.,” or your response is “Actually, He makes a good point! It’s spinach and water and a marathon a day from here on out for me!” To be fair, people who accuse me of being “off my rocker” are probably right as a general rule, but that’s beside the point.
I’m not an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination, but my personal experience has convinced me that longterm habit change generally takes more than a “come to Jesus” moment. Of course, serious habit change is often set off by a moment in time. If your doctor tells you that you are on a crash course with a heart attack, it might jolt you into an immediate and permanent diet change. While that’s obviously a good time to change your diet, I would like to focus on the small changes that happen thirty years prior to the doctor’s visit, that can hopefully eliminate the panic-driven diet change.
I’ve always loved the New Years celebrations and resolutions time of year.
I’ve always loved the New Years celebrations and resolutions time of year. Last year, I decided to get more serious about eating healthy. Of course I have made that resolution before, and I have temporarily lost weight in the past, but this time was actually different. Anita and I both have been working in the past year and a half or so to actually change our household’s health for the long run. By the time the beginning of last year rolled around, our home was actually set up pretty well to lose weight in.
What does a “healthy friendly” home look like? For us, it was steadily replacing anything unhealthy with a better alternative. For instance, we basically eliminated sugar from our diets. We definitely still have good snacks around but rather than cookies or cinnamon rolls or coke we might have beef sticks or stevia sweetened baked goods or drinks. I’m not going to pretend that the healthier food is “just as good” like some health nuts will claim, but that’s actually the point. If I am always faced with choosing between a beef stick and a donut for my mid morning snack, the donut will often win the contest. I’m just not disciplined enough to always resist the sweet treat, which is why holiday weekends tend to be my weakness. Sure, there are usually some vegetable trays mixed in with all the traditional snacks sitting around, but what kind of choice is that?!
Shockingly, by the time that the year was done, I had lost 40 lbs… and it didn’t even seem that difficult.
Shockingly, by the time that the year was done, I had lost 40 lbs… and it didn’t even seem that difficult. Granted, it’s easier to lose that much weight if you have a bunch to lose, but it’s at least a start. Unfortunately, I still have a good little way to go to get to my target weight, but I am no longer doubtful that I can get there.
The change that happened was not only in my diet, it was also in my head. When my mindset switched from trying to “get skinny” to “changing my lifestyle”, everything became different.
It’s not always as easy as the last several paragraphs have made it sound.
It’s not always as easy as the last several paragraphs have made it sound. There are plenty of people who have issues such as a sluggish thyroid or a bad gut that make “easy” weight loss impossible, and that’s got to be frustrating. My personal weakness is exercise. I have done some of the crazy workout programs over the years but I still haven’t mastered the “mindset” of fitness for life. My goal to adjust that problem this year is to do a short, relatively easy 10 minute workout program 6 days a week. It’s short enough to do first thing every morning, and it’s not so hard that I dread getting out of bed because of it. The idea is for it to be a starting point to get me in into the mindset of permanently having an exercise routine, and hopefully it will build into a proper workout program that I can maintain my entire life.
Health and fitness are the low hanging fruit to use as an example for changing your habits, but the changing other aspects of our lives is pretty intriguing. Take for example, a negative mindset. What if you replaced your daily news intake with a reading a book or audiobook (that isn’t also super negative and doomsdayish).
Another area that we have worked on over the last year is wake-up time. I’ve discovered that I’m not great at mustering the will power to get out of bed at 5:30 every morning just because that’s what my resolution says. This year however, we almost always got out of bed somewhere reasonably close to the 5:30 mark. The difference wasn’t more will power, it was a better bed time. We started to begin the “going to bed” process for the children earlier in the even rather than at 8:00 when it “felt” like bedtime was coming up. The slight change in our lifestyle of getting the kids ready for bed earlier in the evening, which in turn made our bedtime earlier, made all of the difference. 5:30 feels much less early 8 hours after you go to bed than it does 5.5 hours after you go to bed.
At the end of the day, lifestyle and habit change does come down to making a real change
At the end of the day, lifestyle and habit change does come down to making a real change. If you want to start an exercise routine, you have to actually exercise, not just have a space in your morning routine that you “could” exercise in. If you want to spend less time on your instagram app, you have to put your phone down. You could create zones in your house that are “no-phone” but if you now sit at the kitchen table to scroll through your feeds rather than on the couch, you aren’t really getting anywhere. Basically, creating an environment in which you are set up to succeed is your best bet to get where you want to go, but it’s not enough. You actually have to do it too.
For a more in-depth read on this topic pick up this book by Atomic Habits James Clear: https://amzn.to/3qPiOEE.
Your Phone Might Take Over Your Life.
Is the Internet Taking Over?
Will This Blogpost Make You Stupid?
Are computers and internet making us stupid? Over the last several years I have felt a growing unease with the steady march of our new technologies creeping steadily deeper into our lives. Cell phones and computers and tablets and smart watches and the like. Everywhere you look, people are missing the physical world around them. Grocery lines, traffic lights, living rooms, porches, gas pumps, restaurants… anywhere that we are afforded a single moment of opportunity, we reach for our devices.
How did we go from it being geeky to have a device with “the internet” to almost everybody having one in a decade or two? More importantly, how did those devices become so prevalent and pervasive that it has changed entire societies so quickly? I remember a time in which the ordinary trip to town didn’t even come with the consideration of people sitting around paying most of their attention to their devices… and I’m in my mid twenties.
I understand the irony. Writing a blogpost about how technology might not be that good for us… on my MacBook, posted to our website, and promoted on our social media accounts. Don’t get me wrong, I love new technologies! I’m here for the self-driving cars and smart exercise equipment. I’m not even denying that I get a definite bit of enjoyment whenever we need to buy a new computer or any other technology for the office.
The positive impact that technology has had on all of our lives is undeniable… In the general debate about how good or bad technology is, we often lose sight of the fact that technology isn’t just computers.
Consider watches. Before your average Joe could afford a pocket watch, the whole town may have only had one clock or none at all. If two farmers working in their fields had decided to meet at a local diner at noon, they could have quite easily shown up at a “noon” that ranged from 11:30-12:30 or more. If the first farmer thought that the sun looked like directly overhead at 11:30, he could have sat at the diner for a full hour before farmer who thought the sun looked directly overhead at 12:30 showed up. I’m no cultural historian, but I suspect it was not a source of deep frustration to the first farmer that he had to wait all that time until the other farmer showed up. That’s just the way it was. How would he have a good grasp of time, if he had rarely even seen a clock?
The technology of the clock, has completely reshaped our world. We aren’t even aware how much control the concept of minute by minute time tracking controls the way that we live. I’ve heard an employer talk of standing out by the parking lot watching his phone waiting to see if any of his employees showed up one minute late. They got three strikes, and then they were gone. Im not here to argue whether that is good or bad. My point is that those farmers at the diner would look at you crosseyed if you tried to explain the concept of being fired for being a minute late three times. The clock has dramatically changed the world since then, and we don’t even notice it. Again, my point is not that clocks are a bad thing… just that technologies change who we are.
“The medium is the message.” If you have spent any amount of time looking into the effects of technologies on us, you have undoubtedly come across that quote by Marshall McLuhan.
“Bless her heart” can mean “Isn’t she stupid” or it can mean “Isn’t she sweet”, depending if it is presented with the medium of sarcasm or the medium of genuine appreciation.
What does “The medium is the message” mean? Honestly, there are too many levels to the sentence to dig into in this particular post. An example of one aspect is the phrase “Bless her heart”. “Bless her heart” can mean “Isn’t she stupid” or it can mean “Isn’t she sweet”, depending if it is presented with the medium of sarcasm or the medium of genuine appreciation. The way in which a sentence is said is as important as the sentence itself.
This concept of the carrier(medium) of the information being as important as the information is often lost in the conversation of what effect technology has on us. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the information we are consuming on our devices is more important than the fact that we are consuming information from our devices at all.
While it might seem as though it is the same thing to let your kiddos look through your camera roll on your phone as it was for you to look through your mom’s family album on the coffee table, it is definitely not. I’m not qualified to get into the actual effects that devices have on our brains, but it’s pretty clear that they are mostly negative.
Something as innocuous as pictures in your photo app are presented with the flashy, short attention span glamour of our current technologies. While each picture could be the same as one in a physical photo album, they each present a myriad of decisions. Whether you want to or not, your brain needs to decide whether to pinch and zoom or to swipe left or right to next picture. Similarly, reading an Ebook with actual links in its text only serves to distract from the book’s message, rather than enhance it. There is simply too much information being presented for our brains to take it all in.
Does it really matter?
Maybe the new technologies of today are basically just newer, more fancy versions of the clock and written language. Although clocks and written language becoming ubiquitous were world changing, it’s impossible to say we are worse off with them. Again, I’m actually pro-technology…technologies are supposed to be world changing.
“pancake people… spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”
When I see the steady march of connected devices into every waking minute of our lives, I wonder if we are going to end up being a bunch of shallow thinking know-nothings within a few generations. Or, as playwright Richard Forman put it, “pancake people-spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”
Because we are so immersed in a culture of technology, it is easy to forget that we are barely even in stage 1 of a trial of how this will effect humanity. The ramifications of people sitting on their couches not saying a word to the person beside them, but rather communicating with whomever through a small box with a screen that they hold in their hand, are hard to project.
What is the Solution?
Recently, I had a conversation with somebody who did not have any internet-connected devices, and he was confronting the decision of whether or not he and his family wanted to begin to introduce the internet into their lives. He asked me if I had the choice, would I reintroduce the internet into my life or not. The question was harder for me to answer than I would have guessed.
If you could choose to just eliminate the pressures and time drain and change that our devices represent, would you be willing to drop the benefits that they also afford? I finally concluded that my answer wasn’t total abstinence. The world is far too invested in the new age of devices to turn back the clock, even if we wanted to.
There is almost no doubt that if we try to completely avoid the new wave of technologies, our children or children’s children will need to confront them anyway. In my mind, a better solution is to realize that this new wave is world changing, and we need to confront and accept it as a powerful tool. What does that look like? To me, it looks like not only realizing that it is here to stay, but also making a conscious effort to create boundaries in our lives.
Practical Application.
Never let your child use a connected device that you don’t understand.
“I have no clue what that thing can do” is opening the door for real heartache. If you don’t have a good idea what your child’s device is capable of, find out or eliminate it.
There are endless trapdoors for your children to fall into with almost every single connected device.
There are endless trapdoors for your children to fall into with almost every single connected device. Start with the premise that any connected device is not innocent. There are tragic stories of young children being lured into trafficking by “users” on their connected gaming consoles. Either figure out a way to identify and eliminate the traps, or eliminate the device. The risk/reward isn’t too hard to figure out when you take a few steps back and consider the emotion, physical, and mental damage that can take place in the dark corners of the internet. This doesn’t mean that the internet or all connected devices are all bad, just that they aren’t all innocent entertainment or productive devices.
As I have increasingly noticed the creep of technology into the world around my, I have especially noticed how omnipresent phones have become. Phones can transform a family from playing board games several evenings a week to spending every evening sitting around scrolling through Instagram in three years.
Create real, practical guidelines.
We have a standard of no devices after 7:30 every evening. If we need to use our device after 7:30, we need to ask the other spouse for permission to use it. That sounds a little crazy written down, but the goal is to create a barrier to devices just creeping into our living room and taking over every evening. Turns out, it’s hard to sit around on your device before 7:30 when you have a few toddlers.
A few easy places to start:
No phones at the table. No phones in the bedroom (no excuses about the alarm clock, you can literally have one on the way in 2 minutes with this link. https://amzn.to/3qxmavZ No excuses about emergency calls either… set your phone just outside your room or maybe just inside the room). No phones in the living room. No phones are short local car rides. We’ve even considered having a basket just inside the door that our phones can live in while we are at home but we haven’t made that leap yet.
The objective of these guidelines is to create an awareness in your life of the creep of phones into you and your family’s life. Try them for a week or a month. I’ve been amazed how difficult it can be to uphold even one of these rules and honestly we are still working toward finding the right lines and upholding ones that we know are good ideas. The whole internet world is spending billions of dollars to figure out how to get you to live in their world, and they are pretty good at it. The odds are, if you don’t create hard boundaries in your life, you or your children will almost certainly end up living in their metaverse… their online world in which you live most of your life’s waking hours.
Again, I’m not anti-technology, I just happen to believe that the real world is a better place to live in the long run than any curated Metaverse. Decide what you want your home’s device usage to look like and make it happen. For the past decade or two, we have been slowly overtaken by our connected devices, and that’s definitely not going to stop unless we decide to make it.
If you are interested in a more in-depth read on this, check out this book: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. by Nicholas Carr. https://amzn.to/3qB23wG. I found it to be readable but also the author also took time to dive into important details and concepts.
DIY Wooden Play Gym for Baby
I’m very much the type of person that hates spending a large sum of money on something that looks like we could make it ourselves. Sometimes that really doesn’t work out for the best and we end up buying it in the end anyway. But we made this play gym for Kate and although it’s not as fancy as some of the really expensive ones, she loves it and I’m happy with it. Here’s how we did it…
Here are the supplies I bought.
1 piece of wood, 1/2” x 8’ and got Justin to cut down down to 4 24” pieces and cut the ends at a 20 degree angle.. that step is optional but I love that it sits flat on the floor.
1 2’ dowel rod
2 3/4 washers + screws (my screws were 2” long)
Wooden beads + rings from Hobby Lobby
I ended up buying some silicone beads/toys that I was intending to make but I couldn’t find the silicone toys and beads at a reasonable price so I just bought it assembled at Ole Tyme Pantry.
You will also need a drill to predrill the holes.
I used a gray paint (the color I used was some leftover Dolphin gray paint that I found in my Mom’s garage) and painted about 8” up, using masking tape to get a good line.
You will need to pre-drill the legs at the top and both ends of the dowel rod then take the screws and assemble it. Don’t forget to hang the toys on the rod before securing both ends. After you’ve assembled the top part you’re ready for the next and final step…
Drill a hole just big enough to get your string though, attach a bead and make a knot to secure it. You’ll do this on the outside of the outside leg, and the inside of the inside leg to make so you can still fold it. This step brings so much security to this thing. I also made this hole just a little above the paint line as you can see above. You can put it anywhere you’d like.
Kate loves playing here. She spends probably close to hours every single day sitting here and playing with her toys. These silicone toys came from Ole Tyme Pantry in Missouri. You can find them on Etsy or at Amish/Mennonite stores. The wooden one I strung together using the beads I bought at Hobby Lobby but the rings at the bottom ended up breaking due to someone stepping on them. I just like the silicone ones so much better tho so I just got another one of those for the third one.
Good luck!
I used the instructions from Pinterest but I modified a bit here and there. If you need more detailed instructions check out that post here https://littlehouseonpurpose.com/diy-wooden-baby-gym/
Little Boys In The Desert...
any day spent with you is my
FAVORITE
day. So
TODAY
is my new favorite day.
-Winnie the Pooh
“With BOYS, you always know exactly where you stand...
right in the middle of a HURRICANE”
“FRIENDSHIP is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one.’ “
- C. S. Lewis
LITTLE BOYS…
miScHieF aNd giGgleS aNd a wHole BunCH oF wiGgleS
Phoenix, AZ
“ Because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in... They hoped that somehow they could reach PHOENIX... and spend the winter there.
Acts 27:12 (NET)”
This year we decided to take a winter vacation to Phoenix. We have taken winter vacations to Georgia and South Carolina the last several years, and since we are “ocean” people always thought that we would probably make that our regular spot to go when we wanted to escape the cold of an Ohio winter. Arizona, however, surprised us with how first rate of a vacation spot it is. First off, the weather is unbeatable. In a southern state, if it’s warm, it’s muggy. In Phoenix, the warmth is super pleasant. Our typical morning temps were in the 40s, and generally they would peak out in the mid 60s to upper 70s. Every morning and evening the air is as clear as a midwestern spring or fall morning.
“Generally, We are not fans of “screen time” for our kiddos, but that proved to be an indispensable tool for getting Jackson to be ok with a mask.”
About a week before departure, we came to the sudden realization that Jackson was old enough that wearing a mask would likely be mandatory. We came close to a panic when we saw news stories of families being kicked off of airlines for “unmasked” 2 and 3 year olds. Stories of small kids with sensory disabilities that make mask wearing impossible, kids that have a lot more reason to be allowed not to wear masks than a kid who’s only defense is stubbornness. He ended up wearing it for some of the time but the flight crew was pretty understanding.
Jack was enamored enough with the ‘thrill of the flight’ that he did really well on the airplane.
The weather made walks with the kids so much fun.
So much sunshine!!
Phoenix is about 2-3 hours north of the Mexican border, so we decided to hop the border and get some dental work done while we were in the area.
“If you have kids and you love travel, get yourself a collapsible wagon!!”
Proper lemon trees right next to the house.
We took a trip up Apache Trail to take a ride on the Dolly Steamboat Tour. This was a definite highlight of the trip. Next time we get a chance to go, we plan to think ahead and book a twilight tour. If you are lucky, you can see bighorn sheep, and eagles, and multiple other species of wildlife.
Jackson had so much fun with his cousin Keagan!
There is a reason everyone that gets Dutch Bros Coffee takes a picture like this... Their drinks are fantastic! They have the customer service of Chick-fil-A with the taste of a small coffee shop.
The Phoenix Park n’ Swap (flea market) it a pretty interesting stop. Jackson loved his little toy gun.
So much good food!
On our final evening in Arizona, we drove to the Salt River area to see if we could see the local population of wild horses. Unfortunately we only saw tracks and heard them in the distance, but the area held some of the most breathtaking scenery we have ever encountered.
We had to get a impromptu family picture with a cactus.
Heading home…
Photo of the Day
This transformation photo of the day comes to you from the Corvin Castle of Hunedoara, Romania.
Being a photographer tourist at a beautiful place like this can be pretty frustrating. Most times there are lot of people in the way of your ideal shot and often the hours that you can even go see the place are during the middle of the day. This almost always means that unless you get lucky with some crazy good lighting and that you happen to get just the right angle of the building on your first trip, your photo will probably only be about 60% as good as it could be.
Take for example this shot. I had already taken quite a few pictures at different angles and had settled on this angle as a pretty good one. The lighting, however, is not pretty good. The sun was beaming full force and the sky is less than ideal. On top of that, there are a bunch of people in my shot… but this shot is about the best I had. Enter Photoshop. A lot of people consider “photoshopping” a picture to be cheating, and they might be right. Photoshop is a whole other art form though, and it’s a lot of fun to see how far I can take a picture. First, the lighting on the castle needed to be improved. That is a pretty basic process and it helped, but didn’t solve the problem of the washed out sky.
I started looking through my photos from the trip and found this beautiful pre-sunset sky from another location in Romania. The process of switching out a sky is a little tedious but not too technical, but removing the people was a little more difficult. The Orthodox lady happened to be walking in at that exact moment, and somehow it seemed fitting to leave her in the picture. That little bit of luck brings a whole new dimension to the photo.
In the end, I probably spent around 2-3 hours in photoshop, and I was pretty happy with the photo. It’s not 100% perfect, but a photo almost never is. That, though, is the reason we keep going out there over and over.
Our Honeymoon in Punta Cana
Before Anita and I got married in September of 2016 we decided that we would like to spend our honeymoon on a beautiful beach somewhere in another country. We briefly considered some of the classics such as Mexico and Jamaica. We settled on Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, not necessarily because it was a much better option than the others, we just liked the location and decided to settle on it.
We knew from the beginning that we wanted to go to an all-inclusive resort on the beach. The idea of just sitting back and enjoying vacation without worrying about paying for meals and drinks sounded amazing. I’ve heard that if you run the numbers it’s considerably cheaper to just book your own tickets and rent a place and buy your own food, but we weren’t really looking to cut a lot of costs on this trip. However, it was more affordable to spend 10 days than I anticipated. Our total at that time was around $2800, which included food and transportation. We did end up doing a few extras (parasailing, snorkeling, etc.) that brought our total closer to $3500. Honestly the same experience in the United States would probably have been most of double that.
We booked through a travel agency, but they basically just booked us through applevacations.com. Honestly, if I had it over to do, I would just book straight through applevacations.com. Their search system is pretty good and when you are booked they take care of you from end to end, including transportation to and from the airport. In the end, we settled on Bavaro Princess Hotel All Inclusive Resor, and never for a moment regretted our decision. The resort has since been remodeled but it was already an incredibly beautiful place. The staff of Dominican Republican natives were some of the friendliest people I have ever met. A lot of them could barely speak English, but they knew just enough to be able to understand what you needed when you had a request. Their smiles and hand gestures were always sufficient to make up for the language they didn’t understand.
Pretty much every day, we would get at least one Pina Colada. Believe me when I say they taste several levels better than anything of the sort you can buy in the U.S. The resort had nine restaurants and several “drink” stations on the grounds. There is something extra fun about walking into a nice restaurant, being served by friendly people, and then standing up and walking out without worrying about the bill.
On average, the dining was pretty nice, by our standards at least. With the exception of one or two of the restaurants that were breakfast or lunch buffets, it was mostly cloth napkins and dress codes. The variety was pretty good, but by the end of ten days I was ready for non-restaurant food.
They loved making fancy desert plates that, on average, looked a lot better than they tasted.
The crepe station, on the other hand, had food that tasted even better than it looked. Our favorite was filled with Nutella and covered in raspberry sauce.
We also decided to go parasailing and didn’t regret that decision for one minute…
Actually, when this guy showed up to take us out to the parasailing boat we did wonder whether or not we should regret our decision. Apparently, the mask is more to keep out the sun than to hide his identity but somehow it’s still pretty unsettling.
Our view of the courtyard from our balcony.
We also decided to go on an outing with Reef Explorer. Basically you get taken 10ish minutes out into the ocean to a small manmade island. They have several options to try out there, snorkeling, paddle boarding, ocean kayaking, and that sort of thing. They also had and stingray and vegetarian (at least that’s what they said they were) sharks that we swam with.
They even included a short massage while we were out there!
A baby-faced, young, and happy version of us, leaving our honeymoon and heading back to the real world.
Our Trip Around (a small part of) The World.
Two years ago, we decided to take the advice we had so often heard from people with more experience then us. Travel before you have kids, they said… so we did. We chose the DIY path rather than going with a travel agency, and with that experience, learned some lessons the hard way. Hopefully this post can inspire you to take your own DIY globetrotting expedition without making the mistakes or wrong assumptions that we did.
The premise of our trip was to have 2 main stops (Romania & Kenya) and catch as many 1-3 day stops as possible between those destinations. Our itinerary looked something like this:
Take off from Chicago
layover overnight in Boston (thanks to delayed flight)
Layover in Reykjavik, Iceland (also thanks to the original delayed flight)
1.5 days Dublin, Ireland (originally 2 days but aforementioned flight delay changed that)
layover in London
7 days Romania
layover in Milan, Italy
layover in Barcelona, Spain
layover in Dubai, Saudi Arabia
7 days Kenya, Africa
Touchdown in Chad, Africa (on the way to Morocco)
layover Morocco, Africa
3 days Paris, France
1 day Reykjavik, Iceland
Back in Chicago!! (a bit over 3 weeks later)
As I mentioned earlier, we decided to book the trip without the help of a travel company, because we felt confident in our travel-navigation skills. We have both traveled internationally a few times and Anita has lived in Romania as a missionary with her family for several years. More than feeling competent enough, we wanted the adventure (and budget) of “figure it out as you go” travel.
Our booking started with deciding on our main locations that we for sure wanted to hit (Ireland, Romania, Kenya, & Paris), and then seeing where the normal layovers took us to make sure we didn’t want to spend more time in those places as well.
Once we finalized our destinations and dates, the price checking began. Almost without fail, I checked our prices at least daily for about 2 months. The prices were consistently a few hundred dollars cheaper on Tuesday or Wednesday than they were on Sunday. Apparently there are studies that back up my observations… according to Farecompare.com “In the U.S., Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are usually cheapest. For international travel, weekdays are usually cheaper than weekends. Expensive days: Fridays and Sundays usually cost more, especially in the U.S.” In the end we spent around $1100 per person for our round trip airfare.
Our first stop, Ireland, was a destination that we had both dreamed of visiting for quite some time. It didn’t disappoint, but because we had delayed flights we had only a little less than 2 days to enjoy it.
Our Air B&B castle. Actually we slept in the “granary”… which is the building on the right.
After landing, we had the afternoon to find the castle where we were to spend the night (I’m not kidding), and go to find some supper. Eventually we found an inn overlooking the Irish Sea, and people with thick Irish accents served us dishes such as fish and chips. It felt like something out of an old novel.
The Irish Sea.
We spent the next morning in Dunmore East, enjoying the breathtaking greenness and foggy beauty of coastal Ireland. The rest of the day was spent walking around Dublin, seeing the sights, going on trolly tours, and looking quite like tourists.
Dunmore East
After our short stint in Ireland we packed our bags and boarded a plane to Romania. We had a few hour layover in London, and for a bit we debated trying to grab a taxi and make a dash past the Buckingham palace. In the end, we decided the risk of missing our flight was too high and opted to spend our time braving the crowded airport.
Romania was on our destination list because Anita had spent several years there as a missionary with her family when she was a teenager. Our basic objective was to spend some time in the village where her family had lived and she had so many memories in.
Fun Fact: Anita is tri-lingual. In addition to English, she speaks both Pennsylvania Dutch and Romanian fluently.
The Village where Anita spent several years as a teenager.
My first impression of Romania was less than ideal, to say the least. We thought we had a rental car booked for our 1.5hr drive to the village. Apparently however, the booking systems did not know that every one of this particular airport’s rental companies had shut down for the night… several hours before we got there. In the end, we spent the night at a sketchy motel nearby and then waited for well over an hour past “opening time” at the door of our rental car company. Then we spent another hour waiting for our car to show up… Good times.
With the not-ideal start behind us, we headed off into a surprisingly beautiful Romania. Our week or so in Romania was pretty relaxed overall. We spent some time visiting old acquaintances of Anita’s and she took me on a walking tour of the village, complete with stories about the “old days”. We also were able to do some “touresting” in Romania as well.
Corvin Castle (Hunedoara, Romania)
The Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, Romania was one of the most stunning displays of a bygone era that I have experienced. Construction on it began in 1446! There were small prisons for whomever the King decided to torture, but just around the corner would be majestic rooms lined with the classic knight armor and swords. It is mind blowing to walk through a place with nearly 600 years of history and try to image that people actually lived so luxuriously and brutally at the same time.
Romania was surprisingly beautiful, as a general rule. The landscape is quite a bit more mountainous than I had expected and there is a lot more “untouched” greenness (pastures, forests…etc.) than I expected to see. Thirty years ago, Romania was still a communist country. As a result, the culture is a unique mix of communist-style laws and corruption, offset by strong Western values and a desire for true freedom.
Feeding the Pigeons at Centru (the Center) Timisoara, Romania
The historical architecture of Romania’s larger cities is also stunning. As someone used to “old architecture” by American standards, I was blown away by just how much older and, on average, more beautiful the European architecture was.
Orthodox Cathedral (Timisoara, Romania)
Orthodox Cathedral (Timisoara, Romania)
After our stay in Romania, we were off to Kenya, Africa! I had been to Kenya with some of my buddies before we were married, and I was excited to show Nita one of my favorite countries.
First, we had an insane day or two (the days get confusing when you are constantly changing time zones) of travel. Originally our flight schedule was relatively reasonable, but for some reason one of the flights was cancelled several weeks before our trip. To get us to Africa in decent time, the booking agency had to cobble together a few small flights to make up for the cancelled flight. We ended up flying into Italy, Spain, and Saudi Arabia. While we didn't get to “experience” those countries, we did get an interesting glimpse from our airplanes at the landscape. The people working in the airports also gave us a glimpse of the cultures and lifestyles of those countries. With the exception of a $130 fee because the people in Dubai singled us out and weighed our overweight carry-on bag, that stint of the trip went quite smoothly.
Dubai from the sky.
In Kenya, we visited my cousin for a few days at the mission where she was working and during that time we got to do a little shopping in their crazy marketplaces and experienced their unreal driving conditions. Rush hour in Africa makes even the craziest American traffic look like a Sunday snooze.
This is either a fun way to ride around, or it’s a tin can of suicide on wheels, depends who you ask.
Everything in Africa feels just a bit more dangerous. If you enjoy constantly feeling in control and safe, it’s definitely not the place for you. If, however, you like adventure; Africa is a wonderful country! The people of Africa, especially the children, have a way of crawling into your heart. Their winning smiles and over the top joy in the simplest things (like having their photo taken) is contagious.
The event we were all looking forward to was our safari trip to the Masai Mara. I had been on a self-guided Mara trip with some of my friends on my first visit to Africa, and I was beyond excited to be going back. This trip, however, we went with Fairmont Mara Safari Club, a lodge complete with professional guides and luxury tents.
The main lodge
The Mara is pretty much every photographer’s dream. It feels like you are living in a National Geographic documentary…
In two safari trips, this is the only mature male lion I have seen.
Our guide pulled right up to this lonely old Cape buffalo, and turned off the Rover. He then proceeded to inform us that lonely old Cape buffalo are the most dangerous kind… Thanks a lot, Buster. Apparently they tend to become frustrated with life when younger bulls overthrow them and kick them out of the herd, and become more aggressive.
Zebras and Wildabeast by the thousands
Fastest mammal on earth.
Impala
The rovers they use to take you around the Mara have a personality of their own. The ditches, and gulleys, and small rivers these vehicles get you through are mind-blowing.
As our time in Kenya came to a close we once again packed our bags and got ready to travel. This time we were headed for Paris! But first, we had to brave the Moroccan airline, Royal Air Maroc. We are no strangers to not-great airlines, but this particular airline was on a planet of its own. The first red flag was the lady behind the check-in counter hand-writing tickets… no joke. I’m no genius, but that didn’t seem like a good thing. Next red flag was our flight attendant asking to see our (handwritten) boarding pass which she cross referenced with a spreadsheet she was carrying around. Mental red flags 3-6 were raised when she came back through and cross checked our (handwritten) boarding passes with her paper FOUR MORE TIMES! At this point we were wondering what our odds of survival were. Thankfully, the plane wasn’t super full so we had plenty of breathing room… if only we knew. Either I didn’t notice when we booked, or they “neglected” to let us know, but at some point a passenger pick up stop was added to the flight. We were about three hours into our six hour flight when the plane began it’s descent into the desert of Chad, Africa. When we taxied a stop in the tiny run-down airport, a second boarding process began. This time, there was no extra breathing room. The flight attendant stood sternly in the aisle and ushered the new passengers into the seats, front to back. Later in the flight, when we went to the back of the plane for a bathroom break, we discovered why she had ushered us in so tightly. The back six rows were completely empty so that each flight attendant could have a set of three seats to themselves. Maybe that is what being employee-centric looks like. In the end, our six hour flight took around nine hours, but we survived.
Paris was on on our destination list because it always seemed like a fun place to visit. The city has an unusually strong aesthetic appeal. I don’t who was responsible for marketing Paris as a dream destination, but they did a fantastic job. I’m still not sure if it truly is an extra special city, with an unusual romance and charm, or if that is just a perception that movies and marketing have convinced us of. Either way, it truly is a beautiful place. We had three days to explore Paris, so we got started. We visited the Eiffel Tower, first thing of course, took the riverboat cruise, visited the Notre Dame Cathedral, and ate a lot of crepes.
We also were fortunate enough to be able to tour the Notre Dame Cathedral... that of course felt more significant when if was partially consumed by fire earlier this year.
Notre Dame
The worst thing about Paris is the traffic… by far. Unsurprisingly, the main attractions are super crowded. However, if you can see past the masses, the architecture is stunning
Classic Paris shot… Beautiful architecture in the Notre Dame, photobombed by a tourist taking selfies.
Fun fact: It is illegal for me to post my favorite picture of the Eiffel Tower. It’s legal to take pictures of the Tower during the daytime and post them, because the Tower itself is considered public domain. The artist who did the lighting of the Tower, however, still owns the copyright to the lighting of the Tower. Basically any pictures after dark of the Tower are illegal to post unless you get copyright permission.
Paris is filled with little shops serving both pastries and crepes. It also adds to the fun to get these foods in the non-touristy areas, where the super friendly shop owners don’t speak any English. It quickly turns into a point and wave and nod conversation, but that’s half the charm.
In the end, we thoroughly enjoyed Paris. However, if we had the opportunity to spend three days in France again, we would definitely take at least half a day to go out and see the French countryside outside of Paris. For some reason, that option never crossed our minds until it was too late.
After our short stop in Paris came to an end, we once again packed our bags and headed to the airport. This time, we were going to our last stop, Iceland.
Iceland is without doubt the most beautiful place I have been to. Unfortunately, we had only one day to enjoy it. The Viking folklore and the rugged and beautiful terrain make this island incredibly intriguing. We basically spent our time driving from one beautiful location to the next, doing our best to cover as much of the island as possible.
This random stone on the cold beach has a small hot pool of water. It is uncanny to reach into a “puddle” on a cold day and feel water that’s almost too warm to keep your hand in.
Aurora borealis
On the final night of our trip, we left the airb&b around midnight and headed out to see the northern lights. This has always been on my photographer bucket list. Unfortunately, the northern lights that night were pretty much on the bottom end of what Iceland is capable of displaying, but for this Midwesterner, they were stunning. The lights were a perfect ending to an exhaustingly wonderful trip.
Final Tips
Enjoy the Culture You are Visiting.
It’s easy to get caught up in the “annoying” parts of being in a different country. For example, the service that you get in an African restaurant tends to be awful compared to American restaurants. That can be really annoying, or you can decide to just enjoy a slower culture.
Budget Airlines aren’t a Great Deal if You Have a Month’s Worth of Luggage.
We didn’t really intend to book budget airlines but that’s what we ended up with. They are great deals if you only want to take a short flight from location A to B. If you are going on a month’s journey however, the fees that they charge for even one check-in pretty much eliminate your savings. Plus, they often don’t offer even water as a complementary beverage.
NEVER Fly with Royal Air Maroc. Never.
Ok, if someone pointed a gun at your head and told you to get on a Royal Air Maroc flight, I would probably encourage you to go ahead and board the plane. But that’s about the only situation in which I would recommend it.
Ireland is as Dreamy, Green, Beautiful and Rainy as Any Place Could Be.
Romania is Surprisingly Beautiful.
Kenya is an Exciting Country Full of Adventure.
The Masai Mara is Unbelievably Fantastic.
Paris is a Beautiful City, but it’s a Little Bit Overrated.
Iceland is Quite Possible the Most Beautiful Country on Earth.
Enjoy Your Trip the Way that You Like to Enjoy Traveling.
See all the sights if you can’t stand to waste a minute, just relax if you are more into that, take a ton of photos if you love photography, leave your camera at home and just get the basics with your phone if taking pictures distracts you from your trip. Whatever you do, enjoy your trip. You’ll never regret that.