Arizona {Day 1} - Scottsdale

I had a 4-day work trip to Scottsdale back in September that gave us the great excuse to make a vacation out of it on the front end. Mom, Dad, Ted, and I flew out early Saturday morning and had 4 1/2 days before my meeting started Wednesday night to explore and enjoy as much of Arizona as we could. Of course, we only saw a fraction of it, but we still covered a lot of ground in half a week's time. With the amount of pictures I take, it's probably good that we didn't have more days to see the sights. 

 

As soon as we arrived, I knew I was going to love Arizona. It was hot, dry, and the sky was clear. The temps actually cooled throughout the rest of the week but I was thrilled to see 100 degrees just after we landed.

Clouds were rare in Scottsdale. This picture about sums up the type of clouds we saw the entire time. Hard to believe when we haven't seen a break in the clouds here at home for almost a week. This trip really came at the perfect time because I was just starting to get sad about saying goodbye to summer when I got to experience it for a bit longer. Even though I do appreciate our seasons and the changing of them, Arizona's climate was quite appealing.

It may be dry and covered in desert but Scottsdale did have some nice greenery.

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived right around lunch time so we unpacked our suitcases in the parking lot enough to find our bathing suits and then quickly found some chairs at the pool. 

Life is rough on vacation. Dad found a cabana by the pool that had a tv playing college football games and that's where he camped out for the afternoon. The other three of us soaked up some sun in the pool.

View of the mountains from our pool

The lure of the shade and football finally won Ted over, too.

The Newtons had never experienced it and we wanted a quick and easy dinner on our first night so In-N-Out it was.

Beautiful sunset with the mountains all lit up. The clouds stayed on the other side of these mountains and didn't usually come over to our side. 

Waking up in the 3-4:00 AM range that morning made for an early bedtime that evening. Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings so they were 3 hours behind. I think we may have made it until 8:00 PM before crashing. We needed good rest because the next day was going to be full of activities and traveling.

Charlottesville

What's better than a fall-ish September weekend in Charlottesville for a game and fun with friends? Not much! My good friend and housemate from college, Christine, and her husband, Lanny, invited Ted & me to join them for the UVA vs. Oregon game. That became a great reason to make a whole weekend of it in a town that I love where a lot of my favorite people live. And I got to see a lot of them, too!

We grabbed lunch on the corner and headed to the lawn to enjoy the beautiful day, people watching, and catch up time with friends. Even though Katy and David weren't going to the game, they joined us for the afternoon on the lawn. 

Lanny & Christine...cheering for opposing teams!

Ted, a die-hard Hokie fan, missed his own first home game to help cheer on my team. Truth be told, I think he was rooting more for the Ducks but that didn't really matter because I was just glad to have him join me for a game at my school.

Ted wore gray to be more "neutral" but he blended in more with the Oregon fans!

It was an absolutely beautiful and perfect day for a game and that made up for the fact that we were creamed by Oregon.

After the game, Ted and I ventured out to Afton to try Blue Mountain Brewery, which turned out to be a great dinner choice. It was totally worth the drive and a lovely evening to enjoy a meal outside in the mountains. To top it off, I had a delicious black bean burger on a moist gluten free bun. What a treat and highly recommended!

 

Ted and I stayed with Katy and David for the weekend. After church together on Sunday morning, we did our usual...grabbed lunch at Bellair Market and then drove out to Sugar Hollow for some swimming/hiking.

Since the last time we were there in our perfect lunch eating spot by the river, someone had made a circle of "chairs" and "tables" out of rocks. Now it's an even better lunch destination!

Brrr...the water was COLD but that did not stop them.

I had been to this great spot on multiple occasions but this was the first time that we had actually hiked to the waterfall.

Nap time

The kids spotted a snake near the waterfall that David verified was poisonous. That told us that it was time to go and make our way back down to the bottom.