Arizona Recap

This post is set to publish when I am on the airplane home from Arizona, hopefully arriving in Boston at any moment. If you missed any of my Arizona posts, I am going to list them below:

Plane, Arrival & 1st Night in Sedona
Full Day in Sedona
Grand Canyon & More Sedona
End of Sedona & Arrival in Phoenix
Full Day in Phoenix
Goodbye Arizona

Overall, it was a great trip. Eric and I had not been on a trip just the two of us in almost four years! It was so nice to only worry about the wants and needs of two people, we rarely had to compromise at all :) We are pretty compatible travelers.

Health-wise, this was a pretty successful trip for me as well. I squeezed in three strength training work outs, and two days of cardio (plus two hikes and a few days of general walking around all day). Not too bad! Also, my stomach held up on this trip better than it has on a trip since I've been diagnosed with IBS. I attribute this to the fact that I stuck with my work out schedule, ate oatmeal with apple every morning for breakfast in my hotel room, ate small lunches whenever possible (we had Subway like 4 times- I got a plain turkey sandwich all of those times haha) and managed to find the best possible food ever for dinner. When we were in San Fran it was a running joke how often my order was wrong, in Arizona I never ONCE got something I did not ask for on my plate. In fact, I very rarely had to ask for order accommodations because they did not seem to randomly spread butter and mayo all over their food like they did in San Fran. Thank you Arizona. Unfortunately for Eric, he got a bad cold the first night we got here and he never really shook it the whole trip. Luckily, he is a trooper and still participated in all of the adventures with me. I'll probably get this cold when we get home and refuse to move from the couch, haha.

Some Random Trip Notes:

1. Having my Blackberry (and GPS) on this trip was so great. We did not have a single bad meal and I attribute this to the fact that I was constantly googling restaurant reviews right before we went in. Plus, I still feel relatively caught up on blogs :)

2. Arizona has some interesting characteristics: the moon looks "upside down" (for us), they don't do daylight savings time so the sun does not rise until after 7 but it sets late- nice for a vacation but I don't think I would like being at work for over an hour in the dark, they have these interesting lights as you are getting on the highway- instead of merging like normal, a light will tell you when you are allowed to go and start merging, many many people here seem to be originally from somewhere else, Phoenix/Scottsdale loves multi-lane roads, and last but not least the food was amazing and the weather was beautiful.

3. Self serve frozen yogurt is my new obsession. How can this clearly AMAZING idea not have moved eastward and upward?

4. I'm really happy I have explored another area of the US. For some odd reason, I seem to have seen more of other countries (especially Ireland and Australia) than I have seen of my own. I love exploring a whole new culture, but I also think it's amazing to see how much difference there is from one part of the US to another. Eric would be so proud of me for this Patriotic comment. I swear I have Patriotic spirit, I am just capable of being critical as well- oh and sometimes I root for Australians in the Olympics haha, oops.

Have you ever been to a different part of your country and noticed something that was really different, where were you and what was it?

Okay, so like many others, I have taken up the fun game of Ask Anything. I'll be answering at least one question a day this week, so keep 'em coming!

When are you and Eric going to have kids?

My friend from work warned me that starting the day I get married this question is going to come up A LOT. Looks like you guys have started the trend early :) Here is the deal, both Eric and I are no where near ready to have kids. Since we both spend our days with children, we are well aware of how different our lives will be when we have little people to take care of 24 hours a day. Truthfully, Eric and I don't even want a dog because we like to be able to pick up and go where we want, when we want. We value our sleep, alone time and relaxation time- all things that we envision disappearing with a new addition to the family. We do want to have kids eventually, but we are just hoping at some point we are ready. I tell myself that five years ago I was no where near ready to get married and now I am 100 percent ready...so hopefully in 5 years or so I'll feel the same way about kids. Although, about a month ago when some kid was making us crazy, Eric and I had a full on conversation about how we could save all the money we would be spending on a kid and buy ourselves a yacht instead of having kids. This is a total joke since I get sick on most boats and also we will still both be teachers (and therefore a yacht is probably not ever happening), but now whenever kids are making us crazy we always say, "have yachts, not kids." haha. I swear I'll be ready someday...

When you do want to have kids? How many do you want to have? If you have kids already, how did you know you were "ready"?