Although Montana is beautiful in the winter, we felt like it would be fun to enjoy some warmer weather. So we bought a couple of airline tickets to Arizona, and headed down for the week.
I snapped a selfie to make my friends jealous:
Although the weather was definitely warmer than Montana, the mercury barely touched 60. I’d been expecting 70+ so that was a little disappointing, but when I saw people out shopping or in restaurants, bundled up in parkas (no kidding!) and sweaters, it made me smile. I was wearing short sleeves, of course, and enjoying the heat.
We managed to catch up with some friends we first met 25 years ago, and who we haven’t seen in a few years.
Dave and I went on a hike along the Lost Goldmine Trail outside of Mesa.
I asked him if there’s actually a gold mine out there. He wasn’t sure. Regardless, it was great to be back in the desert again (shoutout to the Canyonlands last fall) and this time it was peppered with saguaro, barrel cacti, and something called “jumping cholla”.
Those thorns are pretty impressive, and Dave says although they don’t actually jump off the plant, they’re really easy to detach so if you brush against them while walking or biking, you’ll be sorry later when you sit down.
Afterward we were thirsty (of course) so we made some fresh-squeezed orange juice. We went down the block to a house that was advertising free oranges (pick ’em yourself). Orange juice is my favorite drink already, and pouring a nice glass of it right after squeezing the fresh-picked fruit was amazing.
We paid a visit to the local temple, as well. There’s no “local” temple in Montana– the closest one is three hours away in another country.
It was a great trip, and I think we’re going to head back down in the fall. We’ll drive then, and make some stops along the way at places like Zion and the Grand Canyon. Until then, we’re back in the land of snow…