AZ #4

I was going to post yesterday but since we drove through the night and I didn't get home till 7:30am, yesterday was pretty much as wash. So I thought I would about the last couple days and then blog about today tomorrow. Ca va?

Our last day in Tucson we decided to go on a mini hike up the little mountain (I believe it is called Mount Lemon, but I could just be making that up.) We saw the city from that vantage point, we saw succulents, creeks, dung beetles, trees and ants battling it out. Beautiful would be an understatement. We also went out to eat at a local burger place, and had a game night on campus.

I'm posting these pictures from my new computer and I don't have any editing programs on here yet so they will be single pictures sans words or putting two together or a grid or circles or whatnot. Pure unadulterated photography. 

Last Tucson lunch

Amazing burger

View of the city

The creek

These cacti are so large I could hollow it and live in it

I love the contrast between the delicate flower and rough thorns

Last view across the street from our house

I got to watch this little lady while in AZ

Last view of campus

Arizona #3

Today I was on campus promoting the evening service by handing out Otter Pops and flyers. I ate the most amazing fish taco at a local Mexican restaurant with the gang.

Taken with my phone...not the best picture but it gives you an idea of what it looked like.

We had an outstanding service this evening and followed that up with hangout time in this little square called the University Park. Since I didn't really get a lot of pictures of the promoting and Mexican food eating, I made sure I got some shots of the park at the end. Though most of them were a little too shaky (its dark and I used my knee as a tripod) to share.

Tonight was a cooler yet humid evening, which was quite the break from the past couple days where the temperature has been in the triple digits. There was a small fountain in the center and restaurants surrounding on all sides. One of the restaurants is a Mediterranean restaurant and were playing Arabic pop music, which is my personal fave. 

Today was a good day and tonight was a good night. 

Arizona #2

Last night when we got it in it was pitch black darkness and we weren't really able to see what the layout was around us. So it was quite the shock this morning when I opened the front door to this scene.

Today was hot. When I say hot I mean really hot. As in I needed to do several coats of sunblock, I was branded by the seat belt in the car when I got in, it looked like I was in a wet-tee-shirt-contest-gone-wrong and I could have wrung out my tee shirt by the end of the afternoon.

You can't really tell but we are melting in this picture. haha

Due to the extreme heat they planned our ultimate frisbee game for the evening, after the sun goes down. It just so happened that there was also a wonderful thunderstorm that accompanied the night. It cooled everything down and created mini lakes everywhere.

I didn't play frisbee, I just cheered from the sidelines, chatted it up with some of my new friends and played with Faith, the director's daughter. 

Well I have a big day ahead of me, I better focus on going to bed now.

Arizona #1

Started our roadtrip off right with donuts from Miss Donuts.

Our journey from Los Angeles to Tucson began at 11:30 this morning. There are five of us in total, and we are going to Tucson to help promote Chi Alpha on the campus of A of U for the week.

It is quite honestly a very beautiful drive, hot but beautiful.

There was no altering to the color of any of these photos. Beautiful.

We made a couple stops on the way. One at a gas station that had pretty slim "pickin's" and the other at a rather robust gas station full of attractions. For example the claw game with more incentives than just the usual plush animal.

We also stopped for dinner at a place called Long Wong's, where they sell hot-wings and rice dishes. It was a gamble and definitely an experience.

This is their awesome table cloth up close. Love it.

When we got back on the road we drove through something that is referred to as a "haboob" (ok, take a moment and get all the inappropriate chuckles out), a haboob (again allow time for more chuckles) is defined as a violent thick dust and/or sand storm. What was strange was that while the sandstorm was going on it was also raining (perhaps this is normal, but I've never experienced a legit sandstorm like this before). We could hardly see what was ahead and actually pulled over for a moment. 

These pictures do not do justice to what it actually looked like.