I come to you from beneath my blankets, crawling out over a mountain of used tissues (I have a disgusting cold) and wearing a sleeping eye mask over one eye because it is sensitive to the light after my second iris iridotomy.

Both procedures went well, praise the Lord, minus the fact that my right eye took way longer than necessary because of how dark and thick my irises are!

I’ve been slacking on my road trip posts so let’s get to it (said in the narrator voice from Jane The Virgin).

Arizona was hot. Actually, hot is an understatement. It was beautiful, covered in sky-high cacti and the brightest and clearest of skies, but also hot enough to consider being charged with public nudity.

And true, most of my Snapchat posts in Arizona were mostly me with the bee filter, screaming about how much I was sweating. I carried a water bottle around so often that I began to believe it was a part of my body.

But it was gorgeous and I loved it.

We arrived in Tucson and headed straight to Mission San Xavier Del Bac despite our hungry stomachs begging for nourishment. The mission was founded in 1692 and construction on the church began in 1783-1797. It is the oldest European structure in Arizona and it is open to the public.

 

Once our stomachs began obnoxiously demanding food and interrupting our thought process, we grabbed a quick lunch at Street Taco & Beer Co., which could only be described as Chipotle with a bar — making it better than Chipotle, for obvious reasons.

We then made our way to the Tucson Botanical Gardens, a tranquil oasis, promoting the appropriate way to grow plants in a desert environment (and I apologize in advance but I love strolling through botanical gardens and there’s at least two more that I’ll share with you in later blog posts, so bear with me).

I made a beeline for the Cactus and Succulent garden and was a bit disappointed at the lack of succulents. I actually walked further out, trying to find said succulents, only to see a few peeking out behind the cacti in the garden I had just been in. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the visit and headed to our next stop.

My sister Cristina texted me earlier that day with some recommendations from when she was in Tucson last and one of her favorite places was Sabino Canyon with its cool pools and refreshing cascades. And since we were on the verge of becoming human puddles of sweat, we welcomed the suggestion.

Guests have the option of riding a tram to different stops along the trail, but it was almost the end of the day, so we decided to walk. We read an information board with all the scary animals we could possibly encounter (mountain lions, what?!) and began our trek…

…which we quickly began to regret once the temperatures hit 115 degrees. God, was it hot. We kept going until we realized that there were no pools or creeks awaiting us at the end. It was so hot it had all EVAPORATED!

Wheezing and panting, we made our way back to the car and, hold on, hold on. I need to give a shout-out to Jeep for the greatest gift it could ever give me in this hot, hot heat: the Remote Start feature. We were able to start the car from the other side of the parking lot and enter a car that was not A THOUSAND DEGREES HOTTER THAN THE SURFACE OF THE SUN. I love you, Jeep!

We set our sights on Phoenix and continued our trip out west. Until next time!

Have you ever visited Tucson? Is there anything that we missed?

xx