Notes

We were going on a trip to Arizona for a week, and we had the prepare. It was going to be an all time hot, and we needed all sorts of things like sunscreen and water. Our plan was to visit Sedona and the Grand Canyon. We took a detour and didn't end up doing much after, but we did get to see the Arizonian scenery , visit Goldfield, and the attraction called "The Hole in the Rock". I got to see many different kinds of views, and experience an environment that was different from my own in terms of weather, habits, and surrounding. We lived with my aunt, and her son, my cousin, sometimes visited

The flight there we were wearing short sleeves, and it was extremely cold on the plane, and there was nothing we could do since we knew that Arizona was going to be very hot. Stepping off the plane, the dry heat immediately hit us, and you could feel it. Arizona is an interesting place, it sort of reminds me of dry and arid Georgia. They had cacti the size of massive oak trees, along with little to no trees. Their palm trees had no coconuts, and looked like pineapples on a stem.. The traffic lights weren't on thin poles and hanging, but instead imbedded into very solid metal. The name of the roads weren't tiny hanging signs either, but instead in big bold words that could allow anyone to read it clearly. Everyone there also followed whatever road. Arizona is a desert, so there weren't trees by the sides of the roads where they normally would be expected to be. The walls were stone with engravings and designs that yelled desert. If the nature on the sides weren't large mounds of dirt and rock that normally would've been called a mountain, it was cacti. On the Uber ride from the airport to enterprise, the car rental place, the driver talked about this public school that his daughter went to where you learned either Spanish or Chinese from the beginning of elementary school, and sometimes even taught math in these languages. The driver emphasized on how they imported their Chinese teacher from China

It was a long drive to Sedona. It was recommended not to go on a hike due to how hot it was. We drove along, following the map to the marked attractions. One thing we did have our eyes set on that wasn't on the map, was the blue McDonald's. It's the only one in the world that is blue. The shade of blue is special too, called Tiffany Blue. The inside was nothing special. I had a spicy McChicken, and to my surprise, the ice cream machine was working. Naturally I would've gotten one, especially considering it was only a dollar. We went to visit different souvenir shops and even a church. We only went to one trail, called the Soldier's pass in hopes of seeing some sinkholes, but my health wasn't really up for it and we went back to the shuttle. It was guaranteed that all the housing we saw there were extremely expensive and over the roof into the millions. Each house had a special design, some modern, some with a rocky desert exterior that matched it's hot surroundings. The ideal goal is that one day I can buy a summer home here for my mother. We got a magnet that simply says Sedona. It really isn't the prettiest, but at least it gets the message through. Our hotel was located in Flagstaff, and it was nearly the most horrible hotel experience I've ever had. This is probably because the hotel was booked under my mother's name. Usually, the hotels would be booked under my father's name, who is a diamond member at Hilton. Since we didn't have his tier benefit, we probably got the shorter end of the stick. Unlike most hotel nights I've slept through, there wasn't free wifi nor free breakfast. The toiletries in the bathroom were little to none, and the shampoo bottles were stuck to the wall. In my humble opinion, the quality of the shampoo wasn't all that either. Since I had no wifi, I had to resort to watching the television. None of the cartoon channels that I would usually watch were working, but I did find Friends showing, and it was entertaining for the bits that I've watched.

The next day, we went to the Grand Canyon. It wasn't as hot as Sedona, and the view was definitely more breathtaking. There were far more shuttlebuses, and once again the hikes weren't recommended for how hot it was. All the shuttle buses were colored the same and the only way to tell them apart was to carefully read the display that told you which color of the road it was. That was a really dumb idea, can't they just paint the shuttle buses their designated trail color? We went on different shuttle buses to different points of view. The amount of people allowed on the shuttle buses were hand counted via a counter from someone who guarded the station to make sure everyone was in a line. The drivers and the person at the station would put an emphasis on staying hydrated, especially in this hot weather. We stopped by a shop to get ice cream, and I got to see my Twix ice cream bar again! Speaking of ice cream, my cousin bought me a lot after hearing that I was visiting. Every time I wanted one, my father would shamelessly ask for one too. How childish must you be to steal food from a kid? But back to the Grand Canyon, it was fun and really an eye opener. Though honestly, it was kinda underwhelming given the probably amazing and professional pictures that I've seen online, but it was still a nice experience. We also got a magnet here, better than the one in Sedona.

Arizona used to be part of the Gold Rush before the attention was shifted to California. Goldfield was the next place that we visited. It was a really hot day, and we couldn't bring ourselves to leave the shade. Most of the galleries and special places were closed, but the shops were open. The first one ew went into was the souvenir shop, where we saw a bunch of cute adorably useless things for totally unreasonably high prices. Inside the shop was also a small area that sold fudge, and it came in multiple common flavors, but with a few particularly special ones. This was the prickly pear and the Mexican chocolate. The Mexican chocolate was spicy along with a hint of cinnamon, and not to my liking. The prickly pear is a special local flavor there, it's sourced from the fruit that buds on a cacti. We decided to get a quarter pound of prickly pear flavored fudge. Another special thing about the fudge is that it doesn't melt, perfect to counter the Arizonian heat! After the chocolate was the drinks. We got two special ones again, as we are really adventurous eaters. I got the prickly pear frozen lemonade, and it almost melted halfway the moment i stepped out of the store. In my opinion it was too sweet for me, but it was bearable and i finished the drink. The other one was the prickly pear palmer, where it was prickly pear juice with green tea. The taste of the tea overrides the sweet, and is a little too light, but I would say it tasted better than my frozen lemonade.

We didn't do much after these trips besides staying home. We originally planned to go to Las Vegas, but ended up deciding against it. I ate a lot of good while I was on this trip. There was a Red Lobster near the hotel at flagstaff, and I had the best food I have ever had. It moved nearly to the point of tears, and what hurts the most is that there are no Red Lobsters in Boston and I will never be able to enjoy this delicacy ever again. The second memorable meal was the Clam Chowder that I was able to have for dinner. We even went on a special run to Trader Joes for this. I ate a lot of fruits too, such as mango, honey melon, lychee, cherries, and watermelon. During one of the meals, I'm pretty sure I saw a coyote pass by the backyard of the home. We even experienced the first sandstorm and thunderstorm with no rain.

We did visit this one place called Hole in the Rock, where it's literally a hole in the rock. It was quite a hike for such a small deal, considering we had to wrap around to the back of the rock and climb up the rock in hot dry heat. This spot is apparently a good spot for sunsets, but unfortunately we missed the best timing. It was also really hot, but we still did get some nice pictures.

We went home after a week, and I'm already forced to write stupid essays, but I must admit, it was actually a really nice experience for me, seeing the different views and checking out environment that is so different from what I'm used to. Everywhere was so hot, going indoors where there was air condition was simply heavenly. My shoes were basically dyed red from the sand and rock of everywhere I hiked, but it wasn't ugly. I hope I get to visit Arizona again, and make up for the views that I missed and didn't get to see. It was a major shame that we came during the summer where the temperature never went under 111 degrees., Maybe next time my breaks will be lucky and I can come during the winter to enjoy nice weather too.