I got discovered in Arizona!!

 This past week I made my first trip to Arizona with one of my good friends Callie.  Right when we got off of the plane I immediately had Callie take me to the prettiest site in Arizona... the Mesa Temple!!  No picture or no words could show or explain just how pretty it truly was.  The first picture is for you ST, wish you could have been there with me!!

The following day we went over to the Arizona State Dental Board to find out exactly what we needed to do for our license to transfer to Arizona and we probably should have done this at the end of our trip because it overwhelmed us.  Basically I am looking at about $3000 which includes license transfer, local and nitrous oxide re-licensing, jurisprudence exam and NERB evaluation.  When we walked outside even though it was probably the most beautiful day ever Arizona did not look as appealing as it did before we went in to the dental board.  I guess there is a price for everything, Arizona is worth it.

Later that day we decided to venture out on an hour drive east to go up the Apache Trail.  It is kind of nerve racking driving up the trail considering there are no guard rails and you could look out the window and see nothing but a drop off.  It got even worse when the road turned to one lane and people had to pass each other.  However, the view was completely worth it.  I got to finally see a cactus, not a Utah cactus that Esprit showed me in Utah but a real towering cactus.  I do not know why I am so obsessed with cactus because really they are kind of weird looking, prickly and definitely not the most glamorous plant but I just love them.  The view and the scenic drive up the trail was be-utiful.


We did a great deal of driving around looking at apartments, looking at different towns and pretty much narrowed it down to either Gilbert or Tempe.  I personally favor Gilbert the most, it is just so much greener than the other cities.  We drove up to Scottsdale and what a ritzy area, just there mall alone was big enough to probably fit two of our malls here in Ohio.  Of course all that was really at the mall are really expensive stores that I would never shop at but it was really neat to see along with downtown Scottsdale.  There were all these cute little stores, carriage rides, it was like I was looking for Sheriff Taylor to come walking down the street.  The best part of Scottsdale was trying cupcakes from Sprinkles.  This could be my new dessert fetish, their Lemon Coconut  cupcake made me want to get twenty more, completely delicious!!       

We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens which was probably one of my favorite things we did because they just had so many cool looking plants there like Octopus cacti, flowering cacti, and this glass covered plant which was the coolest.  I got to also see more cacti in one day then I have my whole life so far.    

We drove up to Sedona and spent the whole day up there, it was a great drive partly because we left 90 degree desert weather and traveled two hours north and entered into the forest with slight snow on the ground in Flagstaff.  Sedona though was perfect weather mid 80s.  Sedona was not what I pictured it to be, I did not realize there was a whole town in Sedona I pictured it more secluded like Zion but I rather enjoyed seeing Main street with all the tiny shops and restaurants along with the houses there.  We went over and saw the famous church that is built into the rock called the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  When you walk up to go inside it looks like a mini Catholic church inside with candles and pews.  The Chapel overlooks this mansion that Nicholas Cage just bought.  They were doing some construction on the house but to me it did not look like it needed any construction, it was probably one of the prettiest houses I have ever seen, I think the landscaping added so much to the house with the huge waterfall in the front.

One thing I noticed about Arizona that is weird considering they have the most beautiful weather ever is that there are barely any ice cream places.  They have a great deal of yogurt places but besides Dairy Queen which I am not completely crazy about there were barely any places that served ice cream.  However, in Sedona I nearly stopped dead in my tracts because I was so excited that there was an ice cream place and not just any ice cream place but freshly homemade ice cream.  The place was called the Black Cow Cafe and it was just added to my most favorite ice cream flavors.  My heart still lies with Jeni's forever but since they do not have those in Arizona, I guess I will have to find my new place that I can drop $40 dollars a week at.  I think while away on this trip I was going through Jeni's withdrawal because I have never craved ice cream so bad in my entire life.  I am back in Columbus now and will never take Jeni's for granted again.

Another weird thing happened while in Sedona.  While eating our ice cream outside this man comes up to us and tells us he is this award winning photographer that is going to be publishing a book called, "Best Foot Forward."  He has gathered hundreds of pictures of interesting jewelry and tattoos on people's feet and asked if he could shoot our feet together.  It was completely weird and we didn't know if it was a joke or not.  He showed us is card and an advertisement for his book but the whole thing was weird.  Our feet were completely dirty from hiking in Sedona and mine were not even polished.  Callie was worried because two of her toes are stuck together which he found interesting.  He could have been a total foot freak for all I know but we thought it was fun so we humored ourselves and took the pictures.  We shall see if this book, fake or real ever gets published.  He did email me some of the pictures he took...  In all honesty I think he made our feet look really good.  Sedona was still incredible we did the Devil's Bridge hike.  At the very top is this bridge of rock you can stand on it was so pretty up there it felt like you were on top of the world.  

Arizona was everything I imagined and so much more I can not wait to move out there this fall!!  To make things even better that ended the trip with a bang my mom and her fiance drove out from Ohio and we met up in Arizona.  They are looking at property in Tuscan because they are also moving out to Arizona.  Couldn't be happier!!