A snowy day in Grand Canyon

The beginning of spring is always so tricky. Yesterday you was enjoying a first bloom but today the gentle flowers are covered in snow. It seems that spring will never come!

 Yesterday morning we heard about a snow storm coming up north. We live in the valley of the sun so it was our last chance to see the snow this year!  We jumped in a car and drove up there to see a Grand Canyon covered in a snow.

It was cold, windy and there was lots of ice on the roads but it was worth it! 

The canyon is beautiful at any time of year and one more time you can feel the power of nature.

It was a beautiful day in the mountains. 

I wish we could find more time for things like this, just to be alone with nature.

Rodeo

Last week our friends invited us to visit them in Prescott, AZ and also to the oldest professional rodeo in the world which was taking place at this time.

Prescott is the home for this rodeo since 1888. Today's rodeo is now a professional competition between the cowboys to win a monetary prizes.


I saw it for the first time and it was pretty interesting.


Hundreds of people are gather here to see the competition and cheer on their favorites. I also love intermission entertainment, that was fun!


I am glad we had this opportunity. We had a great time with friends and got a feel of little town life at the same time.

Exploring Arizona – Chiricahua National Monument

Shame on me, I never heard about this park before. So when we saw it on a map we definitely wanted to see it!

It is a hidden gem that you would not expect. As you approach the mountains it looks like any range of Arizona Mountains.

The drive from the entrance to the top of the mountain is only a few miles, but you know it is something special before you even enter the park. As you enter the Valley where the entrance is, you change from desert to a lush valley full of big oak tree. Then as you enter the park gates it changes from hardwoods to pine forest.

After you signed in at the rustic park headquarters you take a little windy road up the mountains and all of a sudden you start seeing these limestone pinnacles pocking up through the trees. The higher you get the more and more of these you see.

Once at the top there is a trail and overlooks into the park. What a beautiful and stunning site!

Hiking the trails we found many different view points and things of interest.

You have got to see that place!

Exploring Arizona

We were not sure how to celebrate our 10 years anniversary so we went on a road trip. Minimum plans and preparations, as usual.


The only reservations we had was guided tour to a Kartchner Cavers State Park, located just about an hour away from Tuscon. Their tours are always booked so if you decide to go you should call ahead!

That was an excellent idea. The tour was wonderful, our guide Ed was very knowledgeable and a Big Room cavern was amazing. With all that gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites around you, it feels like you are in a magical rock kingdom where everything is alive and breathing.

I’d like to share a photo with you, guys but you are not allowed to bring a camera in since the caverns are full of microorganisms and stalactites and stalagmites are still growing. My advice: if you get a chance, go! This is a living miracle where many of the formations were growing for tens of thousands of years and the still are! To get to the Big Room you have to go through the several heavy environmental sealed doors which can be opened only by a code they punch in. If I am not mistaken this is the only live cavern in Arizona!

When we were done with our tour we pulled out a map to see what else we’d like to do. Hmmm. Tombstone, the wildest town in the West!

But this story I will save for my next post. Stay tuned :)

Fun in Vegas

We were lucky to find some time for fun last week. We went on a short trip to Las Vegas.

Vegas hotels are beautiful as always. The Venetian and Grand Canal is gorgeous at any time but especially at night.The Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens are always on my must-see list. It is perfect.
Even though it was only a 3 days trip we found some new things. An old rare books museum and gorgeous antique сarving on a 35,000 year old mammoth tusk resting on a beautiful piece of a carved ebony tree just made my day!As always the streets & sidewalks are busy with people but we had a really great time!

Mushrooms picking

Since everyone around was talking about mushroom picking lately I had this thought sticking in my head. It was growing and getting bigger until I was obsessed with an idea to go wild mushrooms picking :)We jumped in a car last Saturday and went up north to Flagstaff. We called my friend on the way and she joined us, together with her mother and three kids.Two hours of driving and we are in a mushrooms paradise.
Except... how can you tell? which one is good and which one in poisonous? Choices, choices :) I know some edible mushrooms but I guess I became more careful with age, so each mushroom we picked was sniffed, bitten by my friend or her mother to check for bitterness and either approved or disapproved.
It was fun! we spent about 3 hours running between trees. For the first couple of hours we had about 4 of red headed Russula mushrooms but then we moved to another spot and that's where the fun began! We got 2 buckets of lovely wonderful smelling mushrooms and feel like we can find them on our own now !Well, the sad part begins at home. I am drowning in doubts. Should we eat it? or not? They looked great and our other friend said they are edible (she threw away some from the pile, anyway) and book said they are... but there is so many almost the same looking mushrooms which are not good for you!Anyway, I spent the whole day yesterday cleaning, washing, cutting, boiling and freezing mushrooms. I've decided to take a small bite from each pile every day to see how I will feel... Do you think, it will work?
Doubts, doubts... Maybe, I will better just take a walk in a woods next time :)

Lovely break in Sedona, Arizona

We were so lucky to be invited to join our friends for a trip to Sedona last week!Previously I was never impressed with Sedona even though a lot of people are just love the area, but not this time!What a great mini vacation!
I enjoyed everything - our half day hiking trip & photo opportunities.This trip also was a great mix of nature, architecture at Tlaquepaque and shopping for souvenirs.We tried some gourmet pizza at Picazzo's. If you've never tried it, the toppings were ground lamb, wild mushrooms, spinach, Alfredo sauce, garlic and topped with Parmesan cheese. It was absolutely delicious, right after the hike it hit the spot with an ice cold beer!

The accommodation were perfect. We had a condo that butted up to the creek that was surrounded by huge old trees. You could hear the rushing stream just a few feet from the door and we were able to sit with our doors open and watch the colorful birds and lively squirrels all day long!

We had some perfect rainy weather which we miss living in a desert. This kept the temperature cooler, about in a mid seventies.

I came back home so refreshed and full of creative ideas! I've already ran to Michael's and Jo-Anns for some supplies. Guess what? They are putting Fall items for sale already! Guys, it mean we are almost to the end of summer!






So enjoy your warm weather while you still can!