I don't know why I always start my first posts after a long silence by apologizing, so this time I will not. In any case soon after arriving in Minnesota, it was clear that I would have to go back to Arizona with my parents (It was not really a hard decision). Here is a small diary of the trip so far (Pictures are located in Gallery 2):

Day 1:

We left around 3 am in the morning. I was pretty tired, I had about two hours of sleep, NaLeah, Becky, and Devin seemed especially talkative (or it could have been me as well). The drive was fairly eventless, which I guess in this case is a good thing. Actually, when in Iowa for my first time, we got gas just out of Des Moines and found a pretty cool covered bridge (who knew that Iowa had something worth looking at ). We made it to Liberal, Kansas. We finished the evening with frozen dinners, not perfect, but better than nothing I suppose.

Day 2 (Christmas Eve):

I was pretty disappointed that there was not more snow in Minnesota when I was up, so I was pretty surprised that there was snow on the side of the roads outside of Dalhart, TX! A couple days prior, there was a storm that closed a portion of I-40 (the same storm system that closed Denver), but I thought that it would have melted pretty quick. However, I was amazed by the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. It was so white, it looked just like snow, but warm. We even saw people sledding in the sand. This really was pretty neat, I got my white Christmas. After getting into Tucson, we had a nice dinner and then went to bed early.

Day 3 (Christmas, it generally happens the day after Christmas Eve):

Since most things are closed on Christmas, we needed to do something that tends to be open all the time, free trails, thus the Saguaro National Park fit the bill nicely. We got some pretty good hiking in that day. After about three hours, we were pretty tired and so went home and made dinner.

I almost forgot to mention that we stopped at Winterhaven, a subdivision in Tucson that has been well lit during the holidays for the last 56 years. It was pretty amazing, unfortunately, I forgot my camera. We were actually quite surprised about the turnout, there were police controlling traffic in the area and the only way into the neighborhood was by foot. Some of the displays were absolutely amazing. If in Tucson around the holidays, I highly recommend anyone to check it out.

Day 4:

All of us were pretty tired from walking on Christmas, so we thought we would take it a bit easier today. Since Mom had not seen San Xavier yet (Dad and I saw it when looking for housing a couple of summers ago), we decided that it would be good to see it. They are still working on the renovations that they had been when I first saw it and could not really notice much difference, but I suppose these things take time. The Mission is worth a visit if you are in Tucson. While peaceful, I cannot say that it was a spiritual experience, though I do not know if I have had a spiritual experience in my life, so I cannot put down San Xavier for that. I was sort of disappointed by the gift shop though. I was really hoping for some hand-crafted Native American crafts, but the gifts tended to be the standard issue t-shirt and coffee mug memorabilia that people purchase and soon after sell at garage sales. In the end, I picked up a prayer candle that seems to be pretty popular amongst the practicing Catholics down here, thus I can at least pretend to be one.

Before my parents left, Dad was pretty excited about the prospects of finding some fresh pecans. South of Tucson, there are some Pecan groves that stretch for miles and is one of the greenest places in the desert...in the summer. Over Thanksgiving, I went with a friend to a cabin in Madera Canyon for his Families Thanksgiving dinner and the trees had nice and green leaves. However, the leaves have since fallen leaving miles of leafless trees. Well, in any case, we went to the pecan's store and picked up some fresh pecans at reasonable prices, and I even bought myself some Pecan tea. It is actually pretty good, made by Arbuckle's right in Tucson.

After our journey South of Tucson, we decided that it was time to get some authentic Mexican food; Taco Bell was definitely out, especially when in the Southwest. What better place than Pico de Gallo! After a recent waitress change, Mary's Lucky Dollar just is not as good as it used to be and I did not think my parents were ready for the outdoor El Guero Canelo yet, so Pico de Gallo it was. The food is always good and we got some tacos with corn tortillas. By the end of this, we were all tired and went home and watched some Heroes.

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Well, I will catch everyone up later, it is getting a tad late and should be getting to bed.

-Trevor