Arizona | Phoenix

During the second week of Winter Break Thomas and I flew to Arizona to visit Thomas' Army buddy and explore his home state.

Our first day was spent in Phoenix. Sam picked us up at the airport and our first stop was downtown Tucson. Even though the weather was cooler than I would've liked, the sunshine was very welcomed!

We walked up and down Mill Street in Downtown Tempe, near ASU's campus, before stopping at Blasted Barley, a local brewery, for lunch. The boys enjoyed Chicken and Waffles, while I had a delicious burger.

Once we had filled up on carbs we headed to hike Camelback Mountain. We were blown away at how busy it was on a Tuesday afternoon, but up we went. The hike wasn't too strenuous and offered awesome views of the valley and the surrounding mountains.

After spending some time with Sam's parents, we met up with a few of his friends at a restaurant/bar called San Tan Flats in Queen Creek. It definitely had a "down South" type of feel and also had an awesome outdoor area with personal bonfire pits. We don't have those here in Michigan! 

We hung out for a couple of hours, ate dinner and enjoyed a few drinks.  At this point we were pretty exhausted, we had been up for over 23 hours!, but we kicked vacation off right! Day two took us to Sedona and that recap will be coming up next.