Photo a Day Challenge : Week #26


Day 23 - Last (day of fast food)


Day 24 - Negative Space


Day 25 - Sharp


Day 26 - Empty


Day 27 - Into the Sun


Day 28 - Red


Day 29 - In my Bag

Other Arizona Fun!

So what else did we do while we were out in Arizona besides hiking??? Here are a few of our favorite things in no particular order :)

We spent time with the kids!




We already are missing them to pieces!



Went to dinner and a movie with Matt and Heather :)



Saw giant long horned cows! They were soooo cute!



Ate gelato!



And just acted silly and had fun!


We of course had a blast out in AZ, but we were missing our sweet boy back in Indiana and soaked up all the love we could from him once we got home!!

Hiking Malpais Trail... the never ending hike!

So after hiking Goldmine Trail I was hooked and I wanted to do another one... but this time longer! I picked out one called Malpais Trail. Just glancing at the map I thought this would be about a 6 mile trail... oh how wrong I was...

I guess what I miscalculated on was all the little trails you had to take in order to get to Malpais and then back where you started! Oops!





It seriously was the never ending trail... the thought crossed both Dan and I's minds that we might not make it back alive!


One of my favorite pictures :)




Dan in the desert!


Me beside the giant cactus!


WOOT!

So are you ready to know just how long it took us to finish out this hike and exactly how far we went?? We ended up hiking a total of 9 miles and it took us 3 hours and 30 minutes! PHEW! But we didn't die so it was AWESOME!

Hiking Goldmine Trail

I love being in the outdoors so when Dan's brother, Matt, told us about a State Park nearby that had some good hiking trails I was excited! We had to get up pretty early to do the trails because if not it was way too hot outside. So by 5:30 each morning we were on the trails ready for some fun!


The first trail we hiked was Goldmine! It was very hilly!!


Dan is embarrassed to be around me... I guess you can't blame him :)



Starting off!






Our hiking guide... Matt! We obviously were not in good shape compared to him.




At the top!




And back down...

Hiking was definitely one of the highlights of our trip out to AZ. If only I could talk my husband into doing more outdoor things in Indiana. Wink Wink!

Arizona Running

One of the best things about traveling for me is having a different scenery to look at while I'm running. I'm probably guilty of running pretty much the same area again and again around my neighborhood. Why would I run somewhere different when I know that if I run this route it will be five miles... or if I run that route it will be seven miles. I have my distances mapped out perfectly! I wouldn't want to ruin that. However, when I'm in a new place I have no other choice but to map out a new area! This gets me out of my comfort zone and makes my runs a little more interesting.

Now... let me tell you, working out in AZ is much different than it is in Indiana. The air is soooo dry that my throat and nose would often burn, but I would never sweat too much which is very unlike me :)  I also would get up before 5:00 in the morning to do stuff outside because if I didn't it would be 107 degrees before I knew it! In Indiana I leave my workouts to the evening hours so this was a big change for me.


Ready to run!!


A large cactus garden I saw!


Garden art!


Big old cactus


More cactus!


Mountains in the distance!

Even though I only actually ran once while I was there and hiked the rest... it was really enjoyable to see new and different things than what I usually do on a day to day basis. But it sure was nice to get back to Indiana where it is cooler and I can be back on my usual schedule ;)
BLOG DESIGN BY DESIGNER BLOGS