arizona: seeing scottsdale 1

OK so as you all know Zach and I went to Arizona for the BCS National Championship Game this past weekend. After an early morning flight from Atlanta (which we made it too on time!) and a 2 hour layover in Denver, we got to Phoenix around 11:00 mountain time. Our first stop after getting our car was going to lunch at In-N-Out. Neither of us had ever been and were super excited to try it. We were not disappointed. It was YUM-O! Of course it wasn't until later that we were told they have a special ordering system that is not on their menu but whatev the menu was pretty good too :)

We couldn't get into our hotel until around 3 that afternoon so instead we went to Old Town Scottsdale to walk around. They had some cute touristy stores, art galleries, cowboy wear, and other stuff but not a ton of people around. We were a little confused since there were approximately 100,000 extra people who were supposed to be in and around that around! After we got back in our car and drove another two blocks we realized where everyone was. Just down the street was a HUGE shopping mall, nice restaurants and tons of upper scale shops, plus lots of road side stands with Auburn and Oregon paraphernalia. We had to stop the car again, of course, and walk around this area checking everything out. After another hour or so we headed to check into the hotel, take a nap and then go out on the town. We ate dinner at a steakhouse, met up with our friends Dave and Britney who had just flown in and then all realized how exhausted we were so we went to bed. Party Animals we are not!!

The next morning we were planning on hiking up Camelback Mountain. After a free breakfast at the hotel (LOVED continental breakfasts!) we started the drive to Camelback. Zach, who knows and reads about everything Auburn, had pointed out the team's hotel the day before and as we drove past it that morning we saw their buses in the parking lot and people walking out. He swerved quickly into the hotel parking lot and we all jumped out just in time to see our beloved Auburn Tigers loading up to go on their walkthrough at the stadium!! So cool!!

Cameron Newton and Craig Stevens

Josh Bynes

Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn

Coach Chizik!!

After that excitement we continued our way to our hiking trip. Ever since we had arrived in Phoenix, and even before that if truth be told, I was super excited about seeing a cactus, like a real cactus, in person and getting a picture. Camelback was soooooo packed with all the tourists we had to park about a mile away before we could even start the hike up. On our little hike to the hike we passed this hugely amazing cactus and it became my picture partner!

We spent the next two hours climbing half way up Camelback Mtn. It was SUPER STEEP!! We reached a really pretty overlook about the half way point and ended up spending so much time there looking and taking pictures that we didn't have time to go all the way and still get back to the hotel in time to get ready and go the Auburn's Pep Rally. I gotta say it was hard to balance awesome gorgeous desert area with fan filled fun but I was promised we'd come back someday and see everything we missed!