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  • Category: Arizona

    • very superstitious

      Posted at 8:40 am by jasminedesirees, on February 2, 2015

      Last Sunday we took a much needed break from unpacking and trying to get our lives organized to actually go outside and enjoy life for a few hours.

      We went over to check out the Superstition Mountains at Lost Dutchman State Park, about a 40 minute drive east of Phoenix.

      We did the Treasure Loop Trail, about 2 miles in total, so not very ambitious, but there are a bunch of different trails, so we’re definitely going to go back and check out as many of the other ones as we canĀ in the next few months.

      Apparently come June Arizona turns into a terrifying hell-scape of venomous rattlesnakesĀ and 120 F temperatures.

      So not exactly peak hiking conditions, you might say.

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      Posted in Arizona, exploring, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged Arizona, fitness, hiking, Lost Dutchman State Park, superstition mountains
    • moving day

      Posted at 8:24 am by jasminedesirees, on December 22, 2014

      As I already mentioned in this post, we are moving to Arizona! Today actually, errrr.

      D will be finishing his degree at ASU, and is starting in January, so he flew out last week and found us a place to live near the university. Also, it has a pool, which is amazing. I was so spoiled to be able to go swimming almost every day when we were in Indonesia and I loved it, plus I’m starting to train for the Honolulu Triathlon again, so it’ll be super handy.

      I’m applying for jobs in Phoenix, and I’m also applying to ASU for the fall to finish my Master’s degree. I started in Hawaii a few years ago, and was accepted to SFSU to continue when we got to California, but apparently San Francisco is a pretty crowded city and it can take a really long time to get to the other side, even if Google maps says it’s only 5 miles. Who knew? (Anyone who has ever spent 10 minute here, probably).

      So I’m pretty excited for that, but mostly I’m excited to move to a new city and have a whole new place to explore. Arizona is so beautiful and sunny, and there are so many outdoor activities and hikes within driving distance, so that’s what I’m most looking forward to, especially the Grand Canyon, the Kartchner Caverns and the Supersition Mountains.

      I’m also excited to be away from the crazy traffic of the Bay. I love San Francisco, and will definitely be coming back to visit often, but working in the city and living in the East Bay means spending a lot of hours commuting, and I can absolutely think of better ways to spend my time.

      So now I just need to find some friends in Phoenix (if you know anyone who is looking). So far my plan has been to creep around for the first few weeks wearing only my Canada shirt/ other GWN paraphernalia, I always meet other expats that way, without fail, whether I’m in a grocery store in the tiniest town in California or riding a mid-island bus to Wahiawa.

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      Posted in Arizona, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged Arizona, ASU, Canada, grand canyon, moving, Phoenix
    • camelback

      Posted at 8:43 pm by jasminedesirees, on May 21, 2014

      Just a few shots of the time we climbed Camelback in a rainstorm.

      Since we weren’t planning on spending a lot of time in Phoenix, I really didn’t have anything planned, and had no idea what we were going to do with our three full days in Arizona.

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      I asked friends for suggestions, and one of them told me to hike Camelback, so we decided to try it out, bright and early on Saturday morning. It was kind of cold out, and a little grey, but I figured that was just because it was so early, and we set off.

      The hike itself was fun, a bit steep in parts, but the view was beautiful.

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      Unfortunately, the higher we climbed, the worse the weather got. It was super windy at the top, and as we were shinnying across a very narrow bit of rock with sharp drops on either side I was pretty sure we weren’t going to make it. Right when we got to the top it started pouring and made the rocks slippery and even more treacherous.

      Also, nobody was going down the way we came up, and we knew there was more than one way to climb the mountain so we decided to follow another group down.

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      We didn’t realize until we were half way down that it was taking us to the opposite side, and we didn’t feel like climbing back up and over again, so we ended up continuing down that way, and then walking three more miles around the base to get back to our car.

      We did get to see some diamond back rattle snakes on our slog back to the car though, so it wasn’t all bad.

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      Posted in Arizona, exploring, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Arizona, camelback, hiking, Phoenix, travel
    • the farm

      Posted at 5:47 pm by jasminedesirees, on May 9, 2014

      When we woke up the morning after the wedding in Phoenix, we were definitely in the mood to keep it low key and have a relaxing day, but we also didn’t want to waste our last day in Arizona by laying around inside.

      Brunch is always a happy medium between liveliness and sloth, so I laid in bed creeping around on my phone for awhile to find a good place to go.

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      I kept seeing great recommendations for a place called “The Farm at South Mountain”, and it looked like it had a pretty decent outdoor area, so we rallied ourselves and set off.

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      We arrived to find the exact kind of place you’d want to spend a hot, sunny Sunday. It was a huge farm, with flower and vegetable gardens, a beautiful green picnic area where people snacked, lounged on blankets and played frisbee, and three cute eclectic restaurants serving delicious food, all ingredients for which had been grown on site.

      They even had a baby goat.

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      They were setting up for a wedding there later in the day, and I was pretty tempted to crash it, just so I could hang out there in the evening.

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      We had lunch there, my strawberry and feta salad that was totally scrumptious, and just enjoyed the sunshine. It was the perfect activity because we felt like we got to see a really cool piece of Phoenix, when really all we did was eat yummy things and sit in the sun.

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      Posted in Arizona, exploring, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged gardening, outdoors, Phoenix, the farm, travel
    • hole in the rock

      Posted at 8:56 pm by jasminedesirees, on May 6, 2014

      We made a quick trip to Phoenix last weekend for a wedding. We planned to just fly in and out, but the way the flights worked out, we ended up having almost three full days there.

      We didn’t have anything planned, so everything we did was pretty spontaneous. When we picked up our rental car, there was a pamphlet in it with a picture of the Hole in the Rock. It looked pretty neat, and it was way too hot and sunny to do anything inside so we decided to check it out.

      It’s a very short hike, really just a walk up the hill, but it’s gorgeous, and the rock formations are amazing. I kept looking around for diamond backs because I was certain I was going to stumble into a pit of rattlesnakes, but I didn’t see any, and there weren’t any signs or anything.

      There were lots of signs about bees though, which I thought would be a less serious threat, but what do I know?

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      Posted in Arizona, exploring, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged Arizona, hiking, hole in the rock, Phoenix
    • phoenix

      Posted at 8:29 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 25, 2014

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      After a whirlwind visit to LA yesterday, including the best hockey game I’ve seen in years, we hopped a flight for Phoenix this morning.

      We’re hiking Camelback first thing in the morning, and then we have a wedding tomorrow night.

      Weddings are always fun, I just hope I don’t get bit by a rattlesnake on the hike, because I feel like that would put a real damper on my dance moves.

      Posted in Arizona, exploring, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged camelback, hike, Phoenix, travel
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